History in the Making is a look back at the fights that made us cheer, the fights that stood us on our feet, and the fights that captured our imagination – in short, the greatest fights of all time.
11 times Anderson Silva has stepped inside the Octagon and 11 times his hand has been raised.
Beginning in June of 2006 with a demolishing of Chris Leben, the champ started knocking down challengers with stunning efficiency. Rich Franklin (twice), Travis Lutter, Nate Marquardt... hell, just about every middleweight who was unlucky enough to string together the necessary wins to warrant a title shot against him. Hell, even a couple of light heavyweights were thrown in for good measure.
Simply put, the human hurricane from Curitiba destroyed everything in his path.
But, starting with Patrick Cote, Silva's performances at 185-pounds seemed uninspired. His exploits at 205-pounds, two brutal first round knockouts of James Irvin and Forrest Griffin, were looked at as proof that "The Spider" would be best suited at light heavyweight taking on the likes of Evans, Rua, and Jackson.
But while Silva was offering Cote a hand after he fell, punching Thales Leities' feet, and dancing around Demian Maia, a brash American with a penchant for trash talking was making his way from the WEC and had his eyes dead set on the Brazilian's title.
Before his unprecedented eighth title defense against Vitor Belfort this Saturday (Feb. 5) at UFC 126, we'll take a look at UFC 117 where Anderson Silva outlasted Chael Sonnen en route to a last minute submission that firmly cemented his place in history.
Leading up to their middleweight clash at UFC 117, Chael Sonnen was just about everywhere. His comments about Silva were subtle (and not so subtle) jabs at the champion's past performances, his race, nationality and spiritual beliefs. He was, essentially, trolling the entire MMA community. And doing a damn good job of it. Respected MMA journalists became catty junior high cheerleaders as they gossiped -- ahem -- REPORTED the latest wild thing spilling forth from Sonnen's mouth.
Something strange happened, though. Some will blame it on the MMA fanbase's (mostly Caucasian) latent racism but Sonnen's rantings and ravings were gaining him fans. It's not that simple, though. After dismal performances against Cote, Leites, and Maia (the last of which had Dana White threatening to fire his own champion), fans were ready to hate the 185-pound kingpin. They had almost completely turned collective backs on him.
And when they turned around, who was there to greet them with open arms but a Republican realtor from Oregon.
So there were two trains of thought on how the fight would go. Those who saw Silva struggle in the first round against Dan Henderson saw that as a weakness against wrestling. Then there were those who thought, "Sonnen? Seriously? The guy who has lost to Jeremy Horn three times? Don't be silly." The former seemed like straw-reaching while the latter, especially considering Sonnen's seven submission losses and Silva's Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, seemed more grounded in reality.
Sonnen shrugged off those credentials, however. A black belt from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was equivalent to the free toy in a McDonalds happy meal he claimed. "He is the champion but I am the best."
August 7, 2010 finally came and with it, opportunity. The chance for Sonnen to back up every ridiculous claim he made and force almost every MMA fan to eat crow. Opportunity for Silva to win back the hearts of those who were cheering his name just two years prior.
The opening horn sounds and the two combatants meet in the middle of the cage. Sonnen is using his striking to set up his takedowns, a tactic that wrestlers should but don't always employ. He is staying in the pocket with "The Spider," surprisingly enough. Silva catches a kick and Sonnen monkey flips out of it to the delight of everyone watching.
Still maintaining his presence in the pocket, Sonnen doesn't seem to fear Silva's striking at all. And then it happens. The wrestler tags the muay thai expert across the jaw and staggers him. The crowd, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg, EVERYONE watching the fight just about loses their mind.
Did we actually see that?
Sonnen clinches up, holding Silva's head down as he lands a few uppercuts for good measure. Sonnen is now stalking the middleweight champion. Adding to the already Twilight Zone-atmosphere of the fight, Silva takes Sonnen down! This surely can't be happening! And we haven't even hit the halfway mark of the first round.
Sonnen quickly gets back to his feet and tags Silva cleanly a handful of times before smashing him against the cage and putting the Brazilian on his back. From guard, he transitions to half-guard while throwing punches and elbows the entire time. Sonnen ends up taking Silva's back, lands some more punches and teases a rear naked choke.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first round, Silva is still on his back and still getting pounded by the Oregon-born fighter. As the round ends and Silva walks back to his corner, we are reminded that even gods bleed.
Within seconds of the next round, Silva is throwing a flying knee and getting dropped on his back. He suffered through three minutes of Sonnen's ground and pound in the first, can he endure an entire round of it? Sonnen begins to box Silva's ears and slams him onto the canvas as he attempts to break free from Silva's "stand us up, ref" grip.
Sonnen succeeds and begins to operate with the steady hand of a 30-year factory veteran. He's doing everything exactly as he should, exactly when he should, while making it look ridiculously easy. Silva threatens with a kimura and a leglock to end the round but nothing comes of it. Nothing has come of anything from Silva so far.
Silva comes out with more spring in his step in the third. A spinning heel kick slams its way into Sonnen's ribs. He sees the kick and raises Silva a takedown. Once on the mat, the third stanza plays out same as the previous two: Sonnen grinding on top of the champion, Silva seemingly helpless underneath him.
The first championship round begins and it should be obvious to everyone, and especially Silva and his corner, that the champion will need a finish if he wants to ensure the title goes back home with him to Brazil. Sonnen has easily won rounds one, two, and three and has given no inclination that four and five will be any different.
Much like the previous two rounds, the fourth starts off quickly. Silva, looking like the fighter who won the Middleweight championship and not like Sonnen's previous two opponents, comes out and immediately staggers Sonnen with a punch. The crowd erupts! The champ keeps the pressure on, attacking Sonnen on their feet and stuffing a takedown. Sonnen refuses to wilt and like he did in the first, stays in the pocket with perhaps the most feared striker in the world. Silva stuffs another takedown and ends up on top of the Team Quest member.
It took fifteen minutes for Anderson Silva to show up but it looks like he finally made it. But before he can even pat himself on the back and soak in the moment, Sonnen snatches it from him. He locks his hands behind Silva and lifts up the champion, up and over. Sonnen back on top. This fight has taken the eerie quality of being what Anderson Silva's worst nightmare would probably look like.
You are the greatest fighter in the world but nothing you do against this man works. Everything you throw at him, he takes and it seemingly makes him more powerful.
We're watching the UFC middleweight champion fighting his own boogeyman in the Octagon and he's losing -- badly.
The referee yells, "Fight!" and Silva now has just five minutes to come back. Five minutes to retain his belt. Five minutes to keep his winning streak (and title defense streak) alive. Five minutes to take every offensive comment Sonnen made and shove them down his throat.
Flip side.
The referee yells, "Fight!" and Sonnen now has five minutes. Five minutes until he becomes a champion. Five minutes to solidify his place in history as the toppler of giants, the destroyer of titans. Five minutes to make people forget his offensive comments and remember his substantial accomplishment.
Sonnen immediately dives in for a takedown but without a setup and it gets stuffed. They exchange and either due to a glancing blow to the back of his head or bad footing, Silva loses his balance and gives Sonnen the rewards of the takedown without having to go through the work. Sonnen takes the gift-wrapped present and begins to pound on Silva like he had been doing for the 22 minutes prior.
With 2:35 left in the fight, Silva grabs Sonnen's right wrist. The challenger, less than 300 seconds away from being a champion and a left arm free to punch and throw elbows, doesn't seem to care. Silva seems suddenly more active from his back. He's throwing punches that are connecting and keeping Sonnen from posturing up. Silva throws a punch to the side of the American's head and then throws his left leg up. Silva shoves that right wrist he had been holding for almost half a minute back and secures a triangle choke.
It's textbook Brazilian jiu-jitsu executed perfectly from a black belt. The kind that doesn't come in a happy meal.
Just seconds and a "Team Quest tap" later and Silva retained his championship.
A come from behind victory is always exciting but this was different. Here was a man in Anderson Silva who made us fall in love with him through the almost beautiful way he destroyed his opponents. People would talk of him fighting Fedor Emelianenko, a heavyweight fighting two weight classes above his. He was on another level.
Then came the bizarre performance in Chicago. That was followed by an even worse fight in Montreal. A vintage performance in Philadelphia only helped assuage fears for a few months before Silva clocked in with a disrespectful outing in Abu Dhabi. He was just too good. And we hated him for it.
Thanks to Chael Sonnen (and perhaps injured ribs and elevated testosterone levels), Silva was humanized. He became one of us again. We saw him punched and elbowed and beaten for four rounds. But we never saw him broken.
People often grow tired of those who accomplish their goals with ease. But people will always celebrate those who accomplish their goals after overcoming adversity.
Raising his arms in the air after submitting Sonnen with less than two minutes remaining, it was almost as if Silva was extending his hand out to his jilted fans.
"Welcome back," we said. "We've missed you, champ."
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