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Is a rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen in order?
By Zach Arnold | August 7, 2010
I don’t even have to write much text here. Reply.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 56 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
how can it not be?
AHHHHHH!!!!
Poor old Chael.That damned Jiu-Jitsu.
What was that about a black belt from the Nog’s?
hell yes sonnen should get a rematch,he pushed silva like no one else in the ufc
Yeah, rematch should be done ASAP. It was a 50-45 match for Sonnen minus that triangle at the end. Sonnen was impressive today, Silva not so much. Maybe he really was hurt going into the fight.
Some people would say that the 50-45 score card and $.75 will get you a cup of coffee.
This is about the only case I can think of that a challenger loses by anything but a controversial decision… And still deserves an immediate rematch.
Some people seem mad because Sonnen didn’t end Silva’s run as champion. I could care less. As long as Silva isn’t dogging it in fights, that’s all that matters.
And this fight is going to have a lasting impact on Silva. Win or lose, fighters don’t take beatings like that without it effecting them in their future.
Saying some people were “mad” is an understatement. I was on Fightlinker’s chat at the time of the sub and there were about 30 lines of “F*Ck!!!!!*
I’ll pass. I think we got trolled by both guys.
You’re not the only one. The person I was watching with was convinced it was a work.
I don’t think that, but I felt like Silva was dogging it for the first four rounds.
YES! YES! YES! Silva was served tonight!!!
Yes. There was a helluva lot of emotion and drama in tonight’s main event. The sequel will be HUGE for the UFC.
Anderson showed his resilience tonight while Chael showed his gut determination, and unfortunately his susceptibility to submissions.
I definitely want a rematch! I’ll be pulling for Chael again.
I agree, I mean, except for pulling for Chael.
Super dramatic finish, maybe the comeback from the year (who cares about Russow?!).
I think we see a totally different fight next time, though.
Honestly I don’t know, on one hand it’s clear that Sonnen has the style and has done things to Silva no other guy in the UFC ever has. But I question where he is mentally after this fight, he basically called his shot like Babe Ruth and for 4 and a half round he did everything he said he would do. How do you recover from that?, if in a couple of days he asks Dana for another shot then I say yes but if Sonnen goes on a sabatical then give Anderson Vitor. All I know is that I predicted Sonnnen to win since day one and i’m crushed that he lost because I seriously for one second never doubted he would win now i’m crushed.
Yes, give Sonnen the rematch. Sonnen sold this fight with his trashtalk, but it was hampered by the fact that nobody thought he could win. Now, you’ve got a fight that’s going to be much closer to even odds and when Sonnen runs his mouth more people will be tuning in. The rematch does 800k, anything else does 500k.
Belfort can go fight Marquardt or Okami in the meantime. He never really seemed like he wanted the Anderson Silva fight anyway.
Second fight, if it occurs…will NOT be the same fight as this fight. Anderson Silva will probably end up knocking Sonnen out the next time.
I actually think it will be exactly the same fight …. except Anderson will probably lock in a submission a little earlier.
Anderson flat-out cannot stop Sonnen’s takedowns. Chael will do the same thing to him again (for at least a couple of round) and Sonnen’s awful submission defense will rear it’s ugly head once again (like it always does) to give Silva the win.
I could pass on a second fight just to not have to listen to Chael Sonnen.
im sick of immediate rematches — the cons outweigh the pros, plus silva was hurt during that fight. He needs to recover and waste time like he does while soares picks apart possible opponents like a whiny senior citizen. I think Vitor has the best chance of stopping silva and blackhouse knows that I believe they are more afraid of Vitor than chael but now hey regardless silva will be tested and given good guys to fight as to his previous jiu jitsu fighters. Vitor,Sonnen, Marquardt vs Palhares,Alan Belcher, Okami and even Leben have a chance to get there and face silva. If Chael can keep this buzz he has garnered than he is truly deserving of a rematch but “NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS” like Lee Corso says (College football analyst)
Vitor Belfort is a better fighter and contrary to believe the more popular guy and respected. yeah sonnen did a good job he himself said he didnt want a silver medal and after all that crap he said he might be the one looking to retire and end his career. I think anderson was hurt and most certaintly not himself or at his peak that night. Chael did impress me but not enough to hug his nuts just yet.
MMA FANS NEED TO SLOW DOWN PUMP THE BRAKES AND WATCH THE FIGHT TWO MORE TIMES BEFORE ANYTHING WE CAN SAY IS REALLY VALID OR OF MUCH MEANING.
Ive learned you hafta wait a lil and let it marinate for a couple days or weeks before we can really give a great observant opinion. One thing that is for sure is that it was a hell of a fight and I was shocked and confused how easy Sonnen was handling Anderson! It was a championship fight and we are all winners from experiencing it. Fans hafta be happy no matter who gets the next shot Im watching and so are all of you.
on a personal note I do feel bad for Chael Sonnen (which im shocked to admit)and would like to see him grab that belt from anderson but finally seeing Vitor Belfort in the octagon at 185 against the likes of Anderson Silva who can really complain about that either !!! chael got his shot from being more ready cuz of vitor’s health and beat nate da great now karma time Vitor should get his shot
Is Chael “relevant” now?
Extremely.
All I know is: If I were GSP or Jake Shields I would have watched that fight and thought, “Huh. I could do that.”
Do what exactly, lose?
No, they thought “If I had Sonnen’s size which is 15-20 pounds more than I walk around at I could do that.” That’s a huge difference.
Trust me, it was common knowledge Silva has trouble with wrestlers long before this fight was signed. It’s the reason so many people picked Sonnen to win. So if wrestling was all it took GSP would have fought him after Silva’s fight with Griffin.
Ditto for Jon Fitch should he lose to GSP again. MW might be his best path to a title (unless GSP vacates).
Give some credit to Silva, he could have mentally broke and let the inevitable happen, but yet he did what great champions do: win against all odds. When Fedor has done it, people fawned all over him, when Lesnar did it against Carwin last month people acted like he was the second coming of Christ covered in bad tattoos. And if Sonnen did it to Silva people would act like it was the most miraculous moment in sports history. Silva won, Sonnen lost. It’s not over until the buzzer.
That said, I have no problems with him getting a quick rematch. But that wouldn’t be fair to Belfort who has been waiting all year for a title shot. “Sorry, the last guy looked really good for 23 minutes, so how ’bout we hold off on your shot ’til 2011.”
People are making the comparison to Shogun-Machida, but #1 Shogun didn’t get finished and #2 there wasn’t a clear cur next #1 contender since they were wanting to do Evans-Jackson for the next shot.
How is Vitor the clear cut #1 contender? He hasn’t even fought at 185lbs in the UFC.
I used to want GSP to fight Anderson because I want GSP to lose, but not anymore. I think GSP or Jake Shields would do the same thing to Anderson as Sonnen, minus the submission in the 5th.
Are you not able to see the size difference between the three? Sonnen is able to fight at Light Heavyweight. To get that GSP and certainly Shields would have to pack on weight that would greatly affect their game the same way BJ Penn’s was affected when he moved up to WW.
If they both fought at 200 pounds like Silva does to compete GSP couldn’t depend on his cardio to outlast the decision (the only way he beats Silva) and Shields would be way too slow to compete with Silva. But on the other hand 185 is the perfect weight class for Sonnen.
Shields didn’t have much trouble taking down and controlling Dan Henderson, who also fights at 205 and has better wrestling credentials than Silva does.
Apples and oranges. Dan Henderson isn’t Anderson Silva. Dan Henderson has one punch to worry about, Silva has Muay Thai with lots of speed. He’s also significantly younger than Dan Henderson. Also, Henderson gassed himself out trying to finish Shields in the first round. Silva has stamina questions in rounds 4 and 5, but he would never gas out in 4 minutes like Hendo did. Dan Henderson got tooled wrestling after the first round because his gas tank was depleted due to a bad weight cut and his age.
45 Huddle says:
“Some people seem mad because Sonnen didn’t end Silva’s run as champion. I could care less…”
I’ll get to that in a minute. 🙂 But I’ll respond to this other part first:
“…As long as Silva isn’t dogging it in fights, that’s all that matters.”
I agree 100 %.
I like Silva, but was pulling for Sonnen ,because all the criticisim thrown as Anderson was justified for his prior shitty fights.
Did ANYBODY really beleive that Sonnen would dominate to the extent that he did in this fight?…or that he would hurt Silva with his strikes like he did in the first round?
Hats off to both guys.
For Sonnen because he could have coasted in the last round to a victory, but really tried to finish Silva. He could have just tried to fight for control without throwing strikes and won the round, but decided not to.
Hell, at that point he could have stood up and backtracked and has Silva chase him & he would have won.
To Silva for the effort and awareness to pull off what was one of the slickest submissions I’ve ever seen.
That was the deffinition of perseverance.
Does Sonnen deserve a rematch?
YES…but not immedidiately.
He just lost, he’ll earn his rematch.
I love BJ Penn, but I don’t like the fact that he is getting a rematch so soon after having been dominated when he lost his title.
Edgar should be entitled to a title defense against someone elst & BJ should have to at least win one match (which I have no doubt he more then likely would) and then get his rematch with him.
I love Machida, but his rematch with Rua was a different circumstance, and deserved.
Anyway, loved all the fightsm expect the Fitch/Alves match, but even that wasn’t horrible.
Edgar in no way dominated BJ Penn. Fightmetric actually had BJ Penn WINNING the fight. I thought BJ won rounds 1,2, and 3. The only round that Edgar won decisively was round 5 IMO. Round 4 I thought was a toss up. That fight was indeed controversial, especially with a judge scoring that fight 50-45 for Edgar. After the 50-45 was read, you could see Edgar’s expression as though he thought that judge gave BJ all five rounds.
Basically every MMA website had Penn winning by at least a round, he wasn’t exactly dominated Tradition Rules.
Vitor Belfort has ZERO wins at 185 in the UFC, so how exactly does he deserve a title shot? his last fight was at Franklin weight (195) and he will have been inactive for over a year very shortly. I have no problem if they want to do either Silva-Belfort or Silva-Sonnen 2 both are great fights on paper.
So winning 4 out out 5 rounds is not dominating?
Especially someone of BJ’s level? ???
There’s a 50-50 split in fans and writers opinion who won that fight. Either way, 90% of the people had it a 3-2 fight which is not domination no matter who you favor. Domination is 5-0 or at least 4-1. And very few people go that far to say Edgar won 4 rounds for his herky jerky stance.
I suspect that Vitor has some agreement that granted him a title shot when he signed with the UFC. I can’t see any other reason why he’s being pushed so hard into a title fight with Silva. He’s not that big of a name to casual fans, and most people who do remember him probably remember him from getting beat by Randy and Tito.
No conspiracy needed, Fred. Who else have they had they could pose as a legit threat to Anderson? Chael was the legitimate top contender, and very few people gave him a shot.
I’m not saying Vitor’s not a contender, just that it’s curious how hard Dana seems to be pushing him into a title fight.
Dana is pushing hard for Belfort/Silva because it is the exact type of fight to give Silva to make him look devastating. Belfort is an aggressive striker that will come out swinging at Silva which will allow Silva to do his counter-striking for the KO. Silva will look dominate again and Dana is hoping it will help fans forget about his terrible performances of the past.
No, no and again, NO to immediate rematches.
No to rematches entirely, in the abscense of a compelling reason – either A) a controversial ending, or B) if the two fighters who have fought in the past are currently top contenders (as in the case of Fitch-Alves).
I’m not going to care too much if Sonnen gets an immediate rematch or not. But at the most he should be 1 fight away from a rematch for the title.
We should either see Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort with Chael Sonnen vs. a Top Contender as a double feature…. Or Silva/Sonnen 2. Either way, I would be happy with that.
The real travisty from last night is White being a b!tch and semi going back on his word that Fitch/Alves was a #1 contender’s fight. Fitch has earned his title shot again. White painted himself into a corner. Fitch is the most deserving of that title fight if GSP beats Koscheck.
If Koscheck wins, then Fitch can go up to 185 and probably would beat Anderson Silva if Sonnen can’t keep out of a submission.
As I have said a seemingly a million times today: it’s about size more than wrestling. If it was only wrestling all 10,000 of UFC’s NCAA champion wrestlers would have been begging Dana to let them move to 185 to take down Silva for the past 3 years. The problem is, they’re either too small to compete at 185 or too big to cut weight and still be effective.
Fitch would have the same problem people have universally agreed GSP would have at 185: coping with the extra weight. Believe it or not, 10 pounds or more that a fighter isn’t used to could make a huge difference. I’m really sick of the “Dan Henderson beat Wanderlei once so that means anybody can move up” myth. Now, if you can finish a fight early, this won’t matter. But Jon Fitch (and GSP) would have to go 25 minutes to win. They would gas, telegraph their takedowns out of exhaustion and get kneed into next week.
Fitch has a big enough FRAME to compete at Middleweight. Probably more so then GSP who’s frame is not considered average for Welterweight.
And there are different styles of wrestling that translate better to MMA. And within MMA, there are certain styles that translate better for certain opponents.
Fitch’s style translates better to a bump up in weight class. It also would be more effective against a guy like Silva.
Fitch would hang on Silva and neutralize him. GSP’s style would allow Silva to get far too often and make it tough for GSP to not get caught over 5 rounds.
Fitch beats Silva. With GSP, it’s a toss up.
Interestingly, I can go along with the idea that Fitch has a better shot vs. Silva than GSP does.
The size issue is a very big deal as Mark points out, and often underemphasized. I really don’t think GSP has the size to handle Silva. Just like BJ didn’t have the size to match up with GSP in their second bout.
You’re leaving out a big problem for Fitch, which is his god awful kickboxing footwork. This is a dude that was getting lit up bad by Mike Pierce, and continually backed up in a straight line when he got hit. He leaves himself wide open standing, and I think he’s far more likely to go down in an exchange with Silva than St. Pierre.
The fight was great, but I don’t see the need for an immediate rematch. I can believe Anderson was hurt, but even if he isn’t hurt in the rematch, he will still struggle with a guy like Sonnen, who is a very competent striker, tough as nails, has great takedowns and strength, and good cardio. I would like to see Anderson and Vitor fight and have Chael fight someone else on the undercard; I have no idea who the contenders are at 185, but I would imagine Dana could find someone to put Chael up against and grant the winner of that fight a shot against the winner of Vitor-Anderson.
Where is all this conspiracy theory bullshit coming from from people believing the fight was a work? Is this really the first “come from behind” win you all have ever seen or something? This is the heaviest I’ve seen it since the Couture-Nogueira fight.
It was not a work. UFC could not afford to risk it, especially on an a Middleweight Anderson Silva fight that never sells that great anyway. The first proven worked fight would kill them forever. People already bought the pay per view, why would you need to go out of your way to risk somebody blabbing to the press to crumble your empire overnight? You people are ridiculous.
Apparently it is really that hard to believe that Sonnen can throw away a fight he is winning by getting submitted. This in spite of it happening numerous times.
Filho, Horn, Sobral(Eventhough it was short), Maia, Probably Griffin eventhough I’ve never seen it.
Exactly. Plus as the Horn fight showed, Sonnen doesn’t generally adjust that well for rematches. Sonnen had as much success as you could possibly hope for against Silva and still couldn’t win. I think he loses a rematch in less time, but if they want to do it, they should just go ahead and make it. Sonnen/Belfort would be a stupid fight to make because Vitor is liable to crack and lose to awful fighters (much less good ones) on a moment’s notice.
That’s the stiffest work of all time if it’s a work.
People just want to complain about something. Those are the people saying it was a work.
The event was fantastic, despite many people (including myself) thinking it had the potential to be an absolutely snoozer due to some of the fighters on the card.
I think Jake Shields beats Silva if they fight. Fitch, probably not, and I dunno for GSP. But Shields I would put a good amount of money on. He’s already proved he could carry 185 well, and taking down and controling dan Henderson for 5 rounds is no easy task. Also the way Chael passed Silva’s guard multiple times makes me think that the fight wouldn’t go all 5 rounds. I think Shields subs him in under 4 rounds.
If I were jake Shields I would ask to stay at 185, and ask for a title shot right away instead of fighting kampman.
It was fixed. Somebody got paid off, whether it was Anderson, Chael, the ref, or all three.
Anderson Silva would be the benefactor of the fix, so why would he need monetary incentive to do it?
The referee did nothing to aid any fighter besides not call the fight off for Sonnen’s cut so he did nothing to warrant extra payment to help fix the fight.
And if Sonnen got paid to throw this fight then as pointed out above there must have been several other of his fights that he was paid to throw since he has a history of screwing up.
Athletes screw up. Quarterbacks throw interceptions, pitchers throw pitches perfect for hitting home runs off of, basketball players miss easy shots. Are all those athletes being paid off to screw up too?
At about the midway of the 3rd round a friend of mine said that Silva would win by a last minute submission. My response was, “If Silva wins by last minute submission I would not host another UFC fight at my house.” Dana and the Fertitta’s just lost my 44.99 in perpetuity.
To Anderson Silva and anyone else who believes he was hurt before the fight. BULLSHIT!!!! Anderson Silva’s ribs were hurt by the outright pounding he took from Sonnen. About 95% of what Sonnen said while trash-talking Silva was true. The fact that he would even say anything about his ribs is bullshit in the first place. As Sonnen said he would do, He pushed Silva harder than any other. The reason that Anderson didn’t look himself was because he was being put on his ass by Sonnen for 4.5 rounds. Its difficult to throw a kick or knee when your on your back the whole time. Hell I even think I heard him talking English at the end. Fitch might have an easier job getting the belt at 185 than 170.