UFC 148 Silva vs. Sonnen 2: The Stat Line Video
Two years ago, Anderson Silva defeated Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 in Oakland, California, and retained his Middleweight Title. When they fought, Sonnen dominated Silva for the first four rounds and most of the fifth. With less than two minutes remaining in that match at 3:10, Silva made “the greatest comeback in UFC history” by submitting Sonnen via triangle armbar.
Silva was hit more times in that fight than in his entire career to that point. According to CompuStrike: in his first 11 UFC fights, Silva was hit 208 times and in that one match, Sonnen hit him a total of 289 times.
Silva claims that he went into the fight with injured ribs and was advised by a physician to withdraw from the fight. During the first round, Sonnen cracked Silva’s rib which put Silva out until 2011. Following UFC 117 the California State Athletic Commission confirmed that Sonnen had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s): Sonnen had an elevated testosterone to epitestosterone ratio which fell outside of the normal range prior to his fight with Silva.
Sonnen paid the price and was out, he has come back clean and added two wins to his record since. Silva’s ribs are now fully healed and the two will clash once again in what has to be the most anticipated rematch in history, this Saturday, in the main event of UFC 148.
The following video from UFC explores the stats from UFC 117:
