Anfields5thKing Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:53 pm
Sonnen was using TRT this time. And against Bisping. It's legal, he's allowed use it, it's not an issue.
Against Bisping he won the fight comfortably. He easily won two of the three rounds, could even give him all three. That was after he was given a different opponent to who he was preparing for very late. He was preparing for a powerful right handed wrestler with KO power. Bisping is a totally different fighter. Bisping on the other hand was preparing for a left handed grappler. Exactly what Sonnen is. The change in opponents made the fight much more difficult for Sonnen.
As for the Anderson fight, he was beating the piss out of him AGAIN until he threw that stupid spinning backfist. They've been in for 4 and a half rounds and a 1 and a half rounds and for all but about 40 seconds, Sonnen has beat the piss out of Anderson. He's made two mistakes, and Anderson has capitalized on them. In case you missed it, Anderson was preventing takedowns by grabbing Sonnen's shorts.
What makes Anderson a great fighter is that he capitalizes on mistakes. Sonnen has made two against him in fights Anderson was being well beaten in, and Anderson has taken advantage and pulled out the wins.
As for the finish, it was weird. it was also quite quick considering nearly all of Anderson punches misses, hit the arms or were just glancing blows. Only about 3 of them actually landed flush. Sonnen didn't complain though so fair enough.
It was the knee that did the damage. Perfect knee, not sure what all the BS about it in the press is about. Some saying Anderson threw it at the face but that's crap. If Anderson had thrown it at the face, he'd have hit the face. His striking is pin point accurate. Meanie will be able to explain the medical terms of this better than me but a knee to the sternum like that can cause the chest to contract and temporarily stop the lungs from functioning properly. Sonnen's had a cracked sternum before(in the Marquadt fight) and it's likely that when that knee landed it caused his chest to push in and took all the breath out of him and made it difficult to get his breath back. Fighting Anderson Silva while struggling to breath is not something that is possible.
Sonnen most definitely has what it takes to beat Anderson physically. His skill set is perfect for beating Anderson. He has good hands (has outstruck pretty much everyone he's fought, including Anderson TWICE), a great chin, the best wrestling in MMA, incredible control on the ground and he's developing his BJJ(including his BJJ defence apparently).
I said after the fight that I thought he might quit but I don't think he will. I could see him going to Strikeforce to get himself back on track. There's nobody there at MW or LHW that could beat him IMO. Send him there, give him back to back title shots after a warm-up fight, then bring him back to the UFC and set him loose on the post Anderson-MW division. He's 35 and although he's had a lot of fights, he's younger now than Dan Henderson was when he won his first major title (Pride "WW" - MW) and Hendo's done pretty well for himself since then.
Sonnen's still the number 2 MW in the world, there's no question about that.