Sonnen lost his cool after he realized he couldn't get a takedown on Silva. To Sonnen's credit Silva did grab his shorts multiple times which the ref should have stepped in and deducted points on. He had already warned Silva in the first round when Sonnen had mount. I think the short grabbing definitely affected Sonnen since it allowed Silva to pop shots while standing and caused Sonnen to lose his composure. When he lost his composure he did the spinning back fist and the rest is history. I think Silva got away with a lot of questionable moves this fight though. While the knee definitely did land on Sonnen's sternum, his upper thigh did land on Sonnen's face. That technically is a leg kick to a downed opponent which is illegal. However if Sonnen isn't going to question it then I won't either.
I was like WTF, when Silva pulled Sonnen by his shorts and popped him in the face with a right hand. I think either way Sonnen would've lost. Let's just say he gets the takedown again and controls Anderson for a whole round. The third round starts on their feets again, so do the 4th and 5th. His takedowns gets less and less effective, it was a TKO waiting to happen.
Silva got a lot of help stuffing a takedown against the cage by lifting Sonnen's shorts for a good 20 seconds with nothing said by the referee. He was further helped when Sonnen started to back up an Silva, still holding the shorts without anything being said, was able to stop him from moving back by pulling the shorts and stick him cleanly in the face.
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The point impact it looked like a clean knee to the chest with his thigh maybe barely grazing his chin... Spoiler In real time it looked questionable but watching the replays and pictures its pretty iffy to make a case about the thigh to the face. The only people that seem to take issue with it are the Chael fans, but like you said that doesn't include Chael himself.
When Sonnen fell on his ass after that spinning back fist, move away from the cage and lay flat on your back and outmaneuver him by using your wrestling tech, no????
He panicked after knowing he just committed an epic fail and was a deer in headlights who was just waiting for the pain that was about to come. If he would have moved to the side and laid back, Anderson would have probably come up with some sort of flying downward Superman punch to the face a la Dan Henderson, that would have transitioned straight into a kimura.
Still with all that Chael lost the fight when he threw a wild punch. None of that trunk stuff wouldn't have mattered if Chael kept his cool.
Well, if grabbing the trunks helped to prevent Chael from taking him down, then Sonnen wouldn't have thrown that r****ded spinning back-fist.
There was never any reason to throw that punch. A bad shot is still a bad shot. No matter if the player thinks the opportunity is there to take the shot. I'm betting it wouldn't have mattered because Chael threw it WAY after the grabbing the shorts thing. He made a big mistake and paid for it. Just like the first match where all he had to literally do was just lay on top of Silva and win the belt...
What I meant was, If Silva had not grabbed Sonnen's trunks, Sonnen likely would have gotten the take down, leading to another 4-5 minutes of Sonnen smothering Silva from the top. Can't throw a spinning back fist from the top/mount. Grabbing the trunks is illegal and very likely prevented Sonnen from winning another easy round.
Watched a replay a few times because I was a little confused why Chael just dropped so suddenly. It was a classic delayed reaction from a liver shot that Silva delivered with his left shin. About two seconds later the pain hits Sonnen and he just crumpled. It's almost impossible to stay up after a liver shot.
Very true. He lost his cool though when he got off the cage. He had Anderson against the cage and tried to take him down and got held by his shorts. He then tried to back away from the cage and was again held by the shorts which allowed Silva to get a clean shot to the face on Chael. Once that happened the fight was over because Sonnen had to back pedal. I think everyone knew that if the fight got into a standing battle Sonnen would lose. Silva holding his trunks allowed him to get clean shots that sent Sonnen into a standing defensive. Add that to the fact the the referee had to wipe Silva off for applying the grease to his body...Silva won the fight, but it was not a clean win. This coming from someone who expected Silva to knock him out in about 20 seconds in the first.
This is it exactly. Sonnen has Silva against the cage and tries to drop down for a takedown. He is prevented from doing it by Silva holding him up by his shorts. Clearly illegal and the referee did nothing about it. If you go back and watch you can see Silva slip his thumbs into Sonnen's shorts 10 seconds or so before that, setting himself up to hold him. It worked perfectly. Sonnen tried to back away when he realized he couldn't get the takedown and Silva prevents it by AGAIN holding the shorts and gets a clean shot. The referee should have done something. He had already issued a verbal warning to Silva. Instead, Sonnen took a clean shot to the face and never got his bearings back.
He really grabbed the shorts once was warned about it and continued to hang on. The most blatant when he was defending against a takedown against the cage, even if he hadn't grabbed the shorts it wouldn't have mattered then. His legs were spread and he had defended the take down, then Anderson missed on his punches any way. The latter part of the fight comes after the blatant short grabbing. Ref should have deducted a point, but that's it. Sonnen really took no damage in that exchange so I don't feel it affected the fight much. The other short grabbing, where Silva's hand is between his legs happens so often that it's no issue at all.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1252560-ufc-148-chael-sonnens-coach-planned-appeal-demands-rematch-from-dana-white Give it up Chael!
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