The Perfect Storm

Saturday night, the conditions were just right in and outside of the cage for the perfect storm.

You could not ask for a better combination. Hype. Trash talk. A clash of styles. An embattled champion. A brash challengers. A hint of controversy. And a miraculous comeback.

There’s something about this fight that vaguely reminded me of Rocky III, with Rocky Balboa having to redeem himself in the eyes of his critics against Clubber Lange after a string of wins against questionable contenders. Skip the loss to Lange and Mickey’s death, add in a bizarre performance in which Rocky moonwalks in his last title fight, and that is essentially the story of Silva vs. Sonnen.

I, like pretty much everybody else, thought the reign was over. Chael Sonnen not only talked a big game against Anderson Silva, he came in and enacted his game plan to near-perfection. To his credit, I knew he was a legitimate threat (or at least expected him to offer some semblance of a challenge) to Silva’s crown. I didn’t expect him to dominate the champ the way he did.

In the early rounds, I thought Silva was baiting him, trying to tire him out and go for an armbar from the guard. It quickly became apparent that it was actually Sonnen's plan in action. Continuously, he executed precise, stifling takedowns and managed to avert any submission attempts. Silva opened each round trying to gain an advantage as the aggressor, abandoning his standard counterstriking strategy. Sonnen ate a few hard shots, but nevertheless managed to stick to his plan and stuff the champ, inevitably outstriking him nearly 10 to 1.

The stats are incredible. Silva absorbed more strikes in one fight than his in his entire career inside the Octagon.

Between rounds, the look on his face told the story. “I am not only losing… I’m lost.” The look on Sonnen’s face was buttressed by the words of his corner. “It is within grasp.”

Going into the fifth, the outcome was clear: “Silva has lost. Within two days, Sherdog will revise their divisional rankings with Sonnen on top. A day after that, their pound-for-pound rankings will show GSP as the best in the world with Jose Aldo as runner-up. Silva may drop from the list altogether.”

Then at 3:10 in the final round, the outcome changed.

A triangle choke slapped on tight. An attempt at escape. More contortion from the champion. More struggling from the challenger. A brief, Fedor-esque tap on the thigh. Josh Rosenthal’s struggle to break the hold, and then chaos. Silva refused to relinquish, Sonnen denied the tap… and within less than a minute, the replay clearly showed what Rosenthal’s sharp eye caught. And like that, it was over.

But for more than 22 minutes, this hypothetical outcome was the farthest thing from anyone’s mind.

Silva’s victory solidifies him as a champion. No one is talking about his insulting performances against Patrick Cote, Thales Leites or Demian Maia today. He was pushed to the limit, defeated, and did the impossible.

Sonnen’s loss marks him as a marquee fighter. In defeat, he did what no one has been able to do to Silva in his entire career. Despite Silva’s early losses in Pride, he had never been decimated from bell-to-bell. He had never been made to squirm or forced to doubt his stature. Sonnen humbled him for 99% of the fight. He talked he talk and he damn sure walked the walk. He has nothing to be ashamed of in his endeavor. He did what no one else could do in the last four years: make Anderson Silva look human.

Let’s be clear… neither man fought the perfect fight. Holes in both men’s games were glaringly exposed. For Silva, it’s wrestling. He struggled with Dan Henderson for a full round before putting him away, and against a younger, hungrier Chael Sonnen, he was completely outmatched. For Sonnen, it’s submissions. 8 of his 11 losses are by way of submission. That’s approximately 73%. For both men, we already knew these facts. However, they were cracked wide open for the world to see this past Saturday in Oakland.

And despite all that, they have earned our respect.

Despite their initial disrespect (Silva’s to Maia, Sonnen’s to Silva), we are compelled to applaud the efforts of both men.

Despite the fact that Sonnen dominated for 22 minutes and couldn’t win, or the fact that Silva only “owned” ten seconds of the fight, they have captured our imagination. Forget the prolonged hold, the tapping protest, even Silva’s remarks about his ribs. These guys epitomized the beauty of MMA.

The question on many people’s minds is: should there be an instant rematch? I’m torn on this, only because Vitor Belfort was promised a shot in November of last year, and has been waiting patiently since April. On the other hand, Sonnen made a strong case for himself. If he were to be granted an immediate rematch, this would be the third “instant” divisional title rematch in one calendar year (the other two being May’s clash between Shogun and Machida and the upcoming tilt between Edgar and Penn). That has to be some kind of a record, and genuinely speaks to the quality of each division’s contenders.

Everyone was elevated in this match. Not just the fighters, but Joe Silva, who put together a spectacular card and a remarkable main event, and especially Josh Rosenthal. This is the second consecutive title fight he has refereed (the other being last month’s Lesnar-Carwin showdown), and the second in which he made an excellent call that required great observational skills. He deserves to be launched into the upper echelon of active MMA refs along with McCarthy and Dean.

Saturday night, the conditions were just right in and outside of the cage for the perfect storm.

For those of us who watched, we felt blessed just to be caught in the downpour.