UFC 148 Recap: Silva Defeats Sonnen, Forrest Edges Tito
By Chris Leslie on July 7, 2012
The long-awaited rematch is now over, with Anderson Silva again standing victorious with the UFC middleweight title. The Las Vegas card provided plenty of reaction from top to bottom of the PPV card. In the co-main event, Forrest Griffin edged Tito Ortiz in a sloppy but entertaining bout.
In other action, Cung Le, Demian Maia, Chad Mendes, and Mike Easton all notched victories on the PPV card.
Silva Stops Sonnen
After a first round that resembled their first fight, Anderson Silva took advantage of a wild errant spinning backfist attempt from Chael Sonnen to pounce quickly. Sonnen tried to survive but Silva quickly dropped him and finished him in spectacular fashion.
Silva showed class in the victory as he asked the Brazilian fans to cheer for Chael and invited Chael to his house. Sonnen also showed class in defeat, while clearly dejected, he still stayed in the Octagon for a post-fight interview.
Silva has now won every one of his UFC fights dating back to his 2006 debut.
Griffin Edges Tito
It was not pretty but Forrest Griffin won the rubber match with Tito Ortiz. The in apparently shocked Griffin, as Griffin bolted from the cage as soon as the third round ended. Fortunately UFC President Dana White caught Griffin and he came back to be awarded the decision victory.
After the fight, Griffin took the mic from Rogan and interviewed Ortiz before being interviewed himself. Griffin gaves props to Tito and made sure the Hall of Famer got his due.
Le Notches First UFC Win
Le threw everything he had at at Patrick Cote but found out how tough the Canadian was as he could not put him away. Cote had his moments and gave it his all but Le’s all-around game gave Cote fits. Le not only out-struck Cote but out-wrestled him as well. The win marked the 40-year old fighter’s first win.
Maia Victorious in Welterweight Debut
Maia wasted no time at all in his welterweight debut as he defeated Dong Hyun Kim via TKO. Maia quickly closed the distance and took Kim’s back. Maia was finally able to bring Kim to the mat after a brief struggle and Kim quickly submitted due to an apparent rib injury on the takedown. Maia expressed his excitement for his move to welterweight after the fight and will look to keep the momentum going in his new home.
Mendes Crushes McKenzie
Chad Mendes notched our first finish of the night against Cody McKenzie. Mendes took only :31 seconds to do so, as a body punch off a caught kick lead to a devastating body punch TKO. The finish was the first for Mendes since WEC 48.
“The Hulk” Out-strikes Menjivar
Ivan Menjivar struggled to figure out how to balance out the power of Mike Easton and in the end it cost him the decision. Easton constantly stalked forward in the fight and negated Menjivar’s large arsenal of strikes with his mix speed, power, and movement. The win for Easton allows him to stay perfect in three Octagon appearances.
Main Card (Pay-per-view 10pm ET)
- Middleweight Championship Fight: Anderson Silva def. Chael Sonnen via TKO at 1:55 of Round 2
- Forrest Griffin def. Tito Ortiz via unanimous decision (29-28,29-28,29-28)
- Cung Le def. Patrick Cote via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Demian Maia def. Dong Hyun Kim via TKO (bodylock takedown) at :41 of Round 1
- Chad Mendes def. Cody McKenzie via TKO (body shot) at :31 of Round 1
- Mike Easton def. Ivan Menjivar via unanimous decision (30-27,29-28,30-27)
Preliminary Card (FX 8pm ET)
- Melvin Guillard def. Fabricio Camoes via unanimous decision (30-27,30-27,30-27)
- Khabib Nurmagomedov def. Gleison Tibau via unanimous decision (30-27,30-27,30-27)
- Constantinos Philippou def. Riki Fukuda via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Shane Roller def. John Alessio via unanimous decision (29-28,29-28,29-28)
Facebook Card
- Rafaello Oliveira def. Yoislandy Izquierdo via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
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( crickets….)
Silva proved why he is the greatest of all time.
Sonnen is invites to silva bbq
Medium rare.
i wonder if his wife is cookin
Wonder where CID is lol. I was hoping for a lot more outa chael good first round from him, but silva finished him convincingly. Maybe it was the shoulder bump yesterday that was still having a affect lol good job by the spider
Wtf was the go with Forrest very disrespectful to Tito really wasn’t cool at all by him a bit of a dick move
Exactly. I’ll copy what I said on the live results thread:
“Forrest just stole Tito’s moment by leaving the ring then depriving him of a professional post-fight interview. That was disrespectful and selfish. Forrest just lost his got as a fan. Respect the sport and history.”
Yeah Hitman, I don’t know what his deal was. He was acting like a real idiot. It reminded me of when he ran out of the Octogon after Anderson Silva humiliated him…
he literally just said “I wish I could take that back” when asked about it.
Just saying I called the handshake/hug after the fight.
Good card though a lot of good scraps. I was very surprised about the Cung Le vs Cote fight. My bid for FoTN.
What does the presser start
soon, probably doing a Fuel thing first
Silva’s eyes were closed for 90% of the first round. He is one scary man!
Thanks
looks like they’re finally setting it up now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbOdkEFvd-w thank Karyn Bryant’s husband
Props to Anderson. That has to feel so good to have this guy out of his way and now can be out of his mind.
I have to say that this is how I saw the fight happening. Did’nt expect the invitation to a BBQ, but hey…. I think that proves it’s much more than fighting that makes you a champion. (another reason why Chael won’t get it.)
Good night of fights! Thanks Tito. Good luck with your future!
Great comment, TQR!!!
Sonnen’s post-fight conference quote rocked. “I’m starving, so I could go for some Brazilian BBQ right now. Medium Rare…”
I enjoyed the post fight presser. It was nice to see both men put everything aside and even joke with each other a little. Plus it was Tito’s last Post fight presser.
I thought knees to the head of a downed opponent were illegal? Or because Sonnen was sitting and not on his knees did they not consider him down?
knee landed in the chest as per the replays
I’ll have to watch the replay again. Looked to me like there was contact to the head. Does it matter if the knee contacted the chest and thigh got the head?
If the knee touches the head after hitting the chest, it’s still legal. The knee is the part of the body delivering the blow, so the thigh would be incidental. Rashad’s knee on Tito is another example of this ruling.
That said, if knee hit the arms and then head, it would have been illegal. NSAC reviews those blows cageside and they did not ask Lavigne to take a look so they ruled it legal.
Forrest should be cut. Plain and simple! Unsportsmanlike behavior!!!
Anyone but Forrest would be
Just don’t understand why he did that…he really ruined a moment.
Finally, this rematch is over. Can we talk about something else now? As long as it’s not about Jones vs. Silva…
On Jones vs. Silva, Silva said it best “No”
100,000 in Cowboys Stadium, 3 million ppv buys and a real nice ‘retirement package’ (see: percentage) might convince him otherwise…
I doubt it, he and Jones have trained together before and Silva seems happy at 185. Plus, let’s see Jones get past Hendo first before we start trying to make that happen.
I don’t think we’ll ever see Silva vs. Jones, unless Jones drops down to 185, which would NEVER happen. There’s more of a chance of Silva vs. GSP happening. If GSP moved up to 185, than it would probably happen. If not, than it wouldn’t.
how about Silva vs. GSP???…..
HA HA Spinning back fist!! ooops. Long live the greatest fighter of all time!!
You all just saw a performance from someone who has NOTHING LEFT TO PROVE!!!!!
Same age as Tito, been fighting all over the world just as long as Tito, and man did Tito ever show his age but the Spider is still in his prime and champ. not former champ, not pretend champ, just simply the best.
There are basketball players but there is only one Michael Jordan. There are fighters and mixed martial artists but there is only one Anderson “The Spider” Silva.
Wich one of the Sonnen nut huggers gets to suck some testosterone out of him first? HA HA HA….Loser!It’s over, show some class – Mods
I’m sure Forrest feels like a d*ck, he totally stole titos thunder. Teach him a lesson, make him fight silva again.
Congrats to Anderson. Good luck to both men in their next bouts.
If anyone’s wondering, the reason why Chael fell when throwing that spinning backfist was because he stepped on Anderson’s foot and tripped.
There is excuse number one from a Sonnnen nut hugger. UMMM you are in a fight and supposed to protect yourself at all times. nuff said.
Grow up, I’m not making an excuse, I’m stating a fact. I take nothing away from Silva’s win.
I thought maybe Forrest cleared the Octogan so Tito had the stage to himself to says his goodbyes and thank his fans. That’s the only possible explanation I could think of. If his intentions were honourable I still think he made a real ass of the situation right down to the cringeworthy interview, I’m sure he regrets it now.
Looking around on a bunch of other MMA sites, including this one, no one seemed to realize that the reason why Chael fell when throwing that spinning backfist was because he tripped over Anderson’s foot. Everyone seems to think he lost balance and/or slipped and fell when throwing that spinning backfist. I did as well, until I watched it again to try and see how that happened.
Even the people doing the write ups for all those different sites didn’t realize Sonnen tripped over Silva’s foot. I wonder if everyone will in the next couple of days.
griffins a
prick.. lost repsect for him big time..Name-calling is not appropriate. -BSBiz
Tito thank you for all the memories and moments you have given us. Now let Forrest fight rampage or glover. As for Chael rematch with bisping. And for Anderson lets do a catch weight or something with Rashad.
Silva put in work. The Tito/Forrest fight went the way i saw it, although, I kinda expected Forrest to tko Tito. Great card in all. Much better than expected. For all the Sonnen haters, if you’re going to talk smack, at least learn to spell, and some 5th grade grammar courses would help. For the Silva haters, you cannot make any excuses for this one, Sonnen made another mistake, and Silva capitalized on it again. Glad that the two of them were decent about it at the presser too. Good luck Tito!!
with this victory by silva i believe it is now time to make the match i think almost every mma fan wants to see. Set up a catch weight fight between GSP and the Spider to really decide pound for pound who is the best. Boxing could never get it right to match pac man and the money man so i believe this dream match needs to be made.