Sherdog’s Top 10: UFC Middleweight Title Fights

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1. Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
UFC 117
Aug. 7, 2010 | Oakland, California
The greatest middleweight champion of all-time pulled off the greatest come-from-behind victory of his career in the UFC 117 main event at Oracle Arena. Sonnen spent months baiting Silva with insulting and hyperbolic trash talk, vowing to swing sledgehammers and expose “The Spider” as a fraud. He seemed to be spot on with his assessment for the better part of 20 minutes, as he took down Silva with ease and assaulted him with ground-and-pound. Sonnen effectively neutralized the Brazilian’s surgical striking skills and cruised to a four-rounds-to-none lead: According to FightMetric data, the Milwaukie, Oregon, native had outlanded Silva 228-54 in total strikes and executed three takedowns by the time Round 5 arrived. Once there, however, Sonnen wandered too low into the champion’s guard, became complacent and found himself entangled in a triangle choke; and though he fought through Silva’s initial bid, he had no way to defend the armbar that followed. Referee Josh Rosenthal accepted Sonnen’s tapout 3:10 into the fifth round, and with that, the legend of “The Spider” had grown yet again.

Sherdog’s Top 10 series is voted upon by a panel of Sherdog.com staff members and contributors: Jordan Breen, Tristen Critchfield, Mike Fridley, Brian Knapp, TJ De Santis, Eric Stinton, Jesse Denis, Todd Martin, Josh Stillman, Nick Grinups, Jake Hughes and Anthony Walker.