No. 1 Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
When: UFC 117 | Aug. 7, 2010
Where: Oracle Arena, Oakland, Calif.
Result: [autotag]Anderson Silva[/autotag] def. Chael Sonnen via submission (triangle armbar) – Round 5, 3:10
The aftermath: Silva was dominated for the first four rounds against Sonnen, but caught him with stellar ground work late in the fifth. Had Sonnen survived the final frame, he would’ve been the UFC’s new middleweight champion. Instead, Silva got his 13th straight win. After that, he won title fights with Vitor Belfort, Yushin Okami and a rematch with Sonnen in which he put him away with a second-round TKO. After a non-title win over Stephan Bonnar, Silva’s career took a decided downturn. He lost the belt to Chris Weidman with a shocking knockout in July 2013. Later that year, he suffered one of MMA’s all-time worst injuries when he snapped his leg in a rematch with Weidman. Silva tested positive for banned substances after a win over Nick Diaz in 2015 and has dropped four of five since returning from a subsequent suspension – putting the onetime pound-for-pound king on a 1-6 slide over nearly seven years.
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