UFC Middleweight fighter and former contender to the title, Nate Marquardt recently spoke with MMA Weekly about the Chael Sonnen-Anderson Silva fight at UFC 117. Unfortunately for him, and fans of his such as myself, Marquardt ended up being the catalyst for Sonnen to get his shot at the belt. Although he nearly finished Sonnen mulitple times in the fight, Chael came away with a unanimous decision victory. Nate's thoughts on how Sonnen did against Silva:"I thought it was a real exciting fight. I think Chael did a great job. I thought Anderson’s footwork would be a little bit better at avoiding the takedowns, but once he got on top I knew he’d be able to pretty much dominate.....I thought that if Chael was able to close that distance that he would be able to take him down and pretty much dominate him on the ground as far as positioning and punching, but to do it for five rounds is a pretty tough thing to do. He was able to do it, but he did get caught in the end."
I don't know how much Silva's footwork had to do with him getting taken down repeatedly. Could have been more of his swinging wildly, for reasons that are unclear still, or slipping or taking Sonnen down and getting reversed. Any one of those things. The finish is what matters most of course and Marquardt saw it coming just as Anderson did:
"It’s exactly what I said, that he’s susceptible to the triangle.....He kept letting Anderson hold his wrists and he was able to escape the first couple of times. In the first couple of rounds I think he had that more explosive energy and Anderson slapped it on hard in that last round. It was a great fight."
The fact that Sonnen has very little submission defense is no secret. It doesn't take a deep understanding of jiu-jitsu to know that he can be put away with the triangle that Silva put on him. Most of Sonnen's losses throughout his career have come by way of submission. It's always been his Achilles heel. Although Nate wasn't surprised with Chael's success in getting takedowns and maintaining a dominate top position, he was very surprised at the success Sonnen had striking with Silva:
"That definitely was not expected.....I think he knocked him down like three times in the fight. That was crazy. The first one was in the first round and the second one was right after it, I think probably because of the first one. In the fifth round I couldn’t tell if it was a slip or a knockdown, but it was very surprising."
Sorry, Nate but you're wrong on this one. He never actually knocked Silva down with a punch. He caught him in the first minute with the straight left that sent Silva back and wobbly on his feet but he never went down from it. The instance in the fifth round was indeed a slip. Sonnen did have a bit of success on the feet but that all came in the first round with the initial shot that surprised Silva. The rest of it looked like Anderson was letting him have it.
As far as Marquardt goes, the loss to Sonnen was a really tough break for him. He was right on the cusp of another shot at the belt. Now he'll have to get by his upcoming opponent at Fight Night 22 in Rousimar Palhares and likely another top contender or two before talk of another title shot. I'm not sure how things are going to play out with Palhares but I don't expect him to give Nate much trouble. I'm looking a bit more down the road towards a potential fight with Vitor Belfort. That's a matchup I really want to see.