No, it definitely wasn't the best fight ever. Sonnen was very busy, clearly dominant, but he obviously wasn't hitting Silva hard enough to do any major damage. If you hit a guy in the head THAT many times and can't knock him out, you obviously don't have a lot of power in your punches.
I see what you're saying, Sly, but the vast majority were in awkward positions, where Silva was clinging on to him and keeping him within extreme close range. If Sonnen was in full mount, sitting up and raining down bombs then I'd say yeah, this guy has no power in his punches. When he's playing "control the wrist" with an Anderson Silva clinging onto him for dear life in a five round battle of attrition, then I think that argument lacks some weight.
Furthermore, on their feet, I'd definitely say Sonnen did more damage than "best striker in the world" Anderson Silva. Sonnen rocked Silva two or three times, Silva only did any serious damage at the start of - I believe - the fourth.
I'm not saying that Sonnen is an amazing striker or that he even has knockout power, merely arguing that perhaps this isn't the best fight to judge that from.
A great fight would have to be back and forth, and this was basically one sided until the very end. It was certainly a great fight, and worthy of the money spent on it, but not THE best fight.
For a five minute YouTube break, a one-sided ass-kicking is certainly more suitable but yeah, I agree. Something along the lines of, I dunno, Griffin/Bonnar. Though that's used so much as an example it's pretty much become a cliche.
Completely disagreeing with my previous statement, I think if Sonnen had finished Anderson with a flurry of punches in the second, third or even fourth - or, fuck it, even the fifth - then this would be in contention for the greatest
something ever. Probably biggest, and most entertaining, upset ever.
Anderson came into the fight being touted as the greatest pound for pound fighter in the world. Literally. Listen to the hype before the fight - someone says that. And it's not like he didn't back it up - he was coming off an 11-win streak in which he demolished people; making great fighters look incompetent. On the other side, you had Chael Sonnen, a man many said was all mouth and no trousers. I, for one, marked the fuck out when Sonnen took Silva down and then was on the edge of my seat for the next two rounds as he continued to dominate.
For the final two rounds, I kinda lost interest. I barely looked up from my iPod in time to see Silva choking Sonnen. Admittedly, I freaked the fuck out and held my head in despair, but that seven or so minutes of moderate disinterest disqualify it from being in the contention of best fight ever.
