One of the greatest comebacks in MMA history now is old enough to drive.
Sixteen years ago, Chael Sonnen was on the cusp of a major upset against middleweight champion Anderson Silva in the UFC 117 main event in Oakland, Calif. He dominated him with his wrestling for the first four rounds and seemed to be on cruise control in the fifth.
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Then Silva snatched victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat with an armbar-triangle combination and forced Sonnen to tap – a choke certainly in more ways than one – with less than two minutes left.
Silva extended his record for middleweight title defenses to seven in the Fight of the Night winner, which also saw “The Spider” double dip for Submission of the Night. Later, he took Sub and Fight of the Year honors from most outlets. In 2024, Silva’s comeback became the ninth bout inducted into the Fight Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.
Less than two years later, Sonnen worked his way back to a rematch after a bunch of typical Sonnen drama leading up to it – involving things like suspensions for elevated testosterone, admission of lying during commission hearings and even a money laundering conviction for a real estate scheme (like, seriously: who does that sh*t).
That fight, at UFC 148, looked like a dupe of the first for the initial five minutes. But in the second, Silva took advantage of a sloppy Sonnen spinning attack and put him away.
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That rematch, though, couldn’t have happened without the first one, which went down Aug. 7, 2010, at Oracle Arena. Check out the full fight in the video above.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: This Date in MMA History: Anderson Silva makes Chael Sonnen choke
