Chael Sonnen looked to capture his first victory since 2013 when he welcomed Brazilian legend Wanderlei Silva back to the cage last night (Sat., June 24, 2017) at Bellator NYC live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Silva hadn’t competed professionally since defeating Brian Stann via knockout back in 2013.
As many expected, Sonnen shot in for a quick takedown in Round 1 and began to batter the Brazilian on the ground. Sonnen landed heavy elbows and right hands that buckled Silva’s body. Silva did all he could to play defender, but “The American Gangster” was persistent and powerful. Sonnen stayed on top of “Ax Murderer” for what seemed to be an eternity. Surprisingly, Silva finally made it back to his feet before dropping Sonnen with a huge right hand.
In Round 2, both light heavyweights came out firing. Sonnen threw hard shots after springing out of the gate with a flying knee, while Silva landed his own offense before nearly submitting Sonnen via guillotine choke. After Silva exhausted his arms trying to tap his counterpart, Sonnen took full advantage and rocketed in for another heavy double leg takedown. From there, Sonnen would go back to his ground-and-pound efforts that tallied the points quickly.
It was much of the same in Round 3, as Sonnen quickly sneaked past Silva’s standup efforts to close the distance and drag the knockout artist to the ground. Sonnen would work for a kimura this time, but ultimately relied on short elbows, punches, and body control to keep Silva pinned down. In the end, Sonnen’s wrestling proved too much for Silva as “The American Gangster” walks away with the unanimous decision win.
While both men are 40 years of age, they put forth a respectable performance for a hungry New York City crowd. Sonnen was obviously the biggest winner of the main event, but Silva had the trash talker hurt at points and showed he still has something left in the tank despite a four-year layoff.
For complete Bellator NYC results and coverage click here.