He’s incredible. He was asked at the presser if he’d like to test his skills against Bones and he emphatically said he didn’t.

All in all great event. The undercard was a little underwhelming, but the top three fights were all excellent in their own way. Cote and Cung came to fight and put it all on the line, Forrest and Ortiz did what they could, with the fight finishing in the only way it could have- strangely. In the main event we had a hint of what could have been, with Sonnen dominating the first round but then we saw what we’ve seen for years and may see for a few more, Pure Silva lethal brilliance.

Too good, too dangerous and a gracious champion. Well done Anderson Silva. Well done done UFC. Well done traveling Brazilians. Well done to the bartender who I have a date with.

Benny

Round two

It’s allllll over.

Sonnen shoot again for a double but can’t get the takedown. After a little stand-up Sonnen shoots for a single but is stuffed. Sonnen looks fearful of the stand up and throws a wild spinning backfist, but misses and get’s clipped and falls and on the ground he eats a flying knee.

On the ground, Sonnen is peppered with strikes and soon there’s a stoppage. TKO win for Silva.

In the post fight press conference, Silva buries the hatchet somewhat but the crowd isn’t having any of it, still booing and calling him Put.

Silva calls Chael over and encourages the Brazilian fans to cheer him and then asks him to come around for a BBQ at is house, making reference to Sonnen suggesting Silva’s wife should come over to Chael’s house and cook him a steak.

Round One

This is it. The soccer chants start before match and both fighters look surprisingly relaxed.

Anderson walked towards Chael before the fight and there’s a moment when the officials are fearful that the fight might start prematurely but Silva just bows.

Unbelievable, Sonnen gets the takedown straight away and spends the whole round on top, getting full mount with 45 second to go.

There’s a triagle threat for but a moment, but it was a big round for Sonnen…

Anderson Silva comes out to huge applause with his coaches and Steven Seagal, once again with shooting glasses. You know, just in case it goes down.

He’s certainly making Chael wait- just getting in his head, as he has been all week.

Personally, I’d love to see Chael win. He’s got so much weird personality, he’d be a very entertaining champion and he’d put the belt on the line at the drop of a hat.

As he said at the press conference, “If you’re 185 pounds and you say my name, we’re fighting.”

He comes out to some awful country song and the crowd boos him, almost uniformly. I would have thought US patriotism would have kicked in but it doesn’t seem so.

Now we’ve come to it, the most anticipated rematch in the sport.

Anderson Silva (31-4) v Chael Sonnen (27-7-1)

Not much to say about Anderson Silva except that he’s a fighter who seems to be from another world….except when he fights Chael Sonnen.

Silva is 14-0 in the UFC and simple the greatest MMA fighter of all time, but he very nearly had his record blemished two years ago when Chael beat him down for four and a half rounds before escaping with a submission win against all flow of the match.

There’s genuine hate here, and I’m actually a little fearful of waht might happen to Chael here, but if he can out-wrestle the Brazilian.

Round Three

What a round. Tito clocks Forrest and knocks him down, but is too tired to follow it up.

Tito takes Forrest down and the crowd goes ballistic.

Forrest tries for a kimura from the bottom but can’t get it.To end the round both men swing wildly but not much connects.

Forrest walks out of the cage as soon as the bell sounds and I think we just saw the end of two careers. He’s disgusted with himself.

Forrest is back in the ring, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was his last fight.

Forrest takes is 29-28 on all cards and the crowd haaaaaaaaaates it.

Forrest grabs the mic and takes the interview. aTito doesn’t think’s it’s dd, but Joe Rogan is standing around like, “what the fuuuuuuuu…”

Forrest is getting all kinds of boos. Joe is telling everyone to chill and Forrest says he wants to keep fighting. Bizarre fight, bizarre ending.

Round two

Tito rocks Forrest with a straight right and the two flail around before clinching and Forrest wakes up. Forrest clips him with a stiff jab, and again, and again.

Both men are trying for a spectacular fight, and the will is there but not the speed or power.

Forrest is beating Tito to the punch regularly the end of the round.

Not very technical but entertaning none the less.

Let’s see what Tito has in his last ever round….

Round One

Tito is fight the first and only time as a hall of famer, but Forrest gets a huge roar too.

Forrest has the early stand up but Tito gets a takedown and does some good damage from the top- an elbow and two hooks.

Tito looks little slow in the ensuing stand up exchanges, but gets another takedown just before the bell.

Without looking particularly dangerous, I think Tito got the round.

Now we have the co-main event of the evening.

Forrest Griffin (18-7) and Tito Ortiz (17-10-1)
Light Heavyweight

This is going to be something. The one-time face of the UFC, Ortiz is now fighting his last bout and it’s going to be emotional, win lose or draw. The thing about Tito though is that he fell of a giant cliff a few years ago and he’s only won one match since losing the title at UFC 66.

Tito comes out in some sort of gladiator helmet.

Forrest, another former champ, looks like he has a little more left in the tank, but he says he was given Tito’s swan-fight because they wanted a guy who was big and slow who’d stand in front of Tito and bang.

Forrest comes out to Dropkick Murphy’s “Shipping off to Boston.”

This one is going to be good. Tito will go out on his shield if need be.

We just got a shot of Sonnen arriving and then Silva. Amazingly, the Brazilian fans completely drowned out the American Sonnen fans. If Silva gets a KO, it’s going to be deafening.

Round Three

As the fighters come out they shake, recognition of the joint effort. Cote cops a knee in the fruit and veg early, but the younger Cote looks sharper and throws solid flurries of punches.

From two clinches we see a solid spinning backfist from Cote and then a takedown from Le, but Cote pops up again. Cote gets a single but cant’ get the takedown.

Cung Le gets the trip with 40 sec to go and Cung Le takes a 30-27 unanimous win.

His first UFC victory. Good fight, very deserving winner.

Cung Le says he was going to do a backflip, but he’s too tired.

Crowd likes it.

Cung Le says he might keep fighting in the UFC and dedicates his victory to all the 40 year olds.

Round 2

Le once again shows range of strikes, including a spinning heel kick, but gasses a little and Cote gets inside and clips him with some heavy shots.

After a minute, both men are cut but neither take a backward step.

Great fight, with fortunes going backward and forward…

Round one

Cote feints a kick and straight away hes thrown via a judo throw.

Cung moves beatifully moving in and out of range at ease landing some solid body shots and a couple of nice hooks. As expected, Le throws all kinds of strikes from all kind of angles.

Cote resorts to a bum rush but to no avail.

Round ends after a solid ‘Cung Le’ chant

Cung Le (7-2) v Patrick Cote (17-7)
Middleweight

Cung Le is one of the most entertaining guys in MMA, with some of the most incredible kicks in the game. He’s already a movie star, playing Marshall Law in the Tekken film, and a former Strikeforce champ but he is 40 years of age and without a win in the UFC (0-1 against Wanderlei).

Patrick Cote, another of Silva’s scalps and just returning to the UFC after a two year layoff, comes out to MC Hammer’s “2 Legit to Quit”

Cote’s a boxer and kickboxer with an atomic bomb of a right hand so both men love to finish. If someone manages to finish with a headshot, these guys could be picking up a fight bonus.

Cung Le comes out to “Baddest Man Alive.” It’s such shame he’s not ten years younger, hes the teenage boys ideal vision of a martial artist.

Round one

Another super early stoppage (47sec). Maia went for the takedown straight way and they end up in an awkward position. The Korean was flipped and sustained some sort of abdominal injury. Maia got into a full mount, but Kim had already tapped from…strikes?

Confusing fight, but the Brazilians are happy and will take it.

OK, Maia has confirmed that Kim injured his neck on the cage in the takedown. He’s up and OK though.

Damien Maia (15-4) v Dong Hyun Kim (15-1-1)
Welterweight

This is Damien Maia’s first welterweight fight, having lost two of his last three fights at middleweight. His opponent is one of Asia’s best, a man who’s only been beaten once, and that loss was to interim champ Carlos Condit.

Kim is an expert Judo player, but he’s also a solid kickboxer so he may try to keep it standing up, to stay away from Maia’s superlative BJJ.

Maia is one of a few fighters on the card who took a beating from Anderson Silva (Cote, Forrest), but I think Maia’s was the worst, with the champ toying with him like a particularly sadistic cat might.

Be interesting how the Brazilian fares against the athletic Koren.

Th smell of weed has wafted over the media section. I, for one, am outraged.

Bisping has arrived behind us (not related), to get a preview of the beating he’s got coming if Anderson gets over Chael tonight.

Round One

First stoppage! McKenzie throws some very awkward kicks, and Mendes catches one of them and floors him with a gut shot. McKenzie couldn’t have been less impressive. Dances out to some 90’s awful-rock, throws some teenage-style muay thai and then gets KO’d by a gut shot.

Next fight is…

Chad Mendes (11-1) v Cody McKenzie (13-2)
Featherweight.

Both of these guys are sub experts so maybe we’ll have the first finish of the night. Mendes is a heavy favourite, having only lost once, his last fight to Jose Aldo.

Cody has a pretty monochromatic game, finishing almost every fight with an amended guillotine but he’s reeeally long for a featherwight.

Cody comes out with Ronda Rousey to the sounds of The Offspring and looking every part a guy who usually fights in roadhouse car parks. He won’t stop jumping and shadowing violently s Chad comes out to some mournful country.

This is the Odd Couple: The Fight.

Wanderlei just walked past and he looked like a hipster who’d been in a car accident.

Mick Easton wins 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. Not exactly ‘Bustin’ Loose,’ but I’m sure he’ll take it.

Round 3

Menjivar goes for a spinning kick and is taken down with about 2:30 to go, but Menjivar quickly locks the American in with his guard, before both men end up on their feet again.

As was the case for the prior two rounds, Easton throws out a spectacular attempt at the end of the round, this time a flying scissor kick, but again to no avail and outside of that, little is thrown, let alone landed.

Crowd is happy this one is over.

Round two

It’s a fairly action-free round, with an early, slightly blocked overhand right from Mejivar being a highlight, as well as a flying knee toward the bell.

As he was in the first round, Easton talks intermittently though the round, speaking presumably to himself and I think he pushed the pace and should probably take this round, but it’d be hard to score.

As is often the case, the crowd is quick to anger when there’s little action and the round ends with boos.