The Spider traps, locks Sonnen into submission

MANILA, Philippines - Anderson “The Spider” Silva turned a losing stand into a winning moment, using a triangle choke in the last 1:50 to stop Chael Sonnen and retain his middleweight crown in the main event of UFC 117 yesterday.

Behind in all three scorecards and seconds from absorbing his first defeat after 14 straight wins over four years, Silva locked Sonnen’s arm into submission, forcing the latter to tap out with 1.50 minutes remaining in their five-round championship showdown.

It was the Brazilian jujitsu black-belter’s seventh title defense of the belt he has held for nearly four years.

The 35-year-old Silva, a native of Curitiba, thus nailed his 14th straight win and 27th overall against four losses while Sonnen absorbed his 11th defeat against 26 victories.

Sonnen, who spent the days leading up to the fight criticizing and belittling Silva, was on the attack mode from the start and constantly took the champion to the mat by landing a flurry of head punches but just couldn’t finish off Silva, who also bucked a rib injury.

For a while, Silva, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in mixed martial arts, didn’t look like one against Sonnen, who fought aggressively, unleashing a barrage of punches to the head and body almost all throughout the fight.

“I’ve been training jujitsu for a long time and I wanted to finish this fight by a submission,” Silva said through an interpreter in a website report. “I had a bad injury to my rib. The doctor told me not to fight but I believe the show must go on. It’s not an excuse. I wanted to come in and put it on the line, and that’s what I did.”

Silva also had Sonnen’s left arm locked in a submission move near the end of the second round but couldn’t get much going. He landed a straight right early in the fourth round but ended up on the mat again while Sonnen continued his attack.

But with the upset seconds away, Silva grabbed Sonnen’s arm and locked it in until the challenger tapped out.

“I’m devastated,” said Sonnen. “At the end of the day you either get your hand raised or you don’t, and I didn’t. I can’t sugarcoat it. I’m heartbroken.”

Before the fight, Sonnen was explicit in criticizing Silva, calling the champion “clueless” and saying he had no fans.

Earlier, Bay Area hero Jon Fitch won over Thiago Alves by unanimous decision in the co-main event.

The win by Fitch, who improved to 26-3, could set him up for an interesting showdown with reigning welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.

It was Alves’ first fight following a 13-month layoff but was hardly the showcase bout he was looking for to use as a springboard to a possible title fight. He was unable to make the weight at Friday’s weigh-in and had to forfeit 20 percent of his purse.

Alves was far from his old self and fell to 22-6.

The fight was actually postponed twice after originally being scheduled for UFC 111. The second delay came after doctors found an abnormality in Alves’ brain, which required surgery.

In heavyweight action, Junior Dos Santos overpowered Roy Nelson to win via decision.

In an equally interesting match-up, former champion Matt Hughes choked out Ricardo Almeida early in the first round to improve to 45-7 in the welterweight division.

The 37-year-old former nine-time welterweight champion won his first bout since he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last May.