MANILA, Philippines – Chael Sonnen dominated Mauricio "Shogun" Rua with an impressive first round submission victory in UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Sonnen at the TD Garden Sunday (Manila time) for a win that sends him back into another title crack.
Written off after a couple of failed title bids against former middleweight titlist Anderson "The Spider" Silva and one at the hands of Jon "Bones" Jones, Sonnen made his critics eat their words and came through with a submission to remember against Rua, a former light heavy champion.
The end came for Rua when Sonnen hatched a trap and caught the former in a guillotine choke for the win that won Submission of the Night.
Sonnen improves to 29-13-1; Rua, who has lost two straight for the first time in his career, falls to 21-8.
Also emerhing winners were heavyweight Travis Browne, bantamweight Urijah Faber, welterweight Matt Brown, middleweight John Howard, lightweight Michael Johnson, bantamweight Michael McDonald and featherweight Conor McGregor.
McDonald's win also picked up a submission bonus for his triangle-armbar of Brad Pickett while Browne and Brown both earned KO of the Night for their first-round finishes.
Browne had a beautiful crane-kick comeback that flattened Alistair Overeem; Brown came through by starching former training partner Mike Pyle in 29 seconds.