Sonnen chokes ‘Shogun’, eyes shot at crown

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 yesterday to gain another title shot.

Sonnen put up a remarkable showing to whip Rua, a former light heavyweight champion, and bounce back from a couple of failed title bids against former middleweight titlist Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Jon “Bones” Jones.

The end came when Sonnen hatched a trap and caught Rua on a guillotine choke for the win that netted him the Submission-of-the-Night honors.

Sonnen thus improved to 29-13-1 while Rua absorbed his second straight setback and dropped to 21-8.

Also posting victories 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 stoppages.

Browne had a beautiful crane-kick coounter that flattened Alistair Overeem while Brown came through by starching former training partner Mike Pyle in 29 seconds.