UFC 148 Odds in Las Vegas: Anderson Silva defends title vs Chael Sonnen

Saturday, July 07, 2012

by WagerWeb Sportsbook

Saturday night’s UFC 148 card is headlined by a middleweight title bout, and rematch, between long-time middleweight king Anderson Silva and top contender Chael Sonnen, with "the Spider" a -300 favorite on WagerWeb Online Sportsbook.

This fight actually was originally set to occur at UFC 147, held last month in Silva’s native Brazil. But the UFC had trouble at the time finding a suitable venue for what it thought would be the highest-attended UFC card in history. So it was moved to UFC 148 on Saturday in Vegas.

These two fought an epic bout at UFC 117 in August 2010. Silva had won the middleweight title back in 2006 and hadn’t been really challenged since then. He was a huge favorite over Sonnen but the challenged dominated the bout for the first four rounds and about three minutes into the fifth. He was about two minutes from being the middleweight champ and in pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the UFC. Really, Sonnen was the first aggressor in a fight with Silva. But Sonnen’s glaring weakness is submission defense, and he left himself open to a submission while in full guard. Silva pounced, clamping on a triangle armbar to elicit the tap out at 3:10 of the fifth round. It was truly a shocking end.

Silva (31-4) has easily handled Vitor Belfort by first-round knockout at UFC 126 and Yushin Okami by second-round technical knockout at UFC 134 since beating Sonnen. Silva is now 14-0 in the UFC and has defended his title a record nine times. Sonnen (27-11-1) climbed back up the ranks with a second-round submission of Brian Stann at UFC 136 and followed that with a unanimous decision victory over Michael Bisping in January at UFC on Fox 2.

Silva is widely regarded as the best fighter to ever live. Sonnen is a high-level athlete, but his résumé doesn’t compare to Silva’s and it likely never will but an upset is very possible. Sonnen successfully landed a takedown in each round of the first fight and landed 320 total strikes in becoming the first fighter in UFC history to knock the Brazilian down, which he did in the fifth frame with a straight left hand. At times Sonnen lacks finishing power, as evidenced by the fact that not one of those 320 strikes landed in August 2010 was powerful enough to end the fight. Silva has even turned to pointing that out in the buildup to the rematch.

Along with imposing his will on the mat, Sonnen was surprisingly able to get the better of the standing exchanges with Silva in their initial encounter. It is probably unrealistic to expect a similar occurrence this time around given the Silva’s excellent use of range and varied striking arsenal. The lack of a stout defensive wrestling base remains Silva’s biggest flaw, and it is also why many people believe Sonnen can finish what he started nearly two years ago. In reality, the only way Sonnen wins is via a ground-it-out wrestling affair.

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Category

• Boxing and UFC

Tags

anderson silva - chael sonnen - vitor belfort - yushin okami