UFC 117 Post-Fight Analysis: Anderson Silva Reminds Fans Why This Is the Greatest Sport on Earth

My petite and polite wife was up like a shot. She's inches from the television, screaming her head off. "Oh my God. Anderson! Kill him! Choke him. Choke him!" It was that kind of fight. No amount of breeding, class, or dignity can defeat the power of the UFC. If you ever need to show someone a fight to explain what it is about this sport that moves you, that stirs the primal passions inside, simply pop in a DVD of this show.

After losing 22 minutes of his seventh title defense, Anderson Silva looked all but helpless. Chael Sonnen has talked a riduculous amount of trash leading up to the fight. More frustrating, surely, for the sport's best fighter-Sonnen was backing it up. He knocked the champion down with a left hand in the first round. He deposited him on his butt in every round. According to CompuStrike, Sonnen was outlanding Silva 218-11 through three rounds.

As the fifth and final round opened the impossible seemed a real possibility. Sonnen had only to survive to pull off the biggest upset in UFC history. And then, it was Sonnen being Sonnen, beating himself in the biggest fight of his life. Seconds before the triangle choke that ended his night I tweeted that he was begging to be armbarred. Perhaps looking for an exciting finish, Sonnen got careless. He left his arms wide open, recklessly attacking the champion who lay prone beneath him. Like a true champion, Silva made him pay.

And we celebrated in my house. Sleeping kids be damned-it was a moment worthy of the shouts we couldn't contain. One of the greatest champions I've ever seen pulled of a bonafide miracle. I was proud to be witness to it, triumph trumping tragedy in the final seconds. What an amazing moment.