I didn't think Chael Sonnen was a serious threat to Anderson Silva, didn't think their fight would get out of the first round and didn't think Sonnen could even come close to backing up all that ridiculous trash talk he spewed in the run-up to their UFC 117 fight on Saturday night.
But while Silva did manage to pull off a fifth-round submission victory, I now believe Sonnen has to be considered the No. 2 middleweight in the world, and I also believe the next middleweight title fight should be Silva-Sonnen 2. No one had ever even come close to beating Silva in the UFC, and Sonnen had victory within his grasp on Saturday night. He deserves another chance.
You know Silva and Sonnen are the top two middleweights in the world. Find out about the rest of the Top 10 below.
(Editor's note: The individual fighter's ranking the last time we did middleweights are in parentheses.)
1. Anderson Silva (1): The champion had one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the sport in beating Sonnen, and he deserves a lot of credit for that. But it's also clear that there are weaknesses in Silva's game, and that a good wrestler can exploit those weaknesses. I'd pick Silva to win again in a rematch, but Sonnen showed that the gap between them is nowhere near as great as we all thought.
2. Chael Sonnen (4): Sonnen is now 25-11-1 in his MMA career, and seven of those 11 losses are by submission. That will always be his greatest weakness, and I think if there's a rematch Silva will probably win by submission again. But I hope Sonnen gets the chance to prove me wrong.
3. Jake Shields (2): For now I'm keeping Shields in my middleweight rankings even though the UFC plans to move him back down to welterweight. TERA Gold Shields left Strikeforce as its middleweight champion, and during the fourth round of Sonnen-Silva, I started thinking to myself that if Sonnen won, a Shields-Sonnen UFC middleweight title fight would make a lot of sense. Instead we'll soon see Shields back at 170 pounds, and we'll drop Shields from our middleweight Top 10.
4. Vitor Belfort (3): I'd love to watch Belfort fight Silva because I think the fight would be guaranteed fireworks, but on merit I'm not convinced that Belfort really deserves it. Belfort has only fought once since re-signing with the UFC a year ago, and although that one fight was a spectacular first-round knockout of Rich Franklin, it was at a catchweight of 195 pounds, and Belfort struggled even to make that weight. If I'm Joe Silva I tell Belfort he has to beat a Top 10 middleweight and then he can get the winner of the Silva-Sonnen rematch.
5. Demian Maia (5): Maia only needed half a round last year to get Sonnen to tap to a triangle choke, and that win looks a lot more impressive now that we've seen how dominant Sonnen can be on the ground. RIFT Platinum On the other hand, Maia looked significantly less impressive against Silva and Nate Marquardt than Sonnen did.
6. Nate Marquardt (6): After losing to Sonnen in February, Marquardt will try to bounce back against Rousimar Palhares in the main event of next month's Fight Night. That's a fight Marquardt should definitely win.
7. Dan Henderson (7): Much like Shields, I'm keeping Henderson in the middleweight class for now even though he's planning to move out of the class. (Shields beat Henderson at 185 pounds, and now Shields is moving down to 170 while Henderson is moving up to 205.) rift gold I think Henderson should have stayed at middleweight and fought in that Strikeforce middleweight tournament we've been hearing so much about, but instead we're probably going to see him take on Renato Sobral in a rematch of their 2000 fight in Japan.
8. Yushin Okami (9): A lot of people dislike Okami's fighting style, RIFT Platinum but I thought that his victory over Mark Munoz was a textbook-perfect example of the way to avoid takedowns and beat a great wrestler. Okami-Belfort for the No. 1 contender spot would make a lot of sense.
9. Jorge Santiago (10): American fans often overlook Santiago, the Sengoku champion, but his August 22 fight with Kazuo Misaki will air live on HDNet and will be worth staying up late or waking up early to watch.
10. Robbie Lawler (8): With Shields leaving and Henderson moving up, Lawler is the best middleweight Strikeforce has. Unfortunately, Rift Gold he's coming off a loss in a 195-pound catchweight fight and isn't in Strikeforce's middleweight title picture at the moment, but if Strikeforce ever gets its middleweight division sorted out, I expect Lawler to end up holding the belt.
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