Next week will mark 10 years since the last time Anderson Silva won an MMA fight while still a UFC champion.
Silva was middleweight champion when he moved up to light heavyweight to fight Stephan Bonnar in the UFC 153 main event on short notice. Naturally, his 185-pound belt wasn’t on the line. His next fight after he took out Bonnar with ease, he lost the title to Chris Weidman.
That leaves his rematch with Chael Sonnen in July 2012 as Silva’s final successful title defense in a run that had 10 of them – and the longest title reign in UFC history.
These days, Silva is in the boxing world – and later this month has a massive opportunity against Jake Paul in an Oct. 29 pay-per-view headliner.
Ahead of that fight, check out Silva’s second fight against Sonnen in the video above. In their first meeting, Sonnen dominated for more than four rounds before Silva caught him with a Hail Mary submission. The rematch started with a Sonnen takedown just six seconds in, but eventually had its tide turned.
