Sonnen, who has lost to Anderson Silva and Jon Jones in back-to-back title fights, took the Brazilian Rua down seconds into the fight and kept up the pressure even as “Shogun” got back up to his feet quickly.
Sonnen missed a couple of huge shots late into the fight, but with just 30 seconds left, he was able to trap Rua in a guillotine choke. The former champion tapped at the 4:47 mark of the very first round.
After the fight, Sonnen called out another Brazilian legend, Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva.
Sonnen’s submission victory capped an impressive fight card that saw a lot of quick finishes, including Matt Brown’s 29-second knockout of Mike Pyle in the undercard.
Brown won his sixth consecutive bout after lading an overhand right, then swarming Pyle with more blows to claim the stoppage victory.
In another exciting showdown, Travis Browne survived an early barrage from Alistair Overeem to shockingly knockout the Dutch kickboxer late in the first round.
Overeem nearly stopped Browne early in the bout, showering him with body punches and knees. But Browne managed to hold on, and then landed a perfectly placed front kick to the chin that dropped Overeem to the mat.
The time of stoppage was 4:08 of the first round.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
