The Brazilian Tap and the Need for a Rematch

For those who don't remember the decided tap in the Filho fight.

After he spent four rounds dominating the consensus pound-for-pound king, Chael Sonnen (24-11-1 MMA, 4-4 UFC, #2 IWMMAR) made a mistake. He let an arm slip out of the guard and got caught in a triangle. It happens to plenty of great fighters, and doesn’t diminish the dominance he had earlier in the fight, which certainly seems a substantial justification (on its own) for a rematch with Anderson Silva (27-4 MMA, 12-0 UFC, #1 IWMMAR). But the post fight fallout, which resulted from Sonnen’s attempt at a pseudo-tap, was thoroughly unnecessary.

I had some correspondence online with some folks who thought that Sonnen’s tap was going to be a big controversy, that Josh Rosenthal’s stoppage was suspect. Upon review, most of the community seems to agree that Sonnen’s tap resulted in a legitimate submission and a win for (statistically) the greatest champion in the history of the UFC. There’s an important conversation to be had about whether Silva is on the decline, as he does seem decidedly less impressive than he was at the start of his unbelievable run as UFC champion.

I like Chael Sonnen more than most. He’s incredibly charismatic, he’s funny, he’s friendly with fans and with writers, and even when he says stupid stuff, it does seem like he understands that it’s for the purpose of hyping the fight. But the one thing I don’t like is “the boy who cried ‘I didn’t tap.’”

When we get into the hype of the rematch, which seems inevitable at this point, we will hear about the controversy of the stoppage, just like we heard about Mazzagatti’s late stoppage in the first Lesnar vs. Mir fight. The thing is, this is the second time that Sonnen has pulled this stunt in a title fight. The first was against Paulo Filho, where Sonnen had an early lead and then gave a quick Brazilian tap followed by loud protest at the stoppage when Filho was about to rip his arm off. Now, in that fight, a rematch was warranted, because Sonnen had been putting on a great show against Filho up until he got caught, and the same is true of the Silva fight, but the reality is, in both situations, Sonnen attempted to escape the submission by slipping one by his opponent and the referee. He failed twice, but it’s still far from endearing.

Still, if he doesn’t get his rematch, it will be a travesty. He deserves it. He dominated the man that many consider the best fighter in the world for more than twenty minutes, and he deserves another shot at the belt. He proved that he’s a great matchup, stylistically, for Silva, and while Silva will likely not take the rematch soon because of an injury, Anderson definitely needs to show that he brings more to that matchup the second time he faces it. I didn’t believe Matt Lindland when he said that Chael was “the best athlete in the division, bar none.” Turns out, he was about right; we were just a little slow to catch up. Chael beat Paulo and went on to become #2 in the world.

There’s a lot of appeal to the rematch, regardless of your take on the tap. Sonnen is a dominant fighter and there aren’t many serious challengers left for Anderson to face. Vitor Belfort (19-8 MMA, 7-4 UFC, #5 IWMMAR) is still on a lot of minds, from what I can tell, and that might be a good top contender’s bout for Chael. Given that Vitor has been up for a shot with Anderson and forced to pull out twice, he’s certainly credible. There’s some history between Vitor and Team Quest (he’s 1-1, with a loss to Henderson back in Pride and that brutal knockout of Lindland at Affliction) which could make for some interesting backstory, though that’s pretty inconsequential given his training at Xtreme Couture. Still, the matchup is stylistically interesting, as it’s a continued test for both Sonnen’s submission defense and his striking (which will remain relevant in a second fight with Silva) and an interesting test for Belfort improvement, as his record against wrestlers is iffy. So long as Anderson is on the DL, that seems like a logical matchup to build hype for that next middleweight title bout.