Liddell rebounds from knockdowns to win

Chuck Liddell scored a decision victory over Wanderlei Silva on the Ultimate Fighting Championship card at Mandalay Bay on Saturday night in a fight that has been anticipated in the mixed martial arts world for several years.

Both fighters had guaranteed knockouts in recent days, and even UFC president Dana White had joked at Thursday’s news conference when asked why he didn’t try to make it a five-round bout that, “This fight isn’t even going three rounds.”

But despite both fighters landing their share of huge punches, neither could finish.

Liddell was the closest in the third round. He had the former Pride Fighting Championships star tired and hurt but ran out of time shortly after scoring a strong takedown.

Liddell outboxed Silva in a first round that saw the Brazilian surprisingly cautious. In the second round, “The Axe Murderer” started living up to his nickname, throwing flurry after flurry of power punches.

That style suited the counter-punching Liddell perfectly.

Despite being knocked down twice in the round, Liddell landed enough quality shots in the round to win it on two judges’ scorecards.

Liddell controlled the third round, much as he had in the first, though Silva again was aggressive.

The main event featured far less excitement as Georges St. Pierre dominated Matt Hughes to win the interim welterweight title by second round submission in a matchup of two former undisputed champions.

St. Pierre now will fight current champion Matt Serra to unify the belt, unless Serra’s back injury proves to be more serious than thought, in which case, St. Pierre would become the undisputed champ.

After being awarded the belt in the octagon, St. Pierre took it off and gave credit to Serra.

“It’s good for the collection, but the real champion is Matt Serra, so I will take this belt off,” he said. “I will get my belt back, but until then I don’t consider myself the real champion.”

For the second straight fight, St. Pierre outwrestled a wrestling specialist. He had spent time since his last UFC win against Josh Koscheck training for the Canadian Olympic Wrestling trials, and his superiority on the mat was evident.

St. Pierre executed several takedowns and then controlled Hughes from top position before eventually setting up an armbar and finishing the fight.

Hughes was gracious in defeat, calling St. Pierre the better fighter.

The same could not be said for Melvin Guillard, who twice tried to go after Rich Clementi after being submitted in the first round.

The two fighters, both raised in Louisiana, have been engaged in a war of words for several years, and it boiled over after the fight. Clementi taunted his defeated opponent briefly, causing Guillard to go after him momentarily.

During his post-fight interview, Clementi continued the trash talk, and Guillard again was restrained.

Lyoto Machida spoiled the anticipated UFC debut of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou with a second-round submission.

Machida had built an 11-0 MMA record largely on decision victories but was impressive in his stoppage Saturday.

Eddie Sanchez scored a third-round technical knockout of Soa Palelei in the only heavyweight fight on the card.

On the undercard, James Irvin won by disqualification when he couldn’t continue after Luiz Cane landed a knee while Irvin was on the ground.

Manny Gamburyan bounced back from the shoulder injury to submit Nate Mohr in the first round. Dean Lister and Mark Bocek each scored victories by unanimous decision, and Roan Carneiro stopped Tony DeSouza with a barrage of punches in the second round.