Silva is UFC 82 winner
COLUMBUS, Ohio — UFC champion Anderson Silva choked out former Pride title-holder Dan Henderson at 4:52 of the second round to claim mixed martial arts middleweight supremacy at UFC 82 on Saturday night.
After a cautious opening, Henderson took Silva down two minutes in and controlled him on the ground the rest of the round. He did not do that much damage, other than some hammer fists, but the champion looked mortal for the first time in a while.
A more aggressive Silva stalked Henderson in the second round and, after a clinch on the fence, the two started swinging. Henderson got the worst of it and went down, eventually giving up his back to Silva after the Brazilian fired a barrage of punches from above.
The Brazilian then sank in a rear-naked choke. With the clock counting down to the end of the round, Henderson tried to hang on but had to tap.
Silva improved to 21-4 (6-0 in UFC). Henderson is 22-7.
“My hat’s off to Anderson Silva,” Henderson said.
Henderson, 37, lost his bid for the UFC light-heavyweight title in September when he lost a decision to Quinton (Rampage) Jackson at UFC 75.
In the co-main event, Heath (The Texas Crazy Horse) Herring won a split decision over France’s Cheick Kongo in a rough-and-tumble heavyweight bout that was short on style but still had its moments as the two big men wrestled and rolled.
Herring improved to 28-13 with one no contest while Kongo, continuing an up-and-down UFC career, fell to 21-4-1. Herring said he had expected a stand-up battle and apologized for the ground fighting.
Mark (The Hammer) Coleman, a Columbus native, was honored during Saturday’s show, becoming the fifth fighter to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Coleman, 43, then announced he would take on former WWE star Brock Lesnar in Minnesota this year.
The UFC also confirmed Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell will headline UFC 85 in London on June 7. No opponent was identified, though reports have linked Liddell with Mauricio (Shogun) Rua.
Earlier, two former UFC champions returned to the cage with differing results.
Former heavyweight title-holder Andrei Arlovski scored a workmanlike second-round TKO over (Irish) Jake O’Brien in a bout that could be his UFC finale. But former middleweight champion Evan Tanner was unable to solve the power of Japanese southpaw Yushin Okami and suffered a second-round knockout.