Silva KOs Sonnen in second round to highlight UFC 148 card

Silva, however, was not interested in waiting until the final moments to extend his UFC-record winning streak this time.

Silva knocked out Sonnen 1:55 into the second round at the MGM Grand Garden to retain the UFC middleweight title in the main event of UFC 148, which shattered the U.S. record for live gate at a mixed martial arts event with $7 million and is expected to be one of the biggest pay-per-view fights in the sport’s history.

"It’s very important when you lose a fight, you don’t say things like, ‘The better man won tonight,’ " Sonnen said. "The better man wins every time, and he did tonight."

After Sonnen dominated the first round, securing a takedown seconds in and holding the champion on the mat for the duration, Silva stiffened up his takedown defense.

Sonnen again shot in early in the second round, but Silva was able to remain standing against the cage. Eventually, he got away from the fence, perhaps skirting the rules with an apparent grab of Sonnen’s shorts. After a fast-paced exchange, Sonnen whiffed on a spinning back elbow and tumbled to the ground.

Silva didn’t waste the opportunity, rushing in to land a crushing knee to Sonnen’s midsection. The champion followed with a series of big punches to put an exclamation mark on the fight and end what had been an emotional buildup to it.

"Chael came prepared and came 100 percent and did what he did best, which was take me down," Silva said. "I was prepared for that. The only difference was I wasn’t hurt this time, and I knew I could come back in the second round and do what I had to do."

Though the raucous crowd included many Brazilian fans angry at Sonnen for comments he had made about the country, Silva tried to bury the hatchet.

He called Sonnen over and tried to calm the boos.

"Me and Chael working hard to put on a show for all the people here," said Silva, speaking in English. "I don’t have nothing (against) Chael. This is a sport. This is UFC. Let’s show Brazilians have manners, and I want everyone to applaud Chael."

The win was the 10th successful title defense for Silva, easily the most in UFC history. He also improved to 15-0 in the organization.

Also on the card, the Tito Ortiz era came to an end with another controversial decision loss to Forrest Griffin in a battle of former light heavyweight champions.

Ortiz, one of the earliest stars of the organization and an inductee into the UFC Hall of Fame on Saturday morning, thought he had ended his career with a victory after three hard-fought rounds.

In fact, Griffin exited the cage after the final bell and walked toward the locker room.

He returned to hear his name announced as the winner by unanimous decision. It was the third fight between the two, with each owning a split decision win.

"I’m going to be linked to Tito forever. We have had three really close fights," Griffin said. "I don’t know who won that fight, to be honest. I’m going to need to watch that back."

Griffin won the first two rounds on all three scorecards.

"I thought me dropping him would give me more points, but I wasn’t looking for points – I was looking to knock him out, try to take him down and beat the (expletive) out of him," Ortiz said.

Cung Le achieved a longtime goal and earned the first UFC victory of his career. The 40-year-old former Strikeforce middleweight champion would not commit to whether his unanimous decision over Patrick Cote would be the final fight of his career.

In his first fight since dropping to welterweight, Demian Maia earned a strange stoppage victory over Dong Hyun Kim.

Kim looked to be injured on a takedown and appeared to tap out from the pain, though Maia took full advantage, jumping on Kim and landing several shots to prompt the fight to be stopped 47 seconds into the first round.

Chad Mendes rebounded from the first loss of his career in a featherweight title bout against Jose Aldo by making quick work of Cody McKenzie, knocking him out in 31 seconds.

Mike Easton opened the pay-per-view card with a unanimous decision over Ivan Menjivar.

All five preliminary card fights went the distance.

Melvin Guillard got back in the win column after two losses with a unanimous decision over Fabricio Camoes in the most entertaining bout of the bunch.

Guillard fell into trouble several times against the submission ace, but proved too strong and fast in the stand-up.

Khabib Nurmagomedov remained unbeaten in 18 fights, including two in the UFC, by winning all three rounds against Gleison Tibau. Shane Roller won a unanimous verdict over Las Vegan John Alessio, and Rafaello Oliveira edged Yoislandy Izquierdo.

In the only preliminary card fight that didn’t feature lightweights, Constantinos Phillippou got through a nasty eye poke and earned a unanimous decision over Riki Fukuda.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.