That's Chael Sonnen after the fight. All bruised and battered, and as he said, "Relieved that it's over." Of course, "The Chael Sonnen fight" was supposed to be "The Nate Marquardt fight." Sonnen was a 5-to-1 underdog, and Marquardt was primed for a shot at the title. That's not how it played out. Sonnen said afterward he came into the fight, "Knowing I was going to get beat up."
"I just had to make sure he got beat up worse," he said.
And that's actually exactly what happened. As you can see, Sonnen got beat up, but Marquardt got beat up a little bit worse. It was an all-out war. Even ignorant fans like me could sense that something special was happening. Sonnen attacked right from the start, showing no fear of the favorite, and getting him on the ground almost immediately. The fans, most of whom cheered for Marquardt throughout the fight, were in shock. But Sonnen just kept attacking In the second round, in particular, Sonnen landed a number of punches that made you assume Marquardt was about to get knocked out. And an exhausted Marquardt, to his credit, kept hanging on.
By the end of the second round, both fighters were exhausted and covered in each other's blood, and even though Sonnen was clearly winning, Marquardt's resolve left open the possibility of an upset in the third and final round. Anyone that endures the type of beating he did—and keeps fighting—can never be counted out.
And Marquardt almost won it. At one point in the third round, the tables turned, and Sonnen got caught in a chokehold that very nearly had him unconscious. Here's how our MMA blog, Bloody Elbow,
described it: "Chael shoots in and is caught in a deep choke. It's close to finished, Sonnen is turning purple..." And really, on the big screen, you could see his face turning purple, and everyone assumed it was over. And then at the last second, Sonnen got out of it, and survived the rest of the round. Bleeding, and nearly collapsing from exhaustion, the biggest underdog of the night mustered a modest celebration and mumbled his way through the interview.
It feels weird to describe a bloody, vicious fight as beautiful, but it sort of was. The determination of both fighters was just unbelievable, and neither one ever quit. Not Marquardt when he was being repeatedly bludgeoned in the second, and not Sonnen, when he turned purple and probably should have passed out. Somehow, both men kept killing themselves, and it showed. Strange as it sounds, there's something beautiful about that. It was a fight I'll never forget. Something to tell my friends about.
We got 3 pride fighters coming up and I am praying all 3 win.
. vids?
"What did that asshole say?" Yep, you heard it here folks. 
Back when BigDyl used to run rampart, there were endless amounts of arguments between PRIDE and UFC. As we all know, weve seen these 2 come together and what was the outcome, hm? Which fighters dominated the most? Truth be told, I route for PRIDE fighters more than UFC fighters just cuz I believe they are more 'exciting.' However, DREAM is here and well, it is pretty damn close to PRIDE, so I cant help to feel the same way for DREAM until they are tested. However, this time, Strikeforce is here to help with that testing.
