Anderson Silva’s memorable victory over Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 was the talk of the sporting world. In running his UFC record win streak to 12 with a fifth-round submission, Silva became the first defending champion in company history to win a title fight in the final frame after dropping each of the first four rounds.
But the finish wasn’t enough to keep Silva in the top spot in Yahoo! Sports poll. Four pollsters switched their first-place votes from Silva to Georges St. Pierre after the UFC middleweight champ absorbed a 22-minute beating from Sonnen, and that was enough to erase Silva’s thin lead and shift St. Pierre back into the top spot
The UFC welterweight champion was named first on 11 of 19 ballots (down from 20 participants in July) and claimed eight-second place votes for 182 points. Silva took the remaining eight firsts and a mix of second-, third- and fourth-place votes for a total of 171.
A few notes about this month’s results:
• Last month, Brock Lesnar moved WEC bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz out of the No. 10 spot by virtue of Lesnar’s win over Shane Carwin. This month, though, Cruz, who defends his title on Aug. 18 against Joe Benavidez, took back No. 10.
• Sonnen proved that you can win by losing. The Oregonian had never previously claimed a top-10 vote, but placed 15th with seven points after dominating Silva in four of the five rounds. Considering that his UFC 117 performance came after consecutive wins over Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt, Sonnen has earned his spot as the world’s No. 2 middleweight (no disrespect to Vitor Belfort, who has not yet fought often enough at 185 to merit that tag).
• Where to rank Jon Fitch? He placed 12th this month with 26 points after defeating Thiago Alves on Aug. 7. Twenty-one of those points came from a third, a fourth and a fifth-place vote, but 13 pollsters didn’t name Fitch at all. On one hand, the only time Fitch ever fought a ranked fighter (St. Pierre), he suffered a 50-43 beatdown. On the other hand, he’s 21-1 in his past 22 fights. Barring unforeseen circumstances, with Fitch on the sideline waiting to see how St. Pierre’s December fight with Josh Koscheck pans out, he’s likely to remain on the outside looking in.
• Trivia note: This month marks the third anniversary of the Y! poll. The inaugural rankings: 1. Fedor Emelianenko; 2. Mauricio Rua; 3. Quinton Jackson; 4. Dan Henderson; 5. Anderson Silva; 6. St. Pierre; 7. Chuck Liddell; 8 (tie). Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira; 8 (tie) B.J. Penn; 10. Randy Couture. Emelianenko, St. Pierre and Silva are the only fighters to claim the top spot in that time; those three, plus Penn, are the only fighters who have remained in the top 10 without dropping out since 2007
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