Written by Doug Jeffrey Photos by Jaimee Itagaki |
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Most fighters walk in to high-energy music that reverberates through the arenas, but that's not the case for UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. During his walk-in at UFC 82: Pride of a Champion, Silva's musical choice was a soft blend of a contemporary version of an old Bill Wither's song ("Ain't No Sunshine") and another song. While the champ from Curitiba, Brazil, didn't seem to walk in with the same carefree demeanor he did against Rich Franklin, Silva was still light on his feet as he passed through the crowd of 16,431 at the Nationwide Arena here on March 1. When the fight began, it looked like Dan Henderson, the former PRIDE light-heavyweight and middleweight champ, may have figured out a way to stop the Anderson reign. At the 2:45 mark in the opening round of the schedule five-round title fight, Henderson took Anderson to the canvas and stayed in control the entire round. However, while Henderson hand the upper hand and was able to land a few punches, he didn't do extraordinary damage. In Round 2, it was all Silva. He took the Temecula, California, fighter to the ground, dropped some punches to his face, Henderson turned, Silva got his back and shortly later got the victory via rear naked choke. Although the snowy skies turned sunny in Ohio on Sunday, there was no sunshine on this particular weekend for Dan Henderson. Following are the remaining bouts on the card. MAIN CARD Heath Herring defeated Cheick Kongo by split decision. Chris Leben scored a TKO over Alessio Sakara. Yushin Okami knocked out Evan Tanner. Jon Fitch earned a unanimous decision over Chris Wilson. UNDERCARD Andrei Arlovski scored a TKO over Jake O'Brien. Luigi Fioravanti earned a unanimous decision over Luke Cummo. Josh Koscheck defeated Dustin Hazelett. Diego Sanchez, via tapout, defeated David Bielkheden. Jorge Gurgel earned a unanimous decision over John Halverson. | 


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