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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Brown defeats Silva in UFC showdown

Thomas Gerbasi UFC.com

CINCINNATI – Some fighters talk about always wanting to finish their opponents. Saturday night at U.S. Bank Arena, Ohio’s own Matt Brown went above and beyond the call of duty in that attempt against Erick Silva, finally stopping the Brazilian in the third round of their fight and, in the process, making a rock-solid case for a shot at Johny Hendricks’ UFC welterweight title.

After a nose-to-nose staredown during referee Herb Dean’s instructions, Brown went right after Silva with a high kick but wasn’t able to land. Silva tried to respond with a slam, but both fighters went tumbling to the mat.

Silva kept the pressure on, dropping Brown with a kick to the body. The end looked to be near as Silva unleashed punch after punch, but Brown survived the assault. He wasn’t able to get off the mat though, and Silva took his back and tried to sink in a rear naked choke.

Again, Brown survived, and with 2 minutes left he got to his feet and chased after Silva with punches, kicks, elbows, and knees, putting the Brazilian in deep trouble. Silva courageously hung in there, even after getting thrown twice to the canvas, and in the final minute he even began throwing back at Brown before being taken down in the closing seconds.

With it being almost impossible to match the action of the first round, both Brown and Silva did their best to top it in the second, with Brown leaving nothing in the tank as he tried to finish. Silva would stagger but not fall, and his body kicks were still getting Brown’s attention.

Midway through the round, Brown took the fight to the canvas and drilled Silva with strikes from side control.

When he felt he had punished Silva enough, he tried to lock in a choke and when that didn’t work fast enough, he moved into the mount and threw more strikes.

Two more submission attempts followed, but Silva, finding more escapes than Houdini, got loose and made it to the bell.

Brown kept trying to end the fight with each strike that he threw as the third round opened, and almost as remarkable was Silva’s ability to take everything that came his way.

But finally, after a Brown takedown and a ferocious ground-and-pound assault, the now bloodied Silva had taken enough, with referee Herb Dean intervening at the 2:11 mark.

With the win, Brown, who received his jiu-jitsu brown belt after the bout, improves to 21-11; Vila Vehla’s Silva, now 16-5, was removed from the octagon on a stretcher as a precautionary measure.