Silva Submits Lutter; Cro Cop and Rampage Score TKOs at UFC 67

LAS VEGAS, February 3 – Travis Lutter not only lost a chance at the UFC Middleweight Championship and disappointed fight fans at the Mandalay Bay Events Center by coming in overweight for his UFC 67 main event bout tonight, he also succeeded in making the champion, Anderson Silva, angry, resulting in a second round submission win for ‘The Spider’, who survived some rocky first round moments to move to 3-0 in the Octagon and 18-4 overall.

“I’m a standup fighter, but my jiu-jitsu skills can stand up to anyone in the weight class,” said Silva, whose first two UFC wins – over Rich Franklin and Chris Leben – were by first round stoppages. “You saw that by what I did to Travis Lutter.”

The fight was no walk in the park for the champion though.

Greeted with boos for his failure to make weight, Lutter stalked and looked for a takedown early on while Silva effortlessly moved away and out of danger. Trying for a flying knee moments later, Silva’s attack was muffled by Lutter, who got the takedown of the off-balance Brazilian. Put to the mat for the first time in his UFC tenure, Silva fought off Lutter’s attack and stood up, only to have the Texan grab his foot and put him down again. This time, Lutter was more aggressive offensively, but so was Silva, as he fought back from the bottom. Eventually, with one minute left, Lutter got to side control and then to the full mount. Lutter pounded away, but Silva weathered the storm and stood up, drawing a roar from the crowd. Lutter stayed on the mat, drawing boos as the round ended.

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