Your Obligatory 'Was the Bisping-Siva Decision Controversial?' Post

UFC 110's co-main event was a high wire act of tension as Michael Bisping and Wanderlei Silva fought a close bout with Silva pulling off a 29-28 victory from all three judges.

In the aftermath of Michael Bisping's unanimous decision loss, he voiced his belief that he won the fight saying,

"It was a close fight. Personally, I think I won rounds one and two. Congratulations to him. Full credit to him on winning the fight. Personally, apart from the guillotine, and I got dropped in the third round, but apart from the guillotine attempt off the takedown in the second round, as far as round two, I really didn't have any offense come my way. I felt I clearly won those two rounds. I'm a little annoyed, you know?"

Did the judges get the decision right, or did is Bisping correct and he was the victim of a poor decision? Fortuantely the MMA community has the excellent statistical work of Fight Metric to break down the fight.

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

Fight Metric breakdown of the second round after the jump.

Reading Bisping's post fight comments and it is fair to assume that he believed he won round two. The round was certainly close and warrants detailed examination as most observers agree that "The Count" won round one while "The Axe Murderer" won round two.

Fight Metric Striking Report for Round 2:

Accoridng to Fight Metric Silva landed more total shots with an equal output of power strikes. Bisping is only superior in strikes to the head, nine of which are jabs.

Fight Metric Grappling Report for Round 2:

Bisping successfully completed two takedowns while Silva only completed one. However, Wanderlei attempted a high quality guillotine choke.

Fight Metric Round 2 Conclusion:

Fight Metric's Conclusion for the round was a narrow 10-9 for Silva.

Looking over the data and it appears that neither fighter mounted a great deal of offense. While most of Bisping's strikes were directed at the head, Wanderlei's strikes were more diverse landing power shots to the head, body and legs. "The Count" out jabbed his opponent but the data indicates that the striking slightly favored Silva (though judges usually favor strikes to the head more. Thus it is easy to see this as a push or slightly favoring Bisping). Takedowns slightly favored Bisping and he did move to side control but he did little damage from said position. The determining factor of the second round appears to be the guillotine choke from Silva. WKR has long held that dominant submission attempts deserve to be valued very highly and in this case the judges seem to agree.

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Fight Metric's data for the entire fight shows a close fight but ultimately backs up the judges' decision. For more analysis check out CompuStrike's data on the fight.