I didn't buy the UFC hype and Stann's record isn't exactly what you'd call "impressive." He lost to Phil Davis, FCOL. I mean seriously. Are we even arguing about this?
Yeah, Stann lost to Phil Davis. Davis sucks! He's 9-1 with his loss coming to the #2 light-heavyweight in the world.
Stann has since moved to middleweight which suits him much better size-wise, though he was the WEC light-heavyweight champ for short time. Coming into the Sonnen fight, his record was 11-3.
Styles make fights. Stann lost to Davis because Stann's biggest weakness is Davis's biggest strength (wrestling). And last night, Bisping had awesome take-down defense and Sonnen, an Olympic class wrestler, still took him down multiple times. Bisping's guard was also excellent and Sonnen had difficulty keeping him down and passing the guard until the 3rd.
Physically, Sonnen looked as good for this fight as any in his career:
2009 - Sonnen beatdown Miller, Okami, and Marquardt (who tested positive for illegal substances and is now out of the UFC) within the next 8 months
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2012 - day before fighting Bisping
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If anything, Sonnen looks bigger now. I met Sonnen in person just before he started cutting for last night's fight. He was huge. Look at his pics throughout his career, he's only gotten in better shape.
To say he's off the roids now like he used to be and that's why he didn't dominate last night is incredibly stupid. Sorry.