himself.

Sonnen had effectively moved past the disastrous end to his bout at UFC 117 with a solid win over Brian Stann and showed some toughness by overcoming a slow start against Michael Bisping back in January.

With all the confidence in the world, Sonnen seemed destined to learn from his mistakes and capture the UFC title that had eluded him in 2010. But once again, a disaster ensued in what should've been a moment of triumph.

Just take a look at Sonnen's performance at UFC 148. The challenger stormed into Silva and immediately secured a takedown. The ground fighting that followed seemed a bit odd.

Silva seemed almost content to lay there and hold on, waiting for a stand up from the referee. There was a moment where it seemed hepractically dared Sonnen to take a submission attempt while offering little resistance from the bottom.

Sonnen was even able to secure the mount position with little over a minute left in the round. Instead of sitting up to rain down power punches and possibly secure a first round stoppage, Sonnen just lay there. The challenger had already maneuvered into the most dominant position.

Perhaps the recent quotes from Dana White give a little insight as to why Sonnen may have chose to hold on instead of attack.

"In that first round, when I was on top of him, and I was hitting him with those big elbows, I felt him break. I broke him in that first round. He came back in that second round and destroyed me. I've never seen