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History · 2012 · UFC on FOX: Evans vs Davis · Chael Sonnen vs Michael Bisping
From the tape · 28 Jan 2012

Chael Sonnen vs Michael Bisping

UFC on FOX: Evans vs Davis · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Result

Chael Sonnen beat Michael Bisping

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
MiddleweightCo-MainReferee · John McCarthy

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

CS
Red corner ChaelSonnenTeam Quest · West Linn, Oregon
VSOn the tape
MB
Blue corner MichaelBisping“The Count”HB Ultimate · Manchester
Middleweight3 rounds28 Jan 2012
The story going in
  • Averages 2.8 more takedowns per 15 minutes than Bisping.
  • Comes in on a 4-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 8 of 12 UFC wins.
29-15-1
Record
30-9
34
Age
−2 yr32
6' 1"
Height
6' 1"
73″
Reach
+2″75″
Southpaw
Stance
Orthodox
9
UFC bouts
+615
1/520% of wins
Finishes
+47%8/1267% of wins
Team Quest
Gym
HB Ultimate
West Linn, Oregon
From
Manchester
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Chael Sonnen24 sig landed
HEAD50%12 of 32BODY38%9 of 11LEGS12%3 of 4
Michael Bisping13 sig landed
HEAD54%7 of 31BODY38%5 of 8LEGS8%1 of 1
24 of 47
Sig.
strikes
13 of 40
2 of 4
Take-
downs
0 of 1
1:51
Control
1:37
Distance 7Clinch 11Ground 6
Where it
happened
Distance 8Clinch 5Ground 0
Judges · this round · Sonnen firstClay Goodman10–9Brad Odum10–9Otto Torriero10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Chael Sonnen11 sig landed
HEAD73%8 of 34BODY18%2 of 4LEGS9%1 of 1
Michael Bisping15 sig landed
HEAD53%8 of 31BODY40%6 of 8LEGS7%1 of 1
11 of 39
Sig.
strikes
15 of 40
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 1
1:05
Control
2:19
Distance 6Clinch 4Ground 1
Where it
happened
Distance 6Clinch 9Ground 0
Judges · this round · Sonnen firstClay Goodman10–9Brad Odum9–10Otto Torriero9–10
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Chael Sonnen5 sig landed
HEAD80%4 of 10BODY20%1 of 1LEGS0%0 landed
Michael Bisping2 sig landed
HEAD100%2 of 6BODY0%0 landedLEGS0%0 landed
5 of 11
Sig.
strikes
2 of 6
1 of 1
Take-
downs
1 of 1
4:34
Control
0:15
Distance 1Clinch 0Ground 4
Where it
happened
Distance 0Clinch 0Ground 2
Judges · this round · Sonnen firstClay Goodman10–9Brad Odum10–9Otto Torriero10–9

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · John McCarthy
Chael SonnenMichael Bisping
Official totals — Chael Sonnen first
JudgeTotal
Clay Goodman30–27
Brad Odum29–28
Otto Torriero29–28

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 7 scored, Chael Sonnen first · unofficial

Ray Hui MMAFighting.com30–27
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com29–28
MM AJunkie.com29–28
Fight Metric.com29–28
Freddie DeFreitas Sherdog.com29–29
TJ DeSantis Sherdog.com28–29
MM AWeekly.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Sonnen · 47%29-28 Bisping · 28%30-27 Sonnen · 14%30-27 Bisping · 4%

257 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Chael Sonnen

3.81takedowns / 15 min
3.81 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.05 / 15m
6.46 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
2.44 / 15m
59%
ACCURACY
43%
0.40 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.30 / 15m

Michael Bisping

1.05takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.32 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked roster-wide

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Chael Sonnen↓ −0.9pp
open 78.6%close 77.7%
Michael Bisping↑ +0.9pp
open 21.4%close 22.3%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Chael Sonnen opened at 78.6% and closed at 77.7% (−0.9pp), with Michael Bisping moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Chael Sonnen-440-38078.6%77.7%−0.9pp
Michael Bisping35034021.4%22.3%+0.9pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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