It was the second consecutive win for Sylvia (26-6) after a two-year stretch that saw him lose four of five fights. "I'm back now," Sylvia said. "I've been back."
Pudzianowski from the start sought to clinch with his opponent and look for takedowns, but Sylvia stuffed most of his attempts. The extended wrestling sequences drained the muscular Pudzianowski, who found himself thrown to the ground and trying to survive Sylvia's ground-and-pound attack in the final minute of the opening round.
The broadcast team on the pay-per-view had an interesting take on the victory, yelling and screaming that Sylvia was back. Of course, they also called for a Pudzianowski upset at the start of the fight saying this was going to be his "Joe Namath" moment. Color voice Bas Rutten quickly shot that nonsense down and gave his partners a dose of reality.
Sylvia never went away and all this victory did was prove that he's still a legitimate heavyweight fighter who wasn't going to a lose to a guy trying to make a little money off his fame from the Strongman world. Now Sylvia just needs to get back in shape.
Here's Pudzianowski vs Sylvia full fight video.
