Tim Sylvia KOs Jason Riley

Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia got back in the win column for the first time in almost two years on Friday night, beating a little-known fighter named Jason Riley by first-round knockout at the Adrenaline MMA show in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Sylvia's last win was against Brandon Vera at UFC 77 in October of 2007. Riley is a huge step down in competition from Vera -- and almost all of the opponents Sylvia has taken on in his MMA career -- but at this point, Sylvia will take a win over anyone, and his win over Riley was fairly quick, coming with a left hook that connected to Riley's ear at 2:32 into the first round.

"I'm back," Sylvia said. "I still need to lose some more weight, but I want to thank my management, my team, all the MMA fans. I still have some good years left."

It's open to debate whether Sylvia really has much left, but he said he hopes to fight again as soon as next month, possibly in Japan. And although Riley wasn't much of a challenge for him, Sylvia insisted that Riley was a worthy competitor.

"He's a tough kid," Sylvia said of Riley. "Props to him. I hope he comes to Iowa and trains with us."

Sylvia improved his pro record to 25-6. Riley falls to 6-2.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-19-2009 @ 12:39AM

Awesome said...

Awesome

9-19-2009 @ 3:10AM

stonewt said...

Good job. I'd like to see him get another 3-4 wins with at least one big name or two medium names so he can return to the Octagon.

9-19-2009 @ 9:53AM

M13 said...

Sylvia has indeed a lot to make up for.

9-19-2009 @ 1:53PM

Paul Ortega said...

Tim is the guy that most people hate, however he is a nice guy on camera & truthfuly, he's a good fighter-not my favorite, none the less should be respected. hope he does well.

9-19-2009 @ 7:05PM

Joe said...

Tim Sylvia isn't that bad of a fighter. He just fought against some pretty stiff competition. I don't think he has fallen far at all since he was the UFC heavyweight champion. He just fought Couture and Nogueira who are suppose to be the two most decorated MMA heavyweights ever, according to Dana White and then he fought against Fedor who is the best MMA fighter ever, despite what Dana and all the UFC guys say. Then he fought a 48 year old boxer at an MMA fight and a good boxer will knock out a good MMA fighter more often than not. Dana White knows this too. That is why he wouldn't let Anderson Silva fight Roy Jones Jr. Dana said he wouldn't let a UFC fighter fight out of the UFC and then Roy Jones Jr. agreed to fight Anderson Silva in the UFC inside the octagon under MMA rules and once again Dana refused to put his money where his mouth is and wouldn't allow it. Jones Jr is in his 40's but Dana is afraid to let him fight Anderson Silva in the UFC because he knows that it would expose the UFC. Don't get me wrong, I love the UFC but I hate how Dana wants to put boxing and everybody out of business by putting them down. Oh and by the way, Anderson Silva gave boxing a try before he became a MMA legend and he got knocked the f*@k out in the second round by a nobody named Osmar Luiz Texiera.