Michael Bisping defeats Anderson Silva in main event thriller at UFC London

Michael Bisping had been waiting for years to fight Anderson Silva and he made the most of the opportunity with a win in the main event of UFC London.

All three judges had the fight 48-47 for Bisping, who survived a controversial third round to make it to the scorecards. In the middle frame, Bisping lost his mouthpiece and, as he waited for referee Herb Dean to pause the action, Silva flew in with a knee that looked to knock Bisping clean out.

"The Spider" climbed the cage and began to celebrate before he was informed that the fight was not over.

The big moment for Silva came after an opening two rounds that saw Bisping dictate most of the action. He hurt Silva at the end of the first, then scored a clean knockdown in the second.

The third was decided by Silva's knee, leaving the fourth and fifth up for grabs. Bisping kept up the pressure in the fourth, bruising Silva up against the cage even as his own face was battered and bloodied.

The final round tilted in favor of Silva, who loosened up and showed shades of his old self. He failed to finish the durable Bisping, but seemed confident that he'd done enough to win in his first fight in over a year.

Instead, it was Bisping who won a competitive unanimous decision against one of the greatest middleweight fighters of all time. It was the third straight win for Bisping and arguably the most important of his 11-year career.

Afterwards, Silva complained of potential corruption among the judges. The former UFC champion hasn't had his hand raised since a win over Stephan Bonnar in 2012 (a win over Nick Diaz last year was overturned when Silva failed a drug test).