ROSEMONT, Ill. — Anderson Silva held onto his middleweight title with a third-round technical knockout of Patrick Cote at UFC 90 on Saturday night.

Silva (23-4) took a cautious approach in the first round before attacking in the second with a barrage of kicks and knees. Silva won his ninth straight fight and is now 8-0 in UFC. He is tied for the most consecutive wins in UFC history with Jon Fitch and Hall-of-Famer Royce Gracie.

Cote (14-5) took Silva, who had never fought past the second round in his career, to the third round before the fight abruptly ended. Cote, in his first title fight, took a step forward 39 seconds into the third but came up lame. Cote said that his right knee popped out and he hurt his meniscus.

"It's an old injury," Cote said. "I thought that I was OK. I felt my knee pop out in the middle of the second round when I kicked him. It was weak after that ... I tried to go inside. When I landed on my back leg, my knee just popped out."

The crowd of 15,539 loudly booed after the decision was announced and both fighters apologized to all the fans watching the fight.

"I want to apologize to everybody in the stadium and watching on TV," Silva said through an interpreter. "But Patrick should not be booed because you don't know what it's like. ... I was prepared to go the full five rounds. It was just unfortunate that Patrick got hurt."

Silva danced around for most of the first round before attacking in the second with a barrage of kicks and knees. During one stretch of the second round, Silva knocked Cote on the ground and stood over him with his hands on his hips. Silva then offered his hand to help his opponent up, which Cote declined.

"Tonight was a weird night. I felt like I was in an alter universe," UFC president Dana White said. "I was watching wondering what the hell was going on. It always sucks when it ends this way. ... You never want to walk out of an arena like that."

Cote had won five in a row coming into his first title fight and won the first round on one judge's score card. At the time of the injury he was trailing 20-18, 20-18, 19-19.

"I went into the third round with the best fighter in the world," Cote said. "I thought I gave him a good fight until the injury."

Silva, a 33-year-old native of Curitiba, Brazil, has successfully defended his title three times.

"I came here to do my job," Silva said. "I wasn't playing around. This is not a job where you can come to play around. That's why I'm champion. I don't come to play around."

Welterweight Thiago Alves (22-4) used his aggressiveness to beat Josh Koscheck in a 30-27, 29-28, 30-27 decision.

The 24-year-old Alves had knocked out his previous five opponents and nearly took down Koscheck several times in the third round. But Koscheck stayed on his feet and kept coming at Alves.

Alves is considered a top welterweight contender and said after the victory that he wants a shot at current title holder Georges St-Pierre.

"I definitely think he's ready," White said. "This kid is definitely ready for a title shot."

Former lightweight champion Sean Sherk beat Tyson Griffin in a welterweight fight by a 30-27, 29-28, 29-27 decision.

Heavyweight Junior dos Santos stopped Fabricio Werdum 1:20 into the first round using a right uppercut that dropped Werdum to his knees.