UFC 101 is in the books!

Anderson Silva, with his spectacular first round knockout of Forrest Griffin, redeemed himself in the eyes of many fans and proved that he belongs at or near the top of any official or unofficial pound-for-pound ranking of the best fighters.  The knockout came at 3:23 of the first round, after Silva had knocked Griffin down twice and essentially toyed with him.  Post-fight, Griffin ran from the ring back to the dressing room, which seemed a little odd.  We later learned that he had a dislocated jaw and lost his hearing in one of his ears.

I feel sorry for Forrest Giffin.  His chin betrayed him yet again, and Anderson Silva made him look foolish by comparison.  Anderson Silva is a very unorthodox fighter, much like his friend and training partner (and current UFC light-heavyweight champion) Lyoto Machida.  Griffin is a good, strong fighter but Anderson Silva is a horrible matchup for him.  I think that the only type of fighter out there today capable of beating Anderson Silva will be one that has tremendous ground and pound skills and excellent takedowns.  Dan Henderson and Randy Couture (at 205 lbs) come to mind.  Nate Marquardt has looked good in his last few fights, but his litmus test comes next month at the hands of Damien Maia.  Should he get past the jiu-jitsu wizard, then another shot against Anderson may be in his future as well.

Personally, I think an interesting matchup for Anderson Silva would be Tito Ortiz.  Tito has the size and the wrestling ability to counter Silva’s strengths.  A healthy Ortiz also has lethal ground and pound, which I think may be Anderson’s kryptonite.

In other action, B.J. Penn submitted a game Kenny Florian in the fourth round of their lightweight title fight.  Kenny was putting up a good fight, but I think that his strategy was flawed.  Penn at 155 lbs. is the best in the world at this moment, at that was clearly on display last night.  He did not dominate KenFlo like he did in his previous lightweight title fights against Sherk and Stevenson, but was easily the better fighter, winning all of the rounds up to the submission.

Penn, who often receives lots of criticism for his suspect conditioning, was in top form last night.  The conditioning argument, however, does not hold much water.  Looking back at his previous fights, the last time conditioning played a factor was back in 2006, against Georges St. Pierre.  Since that time, he has fought Hughes (lost), Pulver (won), Stevenson (won), Sherk (won), GSP again (lost) and finally Florian (won).  The loss to Hughes was primarily because he broke a rib in the second round and could not breathe in the third.  The lost to GSP was because he was overwhelmed by a bigger, stronger, and faster fighter.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not a B.J. Penn nuthugger.  However, facts are facts.  B.J. Penn is 10-1-1 as a lightweight, with a dubious record when he moves up in weight.  It is not easy giving up a lot of weight to your opponent.  Not only do you struggle to push him around, but you are carrying more weight on your own frame as well.  In any event, it looks like B.J.’s next title defense will be against Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez.

Sanchez is 21-2 overall.  At lightweight, he is 2-0.  He has decision wins over Clay Guida and Joe Stevenson.  He was a force at welterweight, but like Penn was being bullied by the larger fighters in the division.  This should be a good matchup because Diego will push Penn, and will not be dominated on the ground.  Both fighters are great talents and I am eager to see the outcome of their matchup.

In his last fight as a middleweight, Ricardo Almeida dominated the monstrous Kendall Grove on his way to a unanimous decision victory.  Almeida is moving down to welterweight, where he will fight the likes of Koscheck, Fitch, Alves and perhaps GSP.  While that would seem to even the odds, it scuttles a potential matchup against fellow jiu-jitsu wizard Demian Maia.  That is a fight I would have loved to have seen.  While the ringside fans may have booed because they may have found the fight boring, the would fail to realize the tactics involved in a bout such as this.  Another good potenial matchup for both Maia and Almeida would be Dean Lister, a submission specialist whose only losses have been by decision.

Other results include Aaron Riley avenging a previous loss to Shane Nelson, and Johnny Hendricks TKO’ing Amir Sadollah in 29 seconds.  This was somewhat of a controversial stoppage, but what you have to keep in mind is that it is the referee’s primary job to protect the fighter.  Sadollah was not intelligently defending himself, and he does not have the pedigree, record, or longevity in the sport to allow the referee to give him a few extra seconds to recover.

Kurt Pellegrino used his wrestling and jiu-jitsu to stuff Josh Neer to a decision, as did George Sotiropoulos in submitting George Roop.  There was no more time allocated on the pay-per-view broadcast to show any more of the preliminary fights, as the rest of them went to a decision.

Overall, it was a good card.  Traditionally, we host the UFC events at home, but due to the media room being reconfigured (as my roommates have guests staying with us) it was not possible.  Ergo, we went over to Greyfriars Pub in Oakville to watch the fights.  The decor of the pub was done well, with bookshelves on the outside almost giving it a library (or den-like) feel.  The food was decent and the prices were reasonable.  As the 10:00 start time for UFC 101 drew closer, the bar filled up fast.  We were there rather early, about 8:45, so we got some decent seats and had a great view of the action on the screen.

UFC 102 airs on August 29th, 2009 from the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon.  There are no title fights on the card, but it is headlined by two veterans in their first fight against each other.  Captain America, The Natural, Randy Couture, takes on the Brazilian submission specialist Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira in a heavyweight matchup.

This will be an interesting fight to call.  Nogueira has been in the ring against everyone, and aside from Fedor Emilianenko prevailed against them.  In his last fight against Frank Mir, he was knocked out for the first time in his career and truthfully, it looked like all of those fights had finally caught up with him.

Couture’s most recent fight was a TKO loss against the reigning heavyweight champion, Honkey Kong (Brock Lesnar).  Traditionally, Couture’s only weakness has been against hard counter-punchers such as Chuck Liddell and and big, strong wrestlers such as Lesnar.  Traditionally, his submission defense has been excellent, but in this case he is not facing the student.  He will be staring across the ring at the professor, the master of the anaconda choke, Minotauro Nogueira.

Other bouts at UFC 102 will be a light-heavyweight tilt between Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva, and a matchup between Nate Marquardt and Demian Maia.  I think that Maia should take this match by submission – there is nobody in the world who practices jiu-jitsu at his level in MMA.  As for Jardine and Silva, I do not know who will win but I doubt that this one will go past the first round.