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The entire 205 pd division themselves watching that last night..
I hate this tired debate but....
Anderson is the best p4p fighter over Fedor simply because he dominates over two weight classes. I have no doubt Fedor could dominate in LHW...but he simply needs to prove it.
The entire 205 pd division themselves watching that last night..
Not rampage, not machida.
Overall it was very impressive, but still I hate Silva.
It looked like it was not Forest day, he was broken totally - something he said he never will be.
I bet he is pissed at himself, and damn working so hard and fall like this was shamefull. I wonder what Forest has to say now?
What will UFC do with Spider now?
Hendo? Maia/Nate? that and give him Machida?
machida is scheudled to fight with Shogun so maybe Spider will go down again to defend and then Machida challange?
Good question
Ya know...Ive read some forums that say that fight was rigged. Thats stupid and it pisses me off.
I was so disapointed in Forrest. After he got rocked, he needed to wrap Silva up and lay on him for a minute or so to get his head back...Instead he went ape barroom brawler and just swung wildly. The absolute WRONG thing you want to do against Silva.
I dont get why he got so beligerent. Was it the taunting from Silva?
I respect Silva, he is an awesome fighter, but i cant stand the disrespect he shows his opponents. He is a complete ass, and has 0 sportsmanship.
I read today that he is flat out refusing to fight Machida. He says that they are like brothers and he wont fight him...Thats a shame, because i think Machida has the elusiveness to wear him down and get the win.
Oh well, bad day for Forrest. I feel for him...i think he felt disrespected and lost his head, in more ways than one....
Philly for ya...
I really like the Sanchez/Penn matchup. Of course BJ fans are acting like Diego doesn't have a prayer, but nobody will test your cardio like Diego. BJ's cardio has surely improved, but Florian doesn't push the pace of a fight like Sanchez or Huerta. BJ had better keep up his rigorous training.
PHILADELPHIA – Hours after the most electrifying domination in a career filled with them, deep in a back hallway of the Wachovia Center, Anderson Silva was waiting for Dana White. Silva is the UFC’s middleweight (185-pound) champion but Saturday he boldly moved up 20 pounds and in a jaw-dropping exhibition, brutalized Forrest Griffin, who just nine months ago was the light heavyweight (205) le holder.
Silva knocked Griffin down twice, offered a hand to help him up once and then promptly floored him again for good at 3:23 of the first round of UFC 101. Most remarkably, he did it with a punch he threw while backpedaling.
It was a complete annihilation. Griffin failed to land a single punch and when he came to his senses, he sprung up and ran from the octagon, trying to push through a doctor’s examination.
“He might be in Georgia by now, he ran out and I haven’t seen him since,” White, the UFC president, joked.
That Silva could move up a weight class and not just win, but destroy with power, was a game-changing and perhaps UFC-altering moment. That’s what Silva and his manager, Ed Soares, wanted to discuss with White.
With his arm wrapped around White’s shoulder, Soares leaned in and delivered a proposition. “Spider” Silva would move permanently to light heavyweight, even if it meant the unorthodox move of giving up his middleweight belt.
“I can do that,” White smiled, a bit stunned at the offer. “I like that. We can do that.”
Soares smiled and shook White’s hand. Silva had been accosted by a fan by then and couldn’t hear White, but it was presumably the news he was seeking. The man has such outrageous confidence in his abilities he’s willing to potentially toss away a championship he’s owned for almost three years to take a challenge outside his comfort zone.
“I’d let him,” White said later, sitting in his quiet dressing room. “We’d put [the middleweight le] up for grabs.”
The hour was late and everyone’s excitement was still high. Perhaps plans and goals change by morning, so White didn’t know what to say officially. This was still just hurried talk. He knew this much though, as a promoter there are more blockbuster fights for Silva at 205 than 185, where he’s beaten everyone of note.
Silva’s next le defense was supposed to be against Dan Henderson, who Silva savagely choked out in March 2008.
“Who knows,” White said, wheels already spinning. “We’ll see what happens. In the talks I’ve had with Anderson, he wants to take on the best in the world. He’s the most talented fighter in the world, the best pound for pound fighter and it’s a joke to say anyone else is. And he wants to continue to prove [it].”
White thought for a moment.
“He would jump in that mix [at the top of the light heavyweight division],” White said. “You’ve got Rashad [Evans], you’ve got Rampage [Jackson], [Lyoto] Machida is the champion. And o [Ortiz] is in the mix now.”
If Silva did vacate the middleweight le to move up full time, the ironic thing is that he claims it wouldn’t be to pursue the light heavyweight belt. At least as long as it was held by Machida, a fellow Brazilian and training partner.
“Lyoto is my friend, he is my brother and there is no way that fight will ever happen,” Silva said.
White, coveting a clash between two men who are both unbeaten in UFC compe ion, brushes that talk aside.
“I’ll make it happen,” White said winking his eye. “It’s not even about money. It’s about proving you’re the best, it’s about securing your place in history. It’s about putting on a super fight that fans want to see.
“I’m all about making big fights that fans want to see.”
Saturday was one of those fights. Silva was motivated by criticism that his last two fights – both victories mind you ¬– were dull, so he gladly moved up to take on a dangerous Griffin, who was known for his attack dog style.
It was intriguing, at least until Silva started toying with Griffin. He knocked Griffin down at will, dared him to connect with a punch, challenged him to be as tough as his reputation and then finally just finished him.
Coming in there was a “Rocky” element to the fight, Griffin the heavy underdog with the Philly crowd firmly behind him and booing Silva. By the end, Griffin was gone and Silva was being cheered. It was the recognition of brilliance overcoming any easy Hollywood storylines.
“He wants to be involved in the biggest fights we can put together,” Soares said.
The fact Silva took this fight is a testament to that. The Brazilian is 25-4 overall and has won all 10 of his fights in the UFC. At age 34, he could’ve sat at middleweight and potentially won 10 more, making nice money with relatively little risk in a division he’s been untouchable in.
That isn’t him though. Not even close.
So not long after stunning the sport with a legendary performance, there he and his manager were, trying to force a back-hall huddle with the UFC kingmaker. Move Silva to light heavyweight for good, they suggested to White.
With nothing left to prove at middleweight, Anderson Silva now wants to lay waste to a whole new division of the UFC. He doesn’t need a belt to prove a thing.
What that basically says is Anderson wants to move up, even if it means giving up his middleweight le, however he and Lyoto will never fight due to their friendship.
o who?
I missed that last night
He should go up. It's the best move for him. There is nothing left for him at 185 other than maybe a fight with GSP down the line. Hendo and Silva 2 is not interesting, he'd win again. And he doesn't have to fight Machida right away. They are pals, Dana should go easy on that for now. Have him fight Page, that would be fun.. Although afer Page beats Rashad he is getting the le shot is my understanding..
As much as i love Forrest, his chin is not that great. Cote took better shots than he did last night..
I wonder if his jaw was already dislocated at that point
Update on Forrest Griffin (who was absent from the post-fight press conference) from the UG:
"I heard his jaw was dislocated very early in the fight…then he took several more punches to the jaw. Apparently he can’t hear out of the ear on that side either. He left the octagon because he needed medical attention asap. At first they thought his jaw was broken, then said it was dislocated."
[UPDATE] - Confirmed by telegraph.co.uk:
"Griffin had been taken to the hospital for checks, unable to hear in one ear, and in order to get his jaw checked."
I think he left the Octagon more because he was devastated about the loss but that sucks to hear he got hurt.. I don't know what's next for him, it's a huge dent in his career..
awesome ing fight with silva and anderson
so awesome I stayed up till 2 am to rewatch it
So if/when Anderson moves up, who do you see him fighting? Rashad/Page is booked for December so they wouldnt be able to fight again till spring of 2010 probably. Machida/Shogun are fighting soon, I forget when, but its coming up. o is fighting Coleman, Belfort and Franklin are fighting, Henderson moved down. He could fight Chuck, that would still be a major draw, even after Chucks struggles, but nobody wants to see him get KTFO again. Anderson just destroyed a high-profile name in Forrest, so IMO there is no reason for him to fight a lesser name in Brandon Vera or someone of that caliber. I say best case scenario he fights one more fight at 185 against Dan Henderson, Demian Maia (my prefrence), or Nate Marquardt, then move up for good in the Spring time and fights the winner of Rampage-Rashad. Or maybe he stays up and fights Wanderlei....Id like that. Anyway, what are you guys openions?
Thanks Blackjack, forgot to credit my post.
Penn once again silences doubters
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
PHILADELPHIA – Longtime boxing champion Roy Jones Jr. once made a rap song about his career which he called, “Ya’ll must’ve forgot.” He was angry that fans seemed to forget his years of dominance in which no opponent came remotely close to challenging him.
B.J. Penn, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s extraordinarily gifted lightweight champion, wouldn’t have been human had he not had similar emotions in the prelude to his le defense Saturday at the Wachovia Center in the co-main event of UFC 101 against Kenny Florian.
Penn was coming off a one-sided thrashing in a welterweight le fight against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 94 in January. His conditioning was questioned. His courage was questioned. His toughness was questioned.
But Penn proved that more than eight years after he made his mixed martial arts debut, he’s still the same spectacular athlete who earned the nickname “The Prodigy.”
With Jones watching from a front-row seat, Penn controlled Florian before taking him down and submitting him in the fourth round to retain the belt.
He had a tough act to follow, as Anderson Silva scored one of the more spectacular one-punch knockouts in a major bout in UFC history to stop Forrest Griffin in the first round of the other main event.
Penn, who was in the bathroom area of his locker room trying to gather his thoughts when the knockout occurred, heard the roars of the crowd and then greeted Silva as he returned from the cage.
“He said, ‘Now it’s your turn,’ ” Penn said, bursting into laughter. “Tough act to follow.”
It was, indeed.
And Penn seized the moment, taking Florian out of his game expertly, neutralizing his kicks and his elbows and outboxing him most of the way.
What Penn proved Saturday is the same thing he proved in 2008 when he destroyed Sean Sherk and Joe Stevenson in lightweight bouts: There may be bigger men alive who can defeat him, and some who could defeat him handily, but there are no men his size at this point who can defeat him.
Penn’s biggest problem has often been Penn himself. He hasn’t come to camp in shape and he has often let his mind wander.
Florian entered the fight on a six-bout winning streak and was the choice of many to score the upset, but Penn was clearly a different fighter Saturday. The work he put in with strength and conditioning coach Marv Marinovich was clearly evident. He was as flexible as ever but had the staying power he lacked in past bouts.
He was also deadly focused and never lost sight of his goal, like he’s done occasionally in the past.
“B.J. Penn looked better physically than I’ve seen him since 2001,” UFC president Dana White said. “He came out and fought an amazing fight against a highly talented and motivated Kenny Florian.”
That’s because Penn is highly talented and was highly motivated to put the St. Pierre loss behind him. Not only did he get thrashed by St. Pierre, but he came under attack by many of his fans for alleging that St. Pierre had illegally greased his body.
He didn’t help his cause earlier in the week when he said he believed that St. Pierre also used steroids.
All of that got plenty of attention, but it obscured the fact that Penn remains superior to any lightweight alive. He’s an elite boxer, he is even better with his jiu-jitsu and he has great takedown defense.
In the past, he didn’t want to be limited by one weight class and he is so talented he managed to move up and win a welterweight championship. But Penn is significantly smaller than the welterweights, let alone middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights.
In 2005, he actually faced Lyoto Machida, the UFC’s light heavyweight champion, in a heavyweight bout and nearly pulled it out.
But MMA has evolved so much since that the size difference makes it all but impossible for a man with a small frame like Penn to compete on even terms.
That explains the loss to a brilliant fighter like St. Pierre, but it doesn’t explain the doubt that many had about Penn’s chances on Saturday.
Silva, who had plenty of his own doubters after back-to-back lackluster fights, couldn’t understand those who questioned Penn.
“B.J. went out there and proved there is nobody in the world who can beat him,” Silva said. “He went out and did his job well done. I’m a big fan of B.J.”
When he is in the kind of shape he was in on Saturday and he fights with the determination he did against Florian, it’s hard not to be a fan of Penn’s.
There were many of his fans and camp members who were wearing “Penn State” T-shirts in the arena Saturday and Penn acted as if he were plenty at home in Pennsylvania.
No matter where the Octagon is, though, he’s at home.
B.J. Penn was born to fight.
Kenny Florian learned that lesson Saturday.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
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