THE CANADIAN PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — Middleweight champion Anderson Silva answered his critics with a devastating performance Saturday night, knocking out former light-heavyweight title-holder Forrest Griffin in the first round of a non-title fight at UFC 101.
It was a jaw-dropping showing against a bigger man that showed the Brazilian truly is the best pound-for-pound mixed martial arts fighter in the world. Griffin, a fine fighter and former champion who was competing in his normal weight class, was completely out of Silva’s league.
Lightweight title-holder B.J. Penn reinforced his 155-pound championship credentials in the main event by submitting Kenny Florian at 3:54 of the fourth round in a one-way contest. It was a convincing, welcome win for Penn (14-5-1) after a battering at the hands of welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre in a January fight contested at 170 pounds at UFC 94.
"Wow. Unbelievable. I’m proud of them both … I’m blown away by both of their performances," UFC president Dana White said of Silva and Penn.
Two minutes into the co-main event, Silva rushed Griffin and knocked him down. Then he waved him in, ducking and weaving to avoid Griffin’s attempted shots, and nailed him again.
Silva (25-4) helped Griffin up. And then promptly knocked him out.
As Griffin (16-6) moved towards him, Silva evaded two punches and then — moving backwards — knocked him out with a single right at three minutes 23 seconds. Griffin, flat on his back, held his hands up as if to say "no mas."
It was Silva’s record 10th straight UFC win.
"I want to see somebody in this room or anywhere else deny who the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world is now," said White.
The 34-year-old Silva was bumped up to 205 pounds and matched with Griffin after a pair of lacklustre wins over Thales Leites and Canadian Patrick Cote. White wanted to challenge the Brazilian to show the kind of destructive offence he displayed in taking down Rich Franklin (twice) and others during his previous seven UFC wins.
"Forrest came to fight, to stand up and fight, and Thales unfortunately didn’t," Silva said through an interpreter.
The Wachovia Center show was the UFC’s first in Philadelphia and the crowd, which got there early, was rocking during the very first fight although a string of decisions that followed dampened the fervour.
Penn looked good in the first round, winning the clinches and rocking Florian from in close while fighting off his takedown attempts. When the two fighters broke away, Penn kept clipping Florian (13-4).
Florian, a winner of six straight since losing a lightweight title shot to Sean Sherk at UFC 64, had no answers for the Hawaiian. Penn stuffed one takedown after another and Florian’s corner was animated between rounds.
Penn took Florian down with a thud in the fourth, worked to half guard and then mount before taking his back and choking him out in textbook style.
"I wasn’t used to me going places and the fans booing me," said Penn, referring to life after losing to GSP. "I really wanted to come back and show everybody that I am a fighter. Fighting is my life."
Penn won a US$60,000 bonus for submission of the night. Silva collected an extra $120,000 for fight and knockout of the night while Griffin got an additional $60,000 for taking his painful part in the fight of the night.
The card drew a crowd of 17,411 and a gate of $3.55 million, the biggest in state history according to White.
Griffin, one of the UFC’s most popular fighter, said prior to the fight he could be beaten, but never broken. But he was put in his place and left the cage at a run immediately after the fight.
"He might be in Georgia by now, I’m not sure. He ran out and I haven’t seen him since," White said. "But he’s an emotional guy."
Silva all but toyed with Griffin. The Brazilian eyed his opponent in the first minute or so, as he normally does, dismissing Griffin’s attacks as if he was shooing a fly. Then, urging Griffin to take it up a notch, he punished him.
The crowd was clearly in Griffin’s corner although the fighter himself went to the wrong side of the cage when he entered.
Silva expected to weigh 206 entering the cage. Griffin, who at 6-3 had an inch or so on the Brazilian, looked to be 220.
St. Pierre, sitting cageside, got one of the biggest cheers when he was shown on the big screens in the arena. Former light-heavyweight and heavyweight title-holder Randy (The Natural) Couture and Phillies outfielders Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth also got warm welcomes.
Welterweight Johny Hendricks (6-0) stopped Amir Sadollah in just 29 seconds, sending Sadollah on all fours with five uppercuts and then fired five more punches until referee Dan Miragliotta stepped in. The crowd didn’t like the stoppage since Sadollah seemed to be trying to get up but the ref was looking to protect the fighter.
Hendricks, a former two-time NCAA wrestling champion at Oklahoma State, was making his UFC debut after two wins in World Extreme Cagefighting.
It was another bump in the road for the injury-plagued Sadollah (2-1), who had not fought since June 2008 when he won Season 7 of "The Ultimate Fighter" at middleweight. Sadollah was chasing Hendricks across the cage when he got tagged.
Middleweight Ricardo (Big Dog) Almeida showed some big takedowns in cutting six-foot-six Kendall Grove down to size en route to a unanimous decision. Almeida (11-3) worked tirelessly, although he was not always able to inflict damage once he got the Hawaiian beanpole down.
Grove (12-6), winner of Season 3 of "The Ultimate Fighter," did resist his fair share of takedowns and also threatened with an armbar in the second round. But he was on the defensive most of the time.
Veteran lightweight Aaron Riley earned a measure of revenge with a win over (Sugar) Shane Nelson. Riley was the victim of a premature stoppage 44 seconds into their first fight, at UFC 96 in March.
This time Nelson (13-4) had no answers for Riley (28-11-1) who scored a workmanlike win. The crowd got more worked up for a fight in the stands in the third round.
Earlier, Alessio Sakara won a split decision over Leites in a middleweight snoozefest that was roundly booed.
The judges scored it 29-28, 27-30, 29-28 for the Miami-based Italian. Leites left shaking his head and he probably had good reason, although the fight didn’t really merit a winner.
Leites (14-3) was last seen at the wrong end of a decision to Silva in a lacklustre main event title fight at UFC 97 in Montreal in April. And this fight will not help his UFC future, although Sakara (18-7) did little to help the action.
.Welterweight John (Doomsday) Howard rallied from a slow start to win a split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) over Tamdan (the Barn Cat) McCrory. It was Howard’s second victory in as many outings in the UFC.
The fight had its moments with both men flying through the air. But the five-foot-seven Howard (12-4) outworked the 6-4 McCrory and scored with takedowns as the bout wore on.
Lightweight Kurt (Batman) Pellegrino used his ground game to win a unanimous decision over Josh (The Dentist) Neer for his third straight win. Neer (25-8 with one no contest) spent a lot of the fight on his back, where he was busy but still second-best to Pellegrino (20-4).
Welterweight Jesse Lennox beat Danillo Villefort in an entertaining opening bout that ended with Villefort bleeding from what appeared to be an accidental head-butt when the fight went to the ground in the third round. It was called a TKO by the referee, who ruled the damage was caused by a punch, but Villefort essentially stopped fighting after the cut.
Lightweight George Sotiropoulos (10-2) dominated George Roop (9-6), almost ripping off his arm to win by kimura at 1:59 of the second round. It was impressive work from the Vegas-based Australian, who had been off for 16 months and missed two fights through injuries.
Welterweight Matthew Riddle (3-0) won a decision over Dan Cramer (1-1), outmuscling Cramer and hurting him on the ground — cutting him open in the third. Cramer was game but outgunned and took a beating in the final minutes.
NOTES: White said the UFC is looking to stage a fight in Boston’s Fenway Park when the sport is sanctioned in the state of Massachusetts … The UFC boss also backed off a comment Friday at a fan question-and-answer session when he said the issue of merging the UFC and WEC had been talked about. He said there were no plans to fold the two into one.
