More Than a Declaration, UFC 101 is About Redemption

Features, Top Story

Ultimate Fighting Championship understands their biggest fans and creates events with that audience in mind; whether tailoring an hour long Q&A session with Dana White himself into a sort of “MMA Town Hall” or putting 16 men into the same house with the hopes of duking their way toward a UFC contract, the Fertitta Brothers and White pride themselves on setting up fights that fans are interested in seeing.  It’s always been a recipe for success financially, but leads to some second-guessing down the line as many divisions might begin to show clear signs of dominance over one another; after Georges St. Pierre‘s dominant title defense over BJ Penn, one could make the case that the Welterweight division has an edge over UFC’s Lightweight counterpart and with a win by Anderson Silva, Middleweight over Light Heavyweight as Silva picks apart his own division and now runs up against a former UFC champion in Forrest Griffin seemingly with more damage to inflict.

In professional wrestling, where the results are predetermined and the injuries are planned, fake or accidental, there is nothing wrong with a 250-pound man fighting a 155-pound man and it is believable that this would be a competitive encounter. In MMA, that’s not always the case and while match-ups can be set up “by popular demand,” much of what makes combat sports unique are those match-ups that cannot happen due to size disparities or via competing in another era, lead to speculation and an obviously hot debate.

With many fighters cutting so very much to make their goal for each fight, some competitors are taking a chance with and fighting at a more natural weight. It’s not only the money, we know that, and we also know that Dana wouldn’t allow a C-level rookie get in over his head. He only allows the best of the best to compete in this unique fights and catch weights and so long as nothing too serious comes out of it, these matches come off like PRIDE’s Grand Prix, something unique to that year and not a title that was defended regularly.

As part of the first mixed martial arts card in Philadelphia, UFC 101: Declaration will pit two of the world’s top “pound-for-pound” fighters against foes with strong ties and histories to the program that put UFC on the map, The Ultimate Fighter with so very much on the line. The main event features a dominant lightweight champion seeking small measure of redemption (maybe even a “declaration” of sorts) after the shellacking he was subjected to at the hands of UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre. Long spoken of among the sport’s best, Penn isn’t afraid to fight at either his natural 170 lbs. or the division that he hasn’t lost in, 155 lbs., but he has appeared his most sharp, focused and in command in the encounters where his natural gifts cannot be countered by overwhelming strength from a larger, faster fighter, of which GSP was. Penn needs a win to reassert himself among the upper echelon of combatants and his opponent in this Main Event, Kenny Florian, isn’t being billed as the underdog either. Throughout Friday’s weigh-in, the crowd appeared very split as to their support of the Boston native or self-professed “Hilo boy fans,” but Florian already knows that if ever there was a time to catch BJ Penn, it would be coming off such a demoralizing loss where so much of Penn’s arsenal appeared neutralized.

Penn’s team might have saved his career by throwing the towel in after the fourth round of his championship encounter with GSP, but more questions were created in the process: how was GSP able to easily pass the guard of a man who so many felt was incapable of being dominated on the mat? Did BJ gas? After hearing accusations not only of “greasing” during the fight, but also of the use of performance enhancing drugs of St. Pierre by Penn, we might have to wonder if he is starting to see the “new guard” creeping up on his in much the same way he stormed onto the seen all those years ago. If Florian truly sees Penn as a Master that he can fell, now would be the time.

In the other headlining fight of the night, Anderson Silva (another fighter that has been blessed/cursed with the tag of “best pound-for-pound”) will be taking on Forrest Griffin, the former Light Heavyweight champion, at Silva’s “natural weight” of 205 lbs.  In his previous UFC battle at the weight, Silva dismantled James Irvin in just over one minute -it was a vicious, ruthless beating, one that left Irvin with a six inch gash below his right eye and many shaking their heads at the seeming infallibility of “The Spider”.  Griffin on the other hand, earned his title shot via a slick submission over a gassed Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and turned that very opportunity into a decision victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to capture the 205 strap. The man that is considered partially responsible for the popularity of the sport is looking for a bit of redemption himself after seeing himself soundly defeated by another TUF veteran Rashad Evans in his first title defense. If for nothing else, the 205-lb. division stands to lose the most from this event. If Anderson Silva manages to beat Forrest in any manner other than a decision, he’s probably the best fighter in the world, if ever, but it devalues Rampage (who lost to Forrest) or Rua (who also lost to Forrest) and sets up more interesting, perplexing and debatable “super fights” with other competitors who have gotten the better of Griffin. Does Silva take on Keith Jardine next? If he runs through Jardine, what about Wanderlei Silva, who ran through him and if yes, at what weight (as Wanderlei has made definite plans to move down)?

There is much at stake in the Wachovia Center on Saturday night. It’s not just about the belts and the titles: it’s also about the careers and futures of these four unique athletes whose reputations will either rise or fall with their successes and failures in Philadelphia.

An Inside Pulse "original", SMS is one of the founding members of Inside Pulse and serves as the Chief Marketing Officer on the Executive Board. Smith is a fan of mixed martial arts and runs two sections of IP as Editor in Chief, RadioExile.com and InsideFights.com. Having covered music festivals around the world as well as conducting interviews with top-class professional wrestlers and musicians, he switched gears from music coverage at Radio Exile to MMA after the first The Ultimate Fighter Finale. He resides with his wife in New York City.