At UFC 101 in Philadelphia, the UFC will present one of it’s biggest fights in history as current UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva battles former UFC light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin. This fight will mark the return of Griffin since losing his title at UFC 92 and Anderson Silva’s second fight at 205.
After Silva’s last two fights, alot of people have been saying that he has now lost the killer instinct that made him the best fighter in the world. UFC president Dana White found the solution to that, put Silva in a fight against one of the most entertaining fighters in MMA, Forrest Griffin. Since the fight was announced, fans have been speculating just what could happen, would Forrest give Silva his first UFC loss or would Silva dispose of yet another top fighter in the organization.
What follows is a simple break-down of the upcoming fight between both men comparing the different aspects of the fight at UFC 101.
The Stand-up
Anderson “The Spider” Silva has been known as the most deadly striker in MMA, his pin-point accuracy has been the answer to most of his wins in his career. Forrest Griffin is also no joke on his feet, he has shown good hands throughout his UFC career giving much problems to good fighters like Tito Ortiz, Shogun Rua and Quinton Jackson.
The problem here is the fact that Griffin does not have the KO power of Anderson Silva. Quinton Jackson said after his fight with Forrest that “He hits like a girl, my momma could hit harder then him”. Even Forrest says he does not have alot of power behind his hands so a one hit KO against Silva would probably be out of the question.
Silva has displayed good Muay-Thai skills and some KO power in everything he throws. He fought a very dangerous striker in James Irvin and layed him out in a single punch.
The fact that Forrest is an aggressive fighter, fits in perfectly with Anderson’s style of being a counter puncher. Silva has always been very patient to see what his opponent does before attacking and Forrest is that type of guy. The reach between both men is pretty identical so that should not cause anymore problems to Anderson Silva.
Advantage: Anderson Silva
The Ground
Both men have really underrated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills. Forrest Griffin is a brown belt in BJJ but he has never loss by submission and holds seven wins via submission including one against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Because of his heart and his will to make every fight he’s in a stand-up fight, people tend to underestimate Forrest on the ground.
Anderson Silva is also very underrated as far as BJJ goes. When listing who the best BJJ fighters in the middleweight division are, people will name Thales Leites, Demian Maia and Ricardo Almeida, but Silva has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under the Nogueira brothers. Although two of his four losses came by submission, Anderson has not been submitted since 2004 and since then has submitted Travis Lutter and Dan Henderson only to name a few.
With that said, it’s pretty hard to say who is the better BJJ fighter and I doubt either fighter submits the other. I really do believe both men will be looking to strike.
Advantage: Draw
The Intangibles
Forrest Griffin has alot of heart, but heart alone won’t get you the win. It will be interesting to see if Forrest can pick Silva apart with leg kicks like he did with Jackson, I personally doubt it. Anderson Silva has been criticized for his last two fights but against Forrest, he does not have the pressure of defending the title or trying to break a UFC record.
Silva even said in a recent interview that he intended on having a little fun in his fight against Forrest. Fact of the matter is, Silva doesn’t seem to care if he losses or not at UFC 101, if that happens, expect Silva to be more aggressive then his last fights.
In a recent interview, Forrest said that he considered Anderson Silva to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world and that even if he wins, Anderson will still be the best pound for pound fighter in the world. There just doesn’t seem to be any pressure on Silva’s shoulders heading into this fight.
Advantage: Anderson Silva
Resume
There is no doubt that the fight should be entertaining, it’s one of the biggest fights in UFC history and I think Forrest Griffin will bring the best out of the middleweight champion. I really don’t see Griffin winning this fight any other way then by decision and I think he’ll be staring at the roof before the end of the three rounds.
I predict that we will be seeing the best Anderson Silva since his win over James Irvin and I honestly don’t think a loss would affect either fighter so just sit back and enjoy the fight.
Prediction: Anderson Silva by TKO in the second round
