5 Things We Learned From UFC 101

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Yes, Anderson Silva is THAT good

If ever a fight was a game-changer, then it was Anderson  Silva vs. Forrest  Griffin.  Silva walked into the Octagon to a chorus of boos after months of bad publicity following two safety-first defences of his Middleweight Title and the growing realisation that after a nine-fight winning streak and being marketed as the ‘best pound for pound fighter’ he still wasn’t a PPV draw. Although people were getting excited about some prospective match-ups (Henderson and GSP particularly), this interest was not being generated by Silva.

That’s all changed now. In his next match Silva will be the story and a legitimate draw. He showed just how good he is with a clinical demolition of Griffin that made the former light heavyweight champion look foolish. What’s more he reminded us that he is actually quite charismatic in the Octagon with engaging facials, incredible head movement and some funny taunting of Griffin. In this vivid performance, he was the very opposite of the dour point-scoring machine that so exasperated everyone at UFC 97.

The long-term effect of the fight will depend on what the UFC decides to do with Silva, but it should get fans excited about him again and convince them that he truly is the pound for pound king.

At lightweight, BJ Penn is still the master

Kenny Florian billed his title fight with BJ Penn as the moment that the master of the lightweight division would be ‘killed’. BJ Penn has been inconsistent at welterweight but at lightweight he has been untouchable for most of this decade and has been a dominant champion since he won the title last year. However, there were growing doubts about him coming into this fight. Some saw him as still being obsessed with George St. Pierre while others believed that his attitude seemed overly defensive. And of course, there was as usual the issue of his conditioning and commitment in training.

Well all those doubts were put to one side as Penn put in a clever, convincing performance that saw him comfortably outclass Florian. He was strong with his takedown defence, hit heavy with his striking and chose the perfect moment to take the fight to the ground. When the fight went to the ground it was over, with Penn overwhelming Florian and securing the win by submission. I wouldn’t write off Diego Sanchez but he’s going to have to do something special to defeat BJ Penn.

Weight Matters…unless you’re Anderson Silva

At UFC 101 we once again saw that fighting at your optimum weight is key to success in the UFC, with BJ Penn bouncing back from his mauling at the hands of George St. Pierre and Shane Nelson struggling against the more natural lightweight Aaron Riley. With its focus on wrestling, the prevalence of weight cutting and the consistently high technical ability of its fighters, weight advantage has become a key factor in modern UFC fights.

That makes Anderson Silva’s demolition of Forest Griffin all the more impressive. Forest Griffin is a fighter who walks around at 230-240ibs and should have been able to use that weight advantage to impose himself on Silva. And yet Silva’s accuracy, movement and speed rendered Griffin’s weight advantage a moot point. If Silva was a full-time light heavyweight his performance would have been incredible but considering he is a natural middleweight it is awe-inspiring.
 
And it opens up the question of Silva’s future at light heavyweight. Before the fight I doubted that Silva would ever become a fixture at light heavyweight – of the three fights he has left on his contract two of them seemed destined to be middleweight clashes against George St. Pierre and Dan Henderson. And if the UFC 99 build-up is any guide, it seems that the UFC wants to do Anderson vs. Wanderlei if the latter could just put some victories together.

However, after such a dominant performance Anderson Silva looks a natural fit at light heavyweight and there are rumours that his management have suggested that he vacate the Middleweight Title and become a 205-pounder on a permanent basis. Should he vacate the belt, not only will it open new fights at middleweight but will free up Silva for light heavyweight ‘super-fights’. However, it would also free Silva of the ‘Champions Clause’ and so make it easier for him to leave at the end of next year and finally do that fight with Roy Jones Jr.

Don’t count on Silva vs. GSP

After George St. Pierre’s dominant performance against Thiago Alves at UFC 100, Joe Rogan asked him about the possibility of him moving up to face Anderson Silva at middleweight. While St. Pierre wasn’t keen he didn’t completely rule it out. It seemed that the UFC was moving towards putting together what would be one of the biggest fights of all time, with their two most dominant champions fighting to be crowned the best pound for pound fighter in the world.

After Anderson Silva so easily defeated Forrest Griffin at light heavyweight the atmosphere seems to have changed. Even though St. Pierre was in the crowd, Rogan did not ask Silva whether he was interested in the fight nor was the possibility referenced during the commentary. When the match-up was brought up during the post-event press conference Silva was dismissive of George St. Pierre and seemed disinterested in fighting him. And it seemed that the journalists in attendance had moved their focus onto the possibility of Machida vs. Silva.

This is a mistake. Firstly because Machida vs. Silva could be a tedious clash between two counter-strikers that don’t tend to take the imitative in a fight. Secondly because St. Pierre vs. Silva has the potential to be a much bigger fight; it would be a chance to see both fighters push to their very limit with Silva having to face the best wrestler in the UFC and St. Pierre giving up so much weight. And given both fighters current dominance of their division it would have a big fight atmosphere that no other UFC fight could match. Whilst there are issues (Silva’s apparent desire to move to light heavyweight and St. Pierre’s reluctance to move up to middleweight) Dana White really should going all out to overcome them and book this dream match.

Philadelphia loves MMA

In both boxing and pro-wrestling Philadelphia has a reputation for having fans that want all-out action and are quick to anger. Some worried that with this reputation they would turn on fights that went to the ground or involved a lot of ‘feeling out’, especially as it was the first UFC show in the North-East for some time. Yet they were pretty good natured throughout the main card, only really turning on the Johnny Hendricks vs. Amir Sadollah fight due to the early stoppage and losing interest in Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley due to a fight in the crowd. Indeed for the first two fights they seemed to get into what was pretty ordinary grappling, even going as far to cheer transitions in the guard. It just shows that despite the bloodthirsty reputation that MMA still has with some that fans across the country now take it seriously as a sport and appreciate all its facets.

Overall UFC 101 was something of an odd show as other than the two main events the fights were pretty even and told us little about what the future holds for the individual fighters or their divisions. And even though BJ Penn was very impressive in defending his Lightweight Title, Anderson Silva was the major talking point after the show. With his performance he answered his critics in style and may just have finally established himself as a PPV draw. If we learnt anything from UFC 101, its that Anderson Silva truly is a phenom.

A Comics Nexus original, Will Cooling has written about comics since 2004 despite the best efforts of the industry to kill his love of the medium. He now spends much of his time over at Inside Fights where he gets to see muscle-bound men beat each up without retcons and summer crossovers.