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By many, he’s considered the very best in the entire world. But UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “Spider” Silva hasn’t looked quite like that his last 2 title defences. Heading into Saturday’s UFC 101 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, he’ll have no choice but to look good.
Silva potentially faces the toughest test of his career. He moves up to the light heavyweight division (205 pounds) to fight former champion Forrest Griffin in the co-main event on Saturday. Silva (24-4) is always going to be one of the most feared and dangerouns fighters in the world of mixed martial arts; no one will dispute that. But his last 2 fights (wins over Patrick Cote and Thales Leities) have been underwhelming to say the very least. So bad was his most recent fight at UFC 97 that boo’s filled The Bell Centre in Montreal for much of the fight; and for good reason.
In his fight with Leites, neither fighter wanted to engage or become the dominant fighter. For the underdog Leites, you can understand why…to engage Silva is usually to lose the fight, as Spider takes advantage of mistakes and openings like no one else in the UFC. However, for Silva to be passive is another story; especially considering his performance at UFC 90 against Patrick Cote. Against the Canadian, Silva bounced around the outside, never moving in to strike and just let his infrequent counter-strikes carry the day. That fight was boring…the Leites fight was worse. At least Cote made some attempts to strike with Silva; Leites wanted none of that, and for whatever reason Silva lacked his normal killer instinct to finish off an opponent.
He won’t have that same luxury against Forrest Griffin (16-5), the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. It doesn’t matter who Forrest is fighting, he’ll always push the pace and force his opponent to work. That’s been the MO since Griffin arrived in the UFC in 2005…he won’t back down and will keep pushing forward no matter how much punishment he takes. His style of fighting has been there early in his UFC career (Bonnar, Ortiz) and in his most recent fights (Rampage, Evans). He’s stood in there with the best and taken punishment; and more often than not he’s able to persevere and pull out a win.
So how does this fight shake out? Throw out any “weight advantage” right away. Silva has fought at 205 before; in fact, his light heavyweight debut was last summer against James Irvin. He was a bigger man with a lot of punching power; but Silva took a KO win 61 seconds in. I see Silva winning via TKO late in the 2nd or 3rd round. Why? Because he’ll be forced to fight, and when he fights, he’s deadly. Forrest will continue pushing forward and I believe he’ll eventually be caught in Silva’s insane clinch; from there, it doesn’t matter how tough Griffin’s chin is, the ref will have to call it off. Does that mean Forrest CAN’T win this fight? Of course not…the power in his fists can end a fight, and his leg kicks can immobilize an opponent in short order; just ask Quinton Jackson.
As for the rest of the card, we’ll preview the main event (BJ Penn/Kenny Florian) tomorrow…but there’s some intriguing matchups. One of the most hated men in all the UFC is back in action; Kendall Grove takes on BJJ expert Ricardo Alemeida. And it’s the return of Amir Sadollah to The Octagon, he’ll take on Johny Hendricks.
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Pat,
A comment on the size side of things. James Irvin is not a very big light heavyweight, in fact Irvin has been fighting as a middle weight recently. Forrest on the other hand, is a massive light heavy weight. Forrest walks around at around 240 lbs while Anderson walks around anywhere from 205-215. We are talking a massive size advantage here. Forrest has to work as hard to cut down to 205 as Anderson has to work to get to 185, so I think that size will play a very big role in this fight.
Either way this fight boils down, it’s going to be fight of the night.
PS: No question Forrest is a massive 205er…I’m responding to this AFTER the fact, but man, I know this much…Forrest made Anderson work.
- Jordan PPat,
Wanted to get your thoughts, and maybe a bit of insider information in regards to the fight.
First off, what a striking display by Anderson. I think you can count on one hand how many punches he threw the entire fight, and every one of them was right on the money. Anderson is a pure puncher, the best way to deter a pure puncher is to feed him a steady diet of leg kicks, but you can’t leg kick Anderson either. How many times now have we seen him catch a kick and follow it with a straight right.
As for Forrest….big flaw in his game plan. I know he wanted to push Anderson, but there’s a difference between pushing him and fighting dumb. I love me some Forrest Griffin, but he looked horribly outclassed. As far as his exit from the ring….a few sources I’ve read have suggested that Forrest had a pretty serious injury from one of the shots he took from Anderson and needed immediate medical care. One report I read said that he had temporarily lost a bit of hearing and probably had a dislocated jaw. Any information on that?
PS: Well, from what I’ve read, He was just fine, because I read that initial speculation as well. Reading on MMAWeekly today, apparently he was fine…so from all I’ve garnered, he just was really upset with the way he fought. Seemed a little odd, that’s for sure. I agree with you…he had a TERRIBLE game plan, and I think the point you make about leg kicks is right on the money. I believe his gameplan WAS to put out a steady diet of leg kicks, but once Silva caught one and almost connected, I think he might have become a little gun shy. Images of James Irvin throwing a kick and getting KO’ed might have ran through his mind, who knows.
- Jordan P