By Eric Thomas: Tonight in UFC 101, light heavyweight Anderson Silva (25-4, 14 KO’s) destroyed Forrest Griffin (16-6, 3 KO’s) in the 1st round with a short right hand at the Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The punch left the 30-year-old Griffin flat on his back out cold with both arms stretched out in front of him in a typical knockout spasm.
Silva, 34, was dominating in the fight, knocking Griffin down three times in the fight and toying with him through much of the action. At the start of the match, Griffin attempted to land inside leg kicks but missed with a handful of his attempts as Silva skillfully backed up to avoid them. On one attempt to land a kick, Silva caught Griffin’s leg and threw him backwards almost sending him down.
It looked as if Silva was playing with Griffin at that point. Shortly after that, Silva ran forward and caught Griffin with a nice right hand that sent Griffin down on the canvas. Griffin quickly got back to his feet and the action resumed with Griffin missing some leg kicks.
Silva was now looking really cocky, lowering his hands at his sides and motioning for Griffin to come and fight him. Silva dodged Griffin’s attempt to land to the head and began hitting Griffin with pin point uppercuts, right hands and left hooks to the head.
At this point, Silva was standing directly in front of Griffin and basically daring him to hit him. Griffin was trying but Silva was dodging his shots with head movement alone and looking like an imitation Bruce Lee. Silva then landed three straight left hands to put Griffin down for a second time in the round. While Griffin was down, Silva briefly stood over him and placed three left hands and one right to the head before letting Griffin up.
The funny part about it is that Silva put his hand out to help Griffin to his feet. Although Griffin declined to get up with Silva’s assistance, it showed how dominating Silva was in the fight. Griffin then attempted to rush Silva but was met with a straight hand from Silva that stopped Griffin’s forward movement.
Instead of taking a hint from that one encounter and coming up with a better plan, Forrest again tried to rush Silva. This time, Silva swiftly backed up and landed a short right hand as he was retreating. The punch caught Forrest flush in the face as he was coming forward, thus knocking him to the canvas flat on his back.
Both of Forrest’s arms initially went out in front of him in a spasm from his knockout. The bout was immediately stopped at 3:23 of the 1st round. Silva didn’t even try to jump on Griffin and add to the damage, because that’s not the type of fighter he is and frankly he didn’t need to in this case.
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In the main event, lightweight BJ Penn (14-5-1, 5 KO’s) defeated Kenny Florian (11-4, 3 KO’s) by a rear naked chock in the 4th round. The action was dull in the first three rounds with few good punches landed. However, in the 4th round, Penn slammed Florian, 33, to the canvas and wrapped him up in the rear naked chock to get the victory at 3:45 of the 4th.
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