If Anderson “The Spider” Silva has been playing poker with the UFC, then Dana White just pulled out an ace. According to a new report from Kevin Iole, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva will move up to the 205 lbs. limit of light heavyweight to fight former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and original “Ultimate Fighter” Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 on August 8th.

Anderson Silva drew the ire of the UFC President as well as much of the MMA media following his performance against Thales Leites in UFC 97’s main event. Leites is predominantly a jiu-jitsu fighter and refused to stand with the middleweight champ. What ensued was a drawn out five round unanimous decision for Silva.

Silva was criticized for not being more aggressive in his fight against Leites. Silva, along with his manager Ed Soares, defended the champion’s performance and laid much of the blame on Leites who dropped to his back many times during the bout when Silva came in close with strikes.

The criticism aimed at Silva may not have been so great had he not fought in a very similar fashion to the way he fought in his previous fight at UFC 90 against Patrick Cote. In both instances, “The Spider” who spun webs of muay thai pain around his seven previous opponents, not letting a single one out of round two, was absent.

Whatever the case may be, whatever reasoning was behind Silva’s performances at UFC 97 against Leties and UFC 90 against Cote, one thing is certain; come August 8th he will no longer have the luxury of playing it safe and no one will have to worry whether or not Forrest Griffin will bring the fight to him.

Stay tuned to PRO MMA (promma.info) for more on this story.

By: Jack Bratcher

One thought on “Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin in UFC 101 super fight”
  1. Finally, a real fight for Silva. I was so tired of watching his lame fights against competitors who could not give him a challenge.

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