I could talk this fight up for days. What Anderson Silva did to Forrest Griffin was nothing short of extraordinary. Words will only take away from this performance so with no further ado, this is Anderson Silva…
14 thoughts on “UFC 101: Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin (fight video)”
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that was fast but silva is amazing forrest is no gump tho
rigged fight
Wow, anderson silva is one exciting fighter. He worked around forrest that whole fight, and he let forrest have a few free shots, hes amazingly powerful and has one of the most accurate punches in the ufc with a landed punch percentage of 80% which is incredible! ANDERSON THE SPIDER SILVA!
Rigged fight? LOL yeah you know nothing about MMA, much less Forrest Griffin, if you believe that.
How cool is it to see an ESPN logo in the corner? Big things coming!
As some of you stated, why would Forrest take a dive? Why would Dana White and the UFC pay Forrest to take a dive? Some of you guys are going off on Forrest having heart, Forrest not putting in a good effort, Forrest getting KO’d by a softie punch. Are you guys insane? If UFC could have it their way, they would have FORREST win. What benefit does the UFC get in having Forrest dive and Spider win? Wow, great, now Spider can beat the crap out of any other 205 pounder if he wants (except for Machida, who he won’t fight)….or come back down to 185 and dominate there. Spider might take on GSP, but the weight difference might be too great, so that fight might now happen. So back to the normal Spider-is-the-champ scenario. And since everyone would agree that Spider is a dominant fighter, PPV sales won’t be off the charts. Spider doesn’t bring any added marketing appeal, and he barely speaks English. Same old stuff as before. Great, great fighter…..but limited ability to bring in new fans. But if Forrest had won, UFC has their golden boy back. The hype machine is back….they can put him against the winner of Shogun and Machida….and the UFC would see insane PPV sales. Again, If it’s all about the money, all about PPV sales….then obviously, the UFC would have wanted Forrest to win. UFC needs their golden boys…..why do you think Rashad and Forrest were both champs recently? Again, if the UFC was involved in any rigging, then Forrest would have won.
And I cannot believe some of you guys think this fight was fixed. Why do you guys think so? Because you’re forrest fans and you thought he would put up a better fight? Give me a break. Forrest was never a great fighter. Great heart, but he was always a sloppy fighter. He got KO’d by Jardine…just demolished…he got KO’d by Rashad….again, had a weak guard and he got pummeled. He also lost to Tito, and got pummeled in the first round. Props to Forrest for his wars againt Bonnar…but Bonnar doesn’t have KO power, and he landed dozens of punches. Massive props to Forrest vs. Shogun, but Shogun’s health was questionable. And major props to Forrest for grinding it out against Rampage. But all Spider Silva needs is one punch. The fight was really over after the second knockdown…again, Forrest showed big-time heart….most guys wouldn’t have gotten up. Think about Silva vs. James Irvin….one punch, and Sandman was rocked. Spider’s fights vs. Franklin shows just how dangerous his strikes are. And remember Spider vs. Nate Marquardt….now, Marquardt is a top notch fighter….and all it took was that one punch from Spider, and he was done. Remember the Leben fight? Now Leben has a concrete head….the dude is simply tough to knock out. He showed just how tough he was vs. Spider Silva…..it took a few extra strikes from Spider to knock Leben out, but boy did he knock him out with style.
So guys, the fight wasn’t rigged. There’s no reason for the fight to be rigged in Spider’s favor. Forrest was nervous, he was tenative….yeah, that’s because Spider Silva has a very dangerous reputation. You think Forrest was going to go balls out, Bonnar-style, and start swinging wildly? Dude, he’s smarter than that…..he knew who he was fighting. And honestly, that $60k bonus is out there for a reason…..what do you think the UFC paid him to rig the fight? $100k? $200k? $50k? Again, there’s no reason for the fight to be rigged.
And yes, Forrest ran out because he had never been rocked so hard in his life. His jaw was f’d up. His corner saw blood coming out of his ear. It was a pretty brutal situation. And you guys think he ran away because he was ticked that he had to take a dive? Haha, insane.
Ok, just “my” opinion here. I am not advocating anyone agree with me; however, I am one who just cannot see how such a “tap”, and that is what it was in my view, could be so devastating to Griffin. Now I am absolutely no Griffin fan and I agree, sloppy is a good word to describe some of his past fights but to the “ignorant” to MMA, it looked VERY RIGGED. It may not have been, but it sure as heck looked that way.
Here is why I believe it wasn’t all just Silva, who I think is awesome. Dana White admitted he has been embarrassed during Silva’s last two fights. Not to blame Silva at all, but White needed to calm the fans down and let them know he was going to use Silva to put on a real show. So, what better way than to take Griffin, a heavier fighter and somewhat successful, but on his way out, and pay him well to go in and be aggressive and hit the floor? The announcers hyped it, the rest of the media hyped it and we all knew it “should” be good. If Griffin had hit the floor when he should have, after a number of well placed power shots from Silva, I wouldn’t be saying this but hey man, that tap just couldn’t have been that powerful. Good grief, that was just nuts.
You guys have to remember Forrest had already been dropped to the floor twice within three minutes. So it wasn’t going to take a sledgehammer to put him down again. Look, there is NO way in hell Forrest Griffin would ever take a dive. Why would Dana and the Fertittas waste and risk the billions of dollars this business is worth if word ever got out that a fight was “rigged.” Come on guys.
Good point Promma, but remember, I said to the “ignorant” like me, it “looked” rigged, and it did. Personally, I think Griffin should have stayed down the last time he got hit hard,,, I thought it had knocked him out. And, who can blame White for trying to make up for the last Silva fight? Isn’t that what this was all about anyway? No title right?
And to see a guy with such heart as Griffin just fall on a tap, and then jump up and jog out of the arena is just a little less than normal you know what I mean?
Ok, I stand corrected, but not until after Chris Gates of Tupelo BJJ in Tupelo, Mississippi explained to me how a fighter can get knocked out like Griffin did off of Silva’s tap. Apparently, and there is no way I would doubt Chris, the momentum of Griffin moving forward coupled with his weight makes such a knockout or knockdown possible relatively easy. According to Chris, when you have already been knocked down as Griffin had been, it doesn’t take much to finish the job, especially if you have all your weight moving foward at fast pace. A well placed jab can be devastating as we saw in the Griffin/Silva fight.
So I publicly stand corrected, and it is as it should be. Just remember, I did say (I think) that the “ignorant to mma”, such as myself, can easily draw the conclusion that the fight was “fishy”. Now that someone actually took the time to explain the reality of it all, I can see how it could happen. Thanks Chris.
Thanks Ken. Makes sense. Tupelo BJJ has some great fighters.
People can get knocked out by back pedaling punches in MMA, because of the small gloves. Just look at Liddell vs. Vernon White.
Definitely looked rigged. This certainly wasn’t the first MMA fight I’ve seen. I’m 33. I’ve been a pretty big fan of MMA for about the last 17 years. If it was rigged (and I’m almost positive it was), it’s not the first time this has happened. And I”m not specifically referring to the UFC. I’ve seen this happen in Dream, Pride, Heroes, etc. Every now and then you see this. I knew from the get go that something weird was gonna happen. I’m not just saying that because they were trying to put on a show more than they were trying to fight each other either, but that was the case. I’ve seen both of these men in real bouts before and this was way different. It seemed like neither of them wanted to hit each other with even one solid shot. Both of them were throwing soft punches. None of the knock down punches were hard thrown shots. And the one that ended it was from Silva throwing a punch while back-stepping. It’s not like Griffin stepped into a punch that Silva put all his weight into. And Griffin has taken some big shots before. To say there is no reason for it at all is just naive. Silva is a good fighter. He was alright when he was in Pride. Pretty decent. He lost to 2 very less than average fighters in Pride though (in Takase and Chonan). I was in Japan when I saw those fights. He also wasn’t doing so well against Steibling, but got lucky that they stopped the fight due to a cut. But the UFC wants him to look unstoppable. He’s a “UFC champion”, and one of their golden boy champs at that. They’ve put him against an enormous amount of junk in the UFC, but I’m not saying he isn’t a good fighter. He beat Dan Henderson and that says a lot. This definitely looked like a Don King/Dana White promotion picture.
And as soon as he fell on that final knock down you could see Griffin’s queue to the ref to stop the fight. Arms out to the side (in an exaggerated motion – just the way you’re taught to do in any form of acting). I understand that this can naturally happen to a fighter when he really gets hit right, losing his senses/equilibrium a bit. But Griffin knew exactly what he was doing. As soon as it was done and the ref stopped the fight. He got up and left. He didn’t appear hurt at all. But he did what he was supposed to do. The show was done and he left (quickly). I’m sure he got paid well or at least I hope he did for that, but some people would probably feel a bit less of a man to throw a fight like that. The people that talk a fighter into doing something like that just have to explain that this is “entertainment” and they’re being paid to “entertain”. It sucks, but that’s what it is.