Last night in the fight town of Killadelphia, we saw one of the most impressive wins in UFC history courtesy of Anderson Silva taking out the former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.
Not only did Anderson silence the crowd, but he silenced the critics around the world in less than four minutes.
Griffin is a fan favorite, a brawler, a banger, and someone who loves to get hit and hit back. Last night though we saw him toyed with, man handled, and beaten down in one of the most shocking victories in quite some time.
Anderson’s victory itself isn’t the shocking part. What's surprising is the fact that Forrest was knocked down three times while Silva dropped his hands and begged Forrest to hit him.
Forrest didn’t stick around much longer afterwards; he sprinted to the locker room and drifted off into the night. Reports from Forrest’s camp have stated that he suffered a dislocated jaw and lost all hearing in his ear during the first knockdown. After the fight, he allegedly went straight to the hospital.
Silva showed last night why he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC.
As thrilled as Silva must be right now, Dana White and the Zuffa family must be just as happy if not happier.
Since Strikeforce signed Fedor Emelianenko, Dana has had to not only defend himself and the UFC, but his fighters as well.
Now he can just sit back and relax, for now.
Anderson Silva’s future has taken front page news and has put the Russian’s future on hold for the time being.
So who and where does Anderson fight next?
Dana has stated that Dan Henderson, coming off a massive knockout victory over Michael Bisping, is next in line. That would be for the middleweight championship though.
The question remains, what does this mean for Anderson’s lightweight career and what about a super fight with Georges St. Pierre?
As complicated as things seem to be now, things just got a lot simpler for Georges. A fight with Anderson Silva in the near future seems a little pointless and futile.
Georges is the Welterweight Champion and Anderson is the Middleweight Champion. In order for them to fight each other, Dana has stated it would have to be at a catch-weight. Since Silva is also part of the light heavyweight team now, I don’t see Dana putting two belts on hold for a super fight.
The UFC needs to showcase excellent fight cards for each pay-per-view that they televise. Putting two divisions on hold in order to have a super fight between Georges and Anderson, just doesn't appear to be a part of the UFC's future plans.
Yes it would draw in millions for that event, but it could also mean that neither belt will be defended for up to almost six months. Not only does this force the championship belts to be put on hold, but the elite fighters in their respected division just can’t fight each other until Anderson and Georges become available.
It’s also bad for business.
Georges is the golden boy of the welterweight division, the golden boy of Canada, and the dude who shut BJ Penn up. Is putting him against the world’s best striker a wise decision?
What if he gets beat down, like he did to Penn?
Anderson is much bigger than Georges though. He is a big middleweight, and looked to be basically the same size as Forrest. I have a hard time believing that Georges could take him down as easily as he did against Alves or Penn. Even if he did take him down, I don’t know if he could ground and pound him for three full rounds.
Why let the UFC’s two most popular fighters duke it out right away? Why not just let the fans argue and banter back and forth and see how far the two can go on their own?
The UFC neeeds to build up the mystic; let the fighters become bigger than Jesus, bigger than breast implants, bigger than The Beatles, bigger than guns, bigger than cigarettes.
I wouldn’t look to see the super fight anytime soon, especially since now Dana and Joe Silva have the option of being able to throw any light heavyweight at Anderson.
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