Apr 28 2009
UFC’s Mega-Fight
When my brother was kind enough to text me this morning about breaking UFC news, I couldn’t believe what I was reading! After a lack-luster fight with Thales Leites, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva will fight former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin.
The fight itself will likely take place on August 8th at UFC 101 where UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn will defend his title against Kenny Florian. Whether you believe that this fight should take place or not is up to you, but I feel two ways toward this fight.
On one hand, this is going to be a fight that will push Anderson Silva to his limits as Griffin is not going to lay on his back and let Silva bring the fight to him. Griffin, however, stands a very tall and long 6′3″, where as Silva is typically the taller fighter at 6′2″, will be smaller.
That will be an unlikely disadvantage for Silva because he usually has the size and reach advantage against most of his opponents. How Silva decides to handle being the shorter fighter is going to dictate the pace of the fight and should make this match an all out war.
My other problem is that, and whether you agree or not, Griffin is a former Champion that could easily be one win from a title shot. Silva has not fought an elite fighter at 205 lbs. and should not be thrusted into a title fight if he does defeat Griffin.
Griffin does deserve a title shot if he defeats Silva and more importantly, Silva needs to work his way up to a title shot. Either way you go with this fight, it has all of the markings of a huge pay-day for the UFC as it places the pound-for-pound best fighter in the World against possibly the biggest star in Mixed Martial Arts.
J.M.Saucedo
