MMA Worldwide

UFC 101 Recap

Posted by Marcos Villegas on the 9 August 2009 | No Comments

BJ Penn exercised the demons of past, as he remained the top 155 pound fighter in the world. In front of a sold out crowd at the Wachovia center, BJ Penn showed improved conditioning on his way to a fourth round submission of Ken Florian. With all the smack talk being spurted back and forth between the two fighters building up to the nights contest, it was all BJ Penn from the start of the bell. Penn rushed out at the beginning of the first and was the aggressor throughout the fight.  The Hawaiian landed an early right that knocked Florian back for a brief moment. Through out the fight Florian attempted the same strategy that worked masterfully for Georges St. Pierre.  By forcing Penn back and working him in the clinch, he hoped it would be effective in wearing Penn down towards the later rounds.  Florian didn’t take into account that GSP had a significant strength and weight advantage.  By late in the first round Penn landed a power hook that wobbled his opponent to a knee.  Perhaps sensing an early end to the fight Penn shot in with a flying knee that Florian took flush on the face.  He was able to endure the flurry that followed, only to barely make it out of the first round. 

The second and third rounds were mostly fought with Florian backing Penn against the cage.  Penn was able to work his way out most of the time, while landing some big shots. With Florian continuing to press forward with his game plan, Penn was unable to gain significant momentum, as Florian would pop in and out then going straight into the clinch.  By the fourth, Penn finally started to show signs of fatigue, yet he was able to keep superb form.  Landing in half guard after successfully taking down his opponent, Penn landed some good elbows that allowed him to transition in to full mount.  This is all the former world champion Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt needed as Florian soon gave his back to the champ and was quickly submitted by rear naked choke at 3:54 of the fourth round. Penn thanked his fans after the fight and as usual plugged his website before leaving the cage.                  

 

Silva shows why he is pound for pound best:

 

Anderson Silva silenced all critics who were questioning if the native of Curitiba Brazil, was on a down hill decline.  After two lackluster performances against Thales Leites and Patrick Cote, the aggressive striking of the master was put on fine display at the highest stage. Forrest Griffin, whose unorthodox style was being billed by many to create interesting problems for Silva did not foresee what was to come. Coming out to a mixed reaction of both boos and cheers Silva soon turned the crowd over at the Wachovia center by the end of the fight. The first thirty seconds of this highly anticipated bout had both Griffin and Silva bouncing around, feeling each other out.  Griffin pushed the movement being the aggressor with in the first seconds, throwing jabs and kicks to get the Brazilian off balance. Unfortunately for Griffin, Silva was simply measuring his prey, by getting the timing of Griffin, who was doing an excellent job of limiting his movement while cutting off the cage. Griffin threw a half speed body kick that was caught by Silva who countered with a straight right that Griffin barely slipped. Sensing Griffin was now giving him openings, the champ loosened up and immediately landed a huge hook that rocked the Athens, Georgia native down. Silva immediately went in to capitalize, but soon backed off and allowed the referee to stand a clearly outclassed Griffin back up. What happened next was vintage Silva. Visibly pumped up after landing the big hook, the Brazilian taunted his opponent to come in. Griffin obliged and threw his best shots all of which Silva slipped, moving in and out with ease. A Griffin jab was eaten by Silva who countered with a straight left that knocked Griffin to the ground again. Silva was now landing at ease, as a perfectly timed short right jab landed and immediately knocked Griffin down, leaving him unable to want to continue at 3:23 of the first round.  Silva extends his reign to 10 consecutive wins in the octagon, perhaps meeting Dan Henderson or the winner of the Marquardt/Maia fight. 

 

Early stoppage ends Sadollah’s official octagon debut. Almeida and Pellengrino notch up victories and Nelson avenges lost in rubber match:

 

Brooklyn’s own Amir Sadollah fizzled out early, by being TKO’d in thirty seconds of the first round as surprise sleeper Johnny Hendricks pulled out the victory. The crowd seemed displeased with the questionable early stoppage, which Sadollah protested as well.  When asked by announcer Joe Rogan if Hendricks believed it might have been an early stoppage, he responded that “he was just doing his job and that it’s the referee’s decision to stop the fight.” The surprise lost for Sadollah began with the two fighters circling and feeling each other out with low kicks and jabs. A bit over anxious with making his UFC debut, Sadollah rushed in with a three hit combination that was immediately countered by a right that altered his momentum towards the cage. Once pressed against the cage, Hendricks landed a series of uppercuts, eventually bringing Sadollah down. Hendricks proceeded to land a few more blows before the official stoppage of the fight.  Hendricks now improves to 3-0, amidst the boo’s received by the fans inside the Wachovia arena.

 

Outworked and outhustled, Kendall Grove could not get a solid game plan going against former middleweight King of Pancrase Ricardo Almeida. Kendal, the bigger of the two fighters was looking to use his huge reach and height advantage to establish distance, but was eventually lured into fighting Almeida in close quarters.  This allowed Almeida to control the fight setting up good clinch positioning and multiple takedowns. In round one the Gracie Barra black belt did an excellent job of taking advantage of this as he successfully took Grove down with a lower body clinch trip. At the end of round, Almeida slammed Grove to the mat to dominantly and set his game plan in place for the rest of the fight.  Grove almost was able to pull out the win in the middle of the second when a deep arm bar was applied from his guard after he was taken down. Almeida was able to neutralize the potential threat and worked inside Grove’s guard as he continued to dish out some effective ground and pound damage. Once back up, Grove would land one more significant hit to his opponent; a knee from the clinch that rocked his opponent momentarily before being immediately taken down once more. The third and final round was much of the same with Grove not using his reach to establish his power rights as he was constantly being taken down.  The judges all scored in favor of Ricardo Almeida who won 30-27 on their cards.  Almeida now improves to a record of 11-3.

 

Kurt “Batman,” Pellegrino notched his third straight win against the crafty Josh Neer. The dominant wrestling ability of Pellegrino was the clincher in this bout, using it to his advantage to grind out a decision. The first round saw an opening high kick from Neer that was blocked by Pellegrino and immediately followed up by a double leg take down. Neer attempted two arm bar attempts before the close of the round. Much of the work in the fight was done inside the crafty guard of Neer. Who through out the fight attempted various submissions, all of which were stopped by Pellegrino. In the second round it seemed that Neer might had woken up as he landed a clean low leg kick that caused some damage. Pellegrino responded, landing a swift jab-right to the head and a hook to the body as he finished the combination with a takedown.  The two continued to work inside Neer’s guard. Neer sensing he needed something big to change the momentum of the fight attempted a triangle submission followed with a kimura attempt. Neer had a late burst of offensive deep into the third, as he stuffed a takedown attempt by Pellegrino and landed heavy elbows that cut Pellegrino before the end of the final round.  Neer knew the late offense was not enough to pull off the win as the decision is awarded to Kurt Pellegrino on all judges scorecards 30-27.

 

The bigger, stronger Aaron Riley fought Hawaiian native “Sugar” Shane Nelson to a three round unanimous decision. Looking to rebound from the controversial first match up between the two, the heavier Riley effectively used his kickboxing and judo techniques to shut down Shane Nelson.  All three judges saw Riley as the aggressor, landing textbook kickboxing combinations in the first two rounds. Nelson fired shots of his own but it was apparent that he had nothing behind them when they didn’t seem to hurt Riley. By round two, Nelson had significantly slowed down while Riley mercilessly   kept up the pressure and threw a big head kick that was partially blocked. The end of the round finished with a slick sweep by Riley. With his hands regularly dropping and his breathing becoming heavy, it may have been a silent sigh of relief for Shane Nelson as the major part of the round was spent in his guard with Riley dishing out ground and pound work on his way to the win.  Aaron Riley avenges his previous loss to Nelson as he is awarded the unanimous three round decision.  

 

In the undercard:

George Sotiropoulos def George Roop via Submission (Kimura) in Round 2 (1:59)

John Howard def Tamdan McCory via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Alessio Sakara def Thales Leites via unanimous decision (29-28,27-30,29-28)

Matt Riddle def Dan Cramer via unanimous decision (29-27,30-26,30-27)

Jesse Lennox def Danillo Villefort by TKO (cut) in Round 3 (3:37)