UFC 101 "Declaration" 8/8/09 Re-Cap

UFC 101: Declaration
8/8/09
Wachovia Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The main interest in this show in the top 2 fights. We have Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn taking on challenger Kenny Florian and we have Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva taking on former Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin. We should also see Ricardo Almeida/Kendall Grove and Kurt Pellegrino/Josh Neer as well as TUF Champion Amir Sadollah in his first post TUF fight against Johny Hendricks.

Lightweight Fight- Josh Neer (25-7-1) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (19-4)

Neer is coming off a big win at UFC Fight Night 17 over Mac Danzig.

R1- Pellegrino started the fight off with a good slam. Neer briefly locked in an arm bar but Pellegrino slammed his way out of it. Pellegrino is staying on top of Neer but both guys are active. Pellegrino takes round one 10-9.

R2- Both guys landed some stand up in the first minute of the fight. Pellegrino fought hard and got a take down. Neer keeps going for submissions from the bottom but eventually Pellegrino passed his guard and mounted him. Pellegrino then took Neer’s back with less than a minute left in the round. Pellegrino is up 20-18 after two rounds.

R3- Pellegrino caught a Neer kick and got a quick take down early in this round. Neer opened up Pellegrino with a strike from the bottom. Neer looks like he’s got a bloody nose or mouth. Neer landed some nice elbows at the end of the round. Pellegrino is going to win this fight based on the first two rounds.

Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards. This was Pellegrino’s first UFC Main Card victory.

Winner: Kurt Pellegrino by Decision (Unanimous)

Tito Ortiz and Georges St-Pierre are in the crowd. GSP gets a good reaction, Tito got a mixed reaction.

Middleweight Fight- Ricardo Almeida (10-3) vs. Kendall Grove (12-5)

Almeida comes out to some Social Distortion. Almeida is coming off a win over Matt Horwich at UFC Fight Night 18. Kendall Grove is coming off of a UFC 96 TKO of Jason Day. Grove has a 6” height and 5” reach advantage.

R1- Almeida worked for a long time and finally got a take down with about a minute and a half left in the round. Kendall was able to get back to his feet but then got slammed back down with 15 seconds left in the round. Almeida took this round 10-9.

R2- Almeida almost immediately got a take down to start this round. Kendall locked in an arm bar and came close but could not finish Almeida. Almeida gets some good Ground and Pound but Kendall was able to get back to his feet. Almeida finished the round with another take down. Almeida is up 20-18 after two rounds.

R3- Almeida hit a good right hand, drove Kendall into the cage and then got a brief take down. Almeida tried to pull guard into an arm bar but Kendall landed on top and got some brief Ground and Pound before he gave up the position. Almeida is tired but he was still able to get a take down about half way through the round. Kendall was able to get back to his feet with 30 seconds left in the round but Almeida clinched him up and this one is going to go to Almeida by decision.

Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.

Winner: Ricardo Almeida by Decision (Unanimous)

Chuck Liddell is in the house.

Welterweight Fight- Amir Sadollah (2-0) vs. Johny Hendricks (5-0)

Hendricks is a 4-time All-American wrestler and a 2-time National Champion out of Oklahoma State. Hendricks comes out to “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones. Amir has a 6” reach advantage. One weird stat is that Amir comes into the fight at 3.5 lbs under the weight limit which is something that you don’t see very often. Hopefully he didn’t over cut as this is his first fight at Welterweight (he fought at Middleweight during TUF).

R1- Amir is throwing lots of kicks and strikes early but Hendricks catches him with some strikes and Amir goes down and Mirgliatta stops the fight early. Bad stoppage. The ref actually stopped the fight as Amir was trying to get back to his feet. This isn’t the first time that Mirgliatta has done this. UFC needs to look at keeping him away from the Main Card.

Winner: Johny Hendricks by TKO (Mirgilatta) R1 0:29

Lightweight Fight- Aaron Riley (27-11-1) vs. Shane Nelson (13-3)

Greg Jackson is in Aaron Riley’s corner. Yoda! This is a re-match from a previous fight where the ref made a horrible early stoppage and Shane Nelson was awarded a cheap win due to referee error. This is the re-match so Shane is looking to prove that he deserved to win the last fight and Riley is looking to prove that it was indeed an early stoppage and he would have won the fight if it had not been stopped.

R1- Riley is trying to take it to Nelson early and has landed some good strikes. Close first round. I’ve got it going to Riley.

R2- Riley hit a good head kick about half way through the round that didn’t knock Nelson down but did daze him and allowed Riley to get a take down. Riley takes this round as well and is up 20-18 going into the third round.

R3- There was a fight in the crowd during this fight but they didn’t show it. While that fight was going on Riley was on top of Shane and controlling the action. Riley gets his revenge in this fight as he took each round of this fight.

“If he doesn’t win this decision I’m going to burn my headset and run naked through the crowd”- Joe Rogan

Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.

Winner: Aaron Riley by Decision (Unanimous)

Light Heavyweight Fight: Anderson Silva (24-4) vs. Forrest Griffin (16-5)

Silva is coming off of two lack luster fights in which his opponents really didn’t look to engage in combat with him. Silva is looking to make up for it in this fight. Forrest has not fought since he lost his Light Heavyweight Championship to Rashad Evans back in December. I read somewhere that Roy Jones Jr was going to be at this fight to scout Anderson Silva as I’ve heard they have some sort of agreement to fight after Anderson’s UFC contract is over. Forrest gets a huge reaction when he comes out for the fight. Silva is 9-0 in the UFC. Forrest got another huge reaction when he was announced. Silver got a little bit of boos when he was announced.

R1- Anderson grabbed a Forrest leg kick early and just tossed Forrest back wards. Anderson rushed in at about the two minute mark and landed a big right hand that knocked Forrest to the mat. Forrest gets back up and throws some strikes. Anderson looks pumped as he’s telling Forrest to bring it. Anderson puts his hands down and ducks Forrest’s shots and just levels him with a straight level that knocks Forrest to the mat. That was an unreal sequence that looked like it was out of a movie. Anderson gets some Ground and Pound but then let’s Forrest up. Anderson again puts his hands down and ducks Forrest’s shots and this time hits Forrest with a straight right hand. This was just a dominate performance by Anderson. WOW. Anderson Silva just ate Forrest Griffin.

Winner: Anderson Silva by TKO (Strikes) R1 3:23

UFC Lightweight Championship: B.J. Penn © (13-5-1) vs. Kenny Florian (13-3)

According to the UFC stats Penn has never been knocked down and lands 61% of his total strikes (3rd best in UFC History). Florian has also never been knocked down and lands 52% of his strikes (versus the UFC average of 35%). Penn is coming off of a well documented loss to GSP at Welterweight. Florian is coming off of an impressive victory over Joe Stevenson on UFC 91. KenFlo has a 4” reach advantage in the fight.

R1- Florian got tripped up early but he was able to get back to his feet and clinch with BJ. They clinched in the center and both hit some body shots. BJ landed a big strike near the end of the round that wobbled Florian and then BJ followed up with a couple of knees. BJ takes round one 10-9 in what was a fairly even round until the last 15 seconds.

R2- Not a lot of action in this round. BJ landed a couple of strikes around the one minute mark. Really close round with neither guy really doing much damage. I’ve got BJ up 20-18 with the second round being closer than the first.

R3- Kenny pressed BJ up against the cage for the first half of the round. Kenny controlled this round without doing a lot of damage. BJ was able to get in a couple of shots on the fence near the end of the round. Another close round. I’ve got Florian taking this one so that makes the fight Penn 29 Florian 28.

R4- BJ landed a couple of strikes to open the round. BJ got a take down about a minute into the round. BJ has trouble passing Kenny’s guard but still lands a couple of nice shots. BJ was able to mount and Kenny gave up his back. BJ nailed Kenny with some kicks to the side which opened up the Rear Naked and BJ grabbed the Rear Naked Choke for the win. Really great move by BJ Penn for the victory and successful title defense.

Winner and still champion: BJ Penn by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R4 3:54

Lightweight Fight- George Sotiropoulos vs. George Roop

This was a pre-show fight featuring TUF 6 vs. TUF 8.

R1- Roop went for a kick and got taken down by Sotiropoulos. Sotiropoulos quickly mounted Roop but Roop got back to his feet. Sotiropoulos hit a good combination that stunned Roop. Sotiropoulos was able to get Roop down on the mat again and once again quickly passed his guard. Sotiropoulos is controlling this fight early much like I thought he would.

R2- Sotiropoulos got Roop down on the mat early in this round. Sotiropoulos got the kimura and tapped out Roop. Good showing for Sotiropoulos.

Winner: George Sotiropoulos by Submission (Kimura) R2 1:59