#2 Anderson Silva’s Neo-like performance at UFC 101
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Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (34-8-1) is a former longtime UFC Middleweight (MW) champion and one of the greatest fighters in our sport’s young history. Forrest Griffin (19-7) is a former UFC Light-heavyweight (LHW) champion with an MMA base of boxing, kick-boxing and BJJ.
Silva faced Griffin at UFC 101 in 2009, in his second matchup in the LHW division, whilst still holding the UFC MW strap. Rumours were rife in the lead-up to the fight that Griffin would open up with a 1-2-headkick combo, and so he did. However, Griffin’s attempted combinations fell short of ‘The Spider’, who used his slick footwork to pivot out of harm’s way.
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Regardless Griffin pursued the smaller Silva, chasing him around the Octagon. This is where Silva’s otherworldly head-movement came into play, slipping almost all strikes thrown by the former 205-pound champion, and catching Griffin with accurate counters from awkward angles.
Silva’s sharp counters started adding up and after getting tagged clean, multiple times, Griffin made the critical error of following the ‘Spider’ in a straight line. Bad idea! Silva slipped his opponent’s telegraphed strikes and caught his American opponent clean with a jab, knocking him out.
Anderson Silva’s entire performance against Forrest Griffin is now widely regarded as an essential case-study for aspiring MMA fighters and martial arts practitioners, all over the world. Silva is Michael Jordanesque Neo-like in his head-movement, Joe!
