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UFC 101: DECLARATION ROUNDTABLE 8/09: Pelkey, Ennis and Penick rate and review
Aug 10, 2009 - 9:55:20 AM UFC 101: DECLARATION ROUNDTABLE 8/09: Pelkey, Ennis and Penick rate and review

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Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist: (6.5)

This show gets a mild thumbs up thanks to the two main events. You generally expect the undercard to deliver on quality action, but three of the first four fights we saw were very ho-hum affairs. Neer couldn't get off his back, Grove couldn't escape Almeida's grip, and Nelson was out of his depth against Aaron Riley. The frustrating part was that none of those fights were ever really close to being finished.

I didn't think the Sadollah/Hendricks fight was a particularly bad stoppage because I think even if it was allowed to continue, Amir was going to just keep eating heavy shots. That said, it was an impressive debut for Hendricks, and I wouldn't be opposed to a rematch on free tv in the near future, but that's not a necessity. Amir looked good in the first twenty or so seconds, but he got caught by a big shot from a power puncher. It happens.

We saw two impressive statements by two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world last night. I still can't decide whose was more impressive. BJ Penn basically pitched a four round shutout against the #1 contender in his division. It was every bit as good as GSP's win over Thiago Alves. He punished Florian at every turn, stuffed every takedown attempt, and when he finally went for a takedown of his own, the fight seemed to turn academic at that point. If BJ Penn fights every fight like that, he's unbeatable at 155. Cardio was NOT an issue for him last night. He was actually the fresher fighter in the fourth round.

Anderson Silva [artist Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]

What can you say about Anderson Silva? Forrest Griffin never had a prayer. I'm fairly confident Silva is a Jedi Master and could've won that fight with his eyes closed, sensing when Griffin was getting close with a punch. I don't know why they didn't show it in the post-fight replays, but the sequence where Silva bobbed and weaved under and around about five of Griffin's punches and then capped it off with a straight left that floored Forrest was about as impressive a display of striking as I've ever seen in MMA. If you have the fight recorded go and watch that sequence...in slo-mo.

Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist: (6.5)

This was probably the weakest UFC pay-per-view of the year, but this has been a really good year for UFC PPVs. No undercard fight was remotely remarkable, and the title fight was overshadowed by the co-main event. You've also got the potential early stoppage in the Sadollah fight, which doesn't help things. For the record though, I don't see how you can criticize the ref there. Sadollah's position wasn't exactly encouraging. When a fighter is on all fours and taking punches to the side of the head, that's a signal for the ref to stop the fight. So was Sadollah out? Probably not. Was he giving any indications that he was going to be defending himself? Also not.

I don't really have anything else to say about the undercard outside of Sotiropoulos-Roop. Sotiropoulos looked really, really good in his win. I'm very interested to see what they do with him next. I think you throw him directly to the wolves. Tyson Griffin, Frankie Edgar, Clay Guida - one of those guys. See if he's got the wrestling to be able to do anything with them. Also, you can whine and complain all you want about Griffin-Silva getting the "Fight of the Night" bonus, but without having seen the unaired prelims yet, I don't know of any other more entertaining fight on the card. One-sided? Absolutely. Entertaining? As Sarah Palin would say, you betcha.

So while the card was unspectacular in large part, it was certainly newsworthy. BJ Penn is back and better than ever at 155, and Anderson Silva reasserts himself as a monster. Will he stay at 205, or will he go back to 185 and break the record for consecutive defenses of a UFC title? I'm guessing he'll probably break the record before going up to Light Heavy for good (unless a fight with Wanderlei Silva looms immediately at 185.) So the outlook for "The Spider" is decidedly sunny, and ditto for the UFC's lightweight king.

Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief: (6.5)

This show was an enjoyable one because of Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn's fourth round against Kenny Florian. The rest of it was just very average.

There wasn't really anything bad on the show, but multiple fights ended up looking like they didn't belong on a pay-per-view card. That goes doubly so for the Aaron Riley-Shane Nelson bout. Neer vs. Pellegrino was solid, but Neer couldn't solve Pellegrino's top game and as such it was three identical rounds with neither getting close to a finish. Almeida-Grove was almost identical with Almeida's top game, though Grove made it interesting for a second with a tight armbar that Almeida barely managed to survive.

Johny Hendricks did what he was supposed to do in his fight against Amir Sadollah. Even if you thought it was an early stoppage the fact is he did drop him hard with those uppercuts before sending a bunch of shots his way as Amir struggled to his feet. It was a tough spot for the ref but Hendricks wouldn't have needed much longer had Sadollah gotten up there. Then George Sotiropolous looked great in the only aired prelim of the night.

B.J. Penn looked very good against Kenny Florian. He beat Kenny to the punch and outstruck him every round, along with being an immovable object against the cage when Florian tried to take him down. Then when he pulled off his own takedown he showed everyone the difference between a black belt in BJJ and elite world class level black belt in BJJ. Penn stands firm at the top of the Lightweight division and if he is in the shape he was on Saturday night for every fight he just may be unbeatable at 155.

As for Anderson Silva, wow. What else can you say? He moved his consecutive UFC victories to 10 with an absolute decimation of Forrest Griffin. Like Matt said, the bob and weave sequence with his arm at his sides before landing that left was a thing of beauty, and through the three plus minutes that this one lasted Anderson showed off. That's it, he said "I thought this is the guy that was supposed to push me?" and he goaded Forrest to do that. We saw what happens when you even attempt to push him. So the two Champions looked great in victory and really saved an unfortunately average event.