Anderson and Penn show why they are champs

[Brian Shannon]

BJ Penn looked great last night defending his belt against Kenny Florian. I mentioned that a focused Penn was a scary Penn in my preview post but I had picked Florian and really felt good about it...until Penn walked into the ring. Bj physically looked better than we had seen him a while. He looked to be 20 pounds bigger than Kenny. KenFlo just couldn't do anything with Penn. In fact he was so head strong in trying to take Penn down that he really didn't attempt much of anything else. Strategy? Maybe but it could have been the only thing he thought he could do after trading a few punches with him.

Either way Penn took down the man that was on a winning streak surpassed only by Machida and Anderson Silva and he did it in dominating fashion. Now the question becomes if Diego Sanchez is next in line to fight Penn. He has fought twice at the 155 level and looked awesome in both fights. It will be interesting to see if he does and if this win reignites Penn to stay motivated to clean house in the division.

Before the Main Event we saw Anderson Silva make Forrest Griffin go at it in a non-totle fight. Anderson holds the belt at the 185 class but stepped up to 205. I know that Anderson's nickname is 'The Spider" but after seeing what he did to Forrest maybe he should consider changing it to Neo. He dodged punches from Griffin like Neo does bullets in The Matrix. Check out the action below.

Then after moving away with such ease he delivered a solid shot that dropped Forrest. He dropped the former champ 3 times with the last time (pictured below) being enough for Forrest. He walked right into a straight jab. In what appeared to be frustration and embarrassment (which is understandable he WAS embarrassed) Griffin sprinted out of the ring back to the dressing room without speaking to Anderson or Joe Rogan. I remember saying he come on man stick around and don't go out like that.

The guys I was watching with began to wonder....did he throw the fight? Or did he realize that he wanted nothing to do with Anderson after the first punch and he left quickly because he was embarrassed? As the UFC showed the replay a few times in slo-mo the discussion intensified as to whether or not he threw the fight. I even got a text from one friend wondering the same. A couple of us felt that maybe he got his jaw broke earlier or something. Turns out something along those lines did happen. Sunday his camp revealed he had suffered a dislocated jaw after being struck by Silva. One site from the UK reported:

Griffin was roundly criticised in the hours following the fight, and for failing to show at the post-event news conference, but Griffin had been taken to the hospital for checks, unable to hear in one ear, and in order to get his jaw checked.

WOW in addition to having his jaw dislocated he had trouble hearing! Watch the fight and look at the pinpoint accuracy and think about the power Anderson must have. At the 205 level he has yet to go 5 minutes in bouts against James Irvin and Forrest Griffin, a couple of tough dudes. One of the toughest out there, Chris Leben, was beaten up in less than a minute and a half.

So now the question becomes, will he fight his friend and former training partner Lyoto Machida? Many think he won't but I really hope he does because that would be a really really great fight.

In other action with the exception of the Amir fight the other 3 went the distance and weren't anything but one sided. The Amir Sadollah vs. Johny Hendricks was HORRIBLE! I really like Amir and have been ready to see him fight for about a year it seems. He has been hurt a couple of times in training that have prevented him from fighting. Finally we get to see him in the cage and he gets dropped by a good shot from Hendricks. Then Johny goes in to finish the fight. While he is throwing them he is actually grazing his head (if he made contact with all of them) The ref, Dan Miragliotta, stepped in and made a huge mistake in judgment by stopping the fight.

All that time working to get into the cage and it gets stopped by someone who gets paid to be in position and see the fight....yet he was out of position and thought Johny was rocking Amir so he stopped it. Horrible, simply horrible. I have a feeling that we will see these 2 guys fight again. Shane Nelson vs Aaron Riley fought for the 2nd time after a premature stoppage that in raged Dana and the fans. The Amir fight was worse than that one so I suspect we will see them go at it again.

All in all it was a decent night of fights. The last 2 were worth watching unless you wanted Forrest and Kenny to win.