One way or another, Anderson Silva will know he has been in a fight at UFC 101 after The UFC paired him with Forrest Griffin.
UFC 101 is live on Setanta Sports on August 8. Click here for details of how to get Setanta Sports on Satellite, Freeview or Setanta-i.
The news has been confirmed. Anderson Silva will once again step up to the light-heavyweight division, but this time he will be facing a former champion.
You’ve got to hand it to The UFC, they know what they’re doing.
Silva’s (24-4-0) last two fights against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites have failed to inspire. His MMA mastery has still been more than present, but fans have walked away questioning “The Spider’s” heart, his willingness to engage.
Step forward Forrest Griffin.
“Engage” is the man’s middle name, so are “courage” and “no surrender”. Griffin will come to fight, Silva will need to be at his best to beat him…and that has not been true since Silva beat Dan Henderson four fights ago.
The middleweight champion is currently on a record nine-fight win streak inside The Octagon, victory over Griffin – whose last fight saw him lose his light-heavyweight belt to Rashad Evans – would cement Silva as a genuine threat to the 205 title.
Griffin (16-5-0) is now fully recovered from a broken hand and he just loves upsetting the odds. Rampage Jackson and Shogun Rua have both fallen to the TUF 1 winner…but Silva would be his biggest upset yet.
Also on the UFC 101 card is the defence of BJ Penn’s lightweight title against Kenny Florian.
Penn is the undoubted king of the 155lb division, but has he lost his invincible aura since being smashed by Georges St-Pierre?
Now fully recovered, Penn (13-5-1), returns to his ideal weight to face one of the most improved fighters in MMA.
Kenny Florian (13-3) has black belt Jiu-Jitsu to nullify Penn’s major strength, he has heavily improved wrestling, and he has some of the most vicious elbows in the business. Penn was overpowered in the clinch by St-Pierre, Florian loves to work in the tight areas too.
UFC 101 fight card:
BJ Penn vs Kenny Florian
Anderson Silva vs Forrest Griffin
Amir Sadollah vs Johnny Hendricks
Kendall Grove vs Ricardo Almeida
Josh Neer vs Kurt Pellegrino
Thales Leites vs Alessio Sakara
Shane Nelson vs Aaron Riley
Tamdan McCrory vs John Howard
Matt Riddle vs Dan Cramer
George Sotiropoulos vs Rob Emerson
Danillo Villefort vs Jesse Lennox