Behind The Box Score

The first true UFC event that I watched start to finish, but it was no doubt a good one at that in my opinion. The only crushing thing of the night was the quick KO of hometown boy Forrest Griffin, 1 minute and 37 seconds in. My predictions with my friends didn’t go so well for me, taking a beating, going 2-4, with my wins coming in the Penn and Hendrick fights. But for now, I will turn it back over to Josh Duggan, the guy who took the Griffin fight a lot tougher than me.

Starting off the night was Josh Neer Vs. Kurt Pellegrino. This was one of the more “unexciting” fights of the night. Unfortunately for Neer, it seemed being “The Dentist” didn’t prevent him from his cavity (Pellegrino). Neer couldn’t keep the fight upright, and was stuck on the bottom for basically the whole fight. By unanimous decision Pellegrino was ruled the winner.

Another surprising fight was between Ricardo Almeida and Kendall Grove. I was quite amused by this fight simply because of Grove’s “stretch” like appearance. Grove’s one shining moment was the near armbar, but couldn’t hang on, and Groves is in full guard.  It almost seemed as if his height was going to be an advantage for him, unfortunately for Grove, Ricardo Almeida’s strong point was grappling which ended in a unanimous decision once again.

Fortunately for all, the excitement was blaring through everyone’s TVs when the third match started. It was Johny Hendricks and Amir Sadollah. Both competitors came out full blast with all intentions of smearing each others blood on the mat. Ironically enough one of the more exciting fights only lasted about 20 seconds when Hendricks landed several uppercuts to Amir leaving him helpless against the cage, while pounding on him until it was ruled a K.O.

The next fight was just another “restroom break” match while waiting for Griffin vs. Silva but basically the entire match Aaron Riley pumbled Shane Nelson. Nelson had a couple good shots in the first round, but the opening kick of the second round by Riley turned the tables.  Riley was ruled the winner via unanimous decision.However, another fight was going on, this time, in the crowd.

Finally, the last two fights everyone was there to see. The most anticipated of all was the Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva fight. I was totally in favor of Forrest Griffin due to him being a Columbus boy like myself but unfortunately for all Ohioans this match was a let down. Silva went out there with all cockiness showing while Griffin showed a more conservative side. While toying with Griffin, Silva finally decided to end the match by K.O.ing Forrest. Infact, while you’re reading this, let’s have a moment of silence for Griffin.

On that note, the final match. UFC Lightweight Championship with B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian. This match was quite an obvious one, but no matter how much Penn dished out, Florian ate it all. It went all the way up to round 4, where Penn locked a choke hold on Florian to end the fight. I must add that this was quite the fight card, at least the main fights were, there were a few time fillers in there but overall I would rate this event very fightastic.