
Hours after the most electrifying domination in a career filled with them, deep in a back hallway of the Wachovia Center, Anderson Silva was waiting for Dana White. Silva is the UFC’s middleweight (185-pound) champion but Saturday he boldly moved up 20 pounds and in a jaw-dropping exhibition, brutalized Forrest Griffin, who just nine months ago was the light heavyweight (205) title holder.
Silva knocked Griffin down twice, offered a hand to help him up once and then promptly floored him again for good at 3:23 of the first round of UFC 101. Most remarkably, he did it with a punch he threw while backpedaling.
It was a complete annihilation. Griffin failed to land a single punch and when he came to his senses, he sprung up and ran from the octagon, trying to push through a doctor’s examination.
“He might be in Georgia by now, he ran out and I haven’t seen him since,” White, the UFC president, joked.
That Silva could move up a weight class and not just win, but destroy with power, was a game-changing and perhaps UFC-altering moment. That’s what Silva and his manager, Ed Soares, wanted to discuss with White.
pre-match: http://www.comcast.net/video/UFC-101-SilvaGriffin-Exclusive/1198298016/fanBoxing/newest/
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/ufcppv/101;_ylt=Aoyjsr7xA_qwMMxCK0t6pgg5nYcB