Welcome to another installment of the table (seen in the extended entry) which cannot be stopped. One of the assorted talking points which can be pulled from this exercise is the contrast between domestic and European events and how that impacts the moves going forward.

UFC UK president Marshall Zelaznik gives insight to Zuffa's continued and future investment overseas:

"We didn’t deliberately cut back our UK schedule in 2009, it just worked out that we only had two shows. But in 2010 we are looking to be busy in Britain," he said.

Zelaznik says the UFC is interested in visiting cities that have not yet hosted a show, but says the size of venues is a limiting factor in some cases.

"We definitely want to do Liverpool and Nottingham in 2010. Any city that has a suitable venue capable of holding more than 9,000 spectators, we are interested in," he says.

"We want to go to Scotland as soon as possible but at present there is no venue there that can accommodate us. But we are going to go back to Dublin in 2010.

The last UK event for the UFC in 2009 will be the105 event November 14th in Manchester, England. The card features the rumored headline of B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez for the lightweight title and will not be on available on PPV. Penn's last foray into a UK PPV against Joe Stevenson at 80 did a reported, unimpressive 225k in buys.

See full entry for the newly updated MMA in Numbers listing.

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"In my opinion, the major factor out of everything is the layoff. Kenny had nearly nine months off before this fight and that really hurt him. There are certain things that happen to a fighter mentally when he’s not fighting as often. He starts to question his technique a little bit and that’s part of it. It’s not all of it, but it had to do with some of it."

..."There are a lot of things that happened during the fight that you may or you may not have seen. Kenny got poked in the eye, which BJ is notorious for. He did it against Matt Hughes twice in one fight and once in their first fight. He did it against Georges St. Pierre in both fights. He was hitting behind the head all of the time. Kenny won’t say this, but I certainly will."

...(Next for Kenny) "I’m thinking more like a Frankie Edgar, Tyson Griffin, Gray Maynard or Clay Guida or someone along those lines…a Diego Sanchez…whoever is going to be in the top 5 that’s going to get us back in title contention. I don’t know who else is going to give BJ the run that Kenny did."

Despite Dana White's stated intention to reinstate McCrory and Leites, it appears that they have indeed been cut. From Kevin Iole:

A strange week and a bad day got even worse for Thales Leites and Tamdan McCrory when each man found out he was going to be dropped from the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster after thinking he might receive a reprieve from UFC president Dana White.
...

News of the move to drop the men surfaced on Thursday. But late Thursday, White told Yahoo! Sports they had been dropped but that he would "fix" it and that they would not be cut.

However, after discussing the move internally on Friday, White changed his mind and opted to let Leites and McCrory go.

HT BE reader ludakrish.

Hey guys I figured I’d come on here and explain my fight a little. 1 thing I wish I would have done is just try to get up. The reason I didn't was because when he stood up, he was waiting for me to do so. Soon as I would of, he would of spun around and take my back. If I had it to do over again I would have just took the risk. I was complaining about the ref standing us up because c'mon he can't stand us up 1 time? But I guess you can't when you’re basically from the same town as my opponent. I watched the same ref being buddy buddy with all the guys on the card from New Jersey. My main problem with Kurt was b4 the fight he talked how it was going to be a war and he was going to leave it all out there and blah blah. Well in my opinion he didn't at all. If you’re going to play it safe and stick to a game plan just say that. Don’t talk like it's going to be a great fight.

I didn't hold him in my closed guard and wait for a standup because I don't stall. I try to finish. You would think a black belt would do that too. I think the ref was biased whether he was trying to or not. When you have a guy coming into your state and fighting a hometown guy your going to be biased whether your trying to or not. I felt like I won the fight anyways. I was the one who almost finished the fight. I was the one going for stuff. He was the one defending the whole fight but I knew the judges would give it to him no matter what because if you’re on top you win no matter what. If the fight would have gone until someone tapped or got TKO’d everyone knows who would have won. Kurt was on a 2 fight win streak. He wasn't in danger of being cut. That’s it guys I’m out. Thanks to all for the support.

Well, guess I'll join in. Josh I think u answered your own question and u should've done what u just wrote, u should've tried to get up BUT I would have taken your back so that was smart on your part. You should've held me in your guard so the ref would've stood us up where you wanted to be, but u did not because I kept punching and elbowing you. Right before the fight you said yourself that I would only stand with you in order to set up my takedown, and still you had NO defense to my game.

I beat u because of my game plan Josh, not because of the ref. You just made it easier because I counted on u doing what u were doing in the fight and you never once sprawled, it was too easy to take you down. I wasn’t just going to stand and bang with you because that’s what you wanted to do. I watched our fight and I thought it was good and every time u looked at the ref I punched u in the face or elbowed you. Next time you fight someone that is taking u down, sprawl and when you want to get stood up, over hook the arm and hold the head....its NOT stalling, it’s a game plan!!

I do remember you coming in my locker room after the fight and telling me great game plan and you were sorry but I just frustrated you. I said thanks. That’s what I had to do to beat u because u are a tough guy. I never in my life 'lay n pray', not this time and not in any of my past 9 UFC fights, EVER.

Sounds like u need a game plan... stop complaining and start fighting smarter. Sorry, there had to be a winner.

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From Fighters.com:

"When you get to see the fight in slow motion, you can see that [Amir Sadollah (1-1)] was out and then, after a couple of strikes, wakes back up and starts trying to stand back up," UFC referee Dan Miragliotta told Fighters.com Sunday night in response to the outrage here and across the MMA media after John Hendricks (6-0) TKO’d the charasmatic The Ultimate Fighter 7 champ Sadollah in 29 seconds in Hendricks’s Octagon debut at UFC 101 in Philadelphia Saturday.

Miragliotta emphasized, "You know me and have spoken with me about other fights, my job is to protect the fighters and I try and do my best to do that."

A proud professional, Miragliotta verified his call immediately after the stoppage: "When I stopped the fight and got between Sadollah and Hendricks, Sadollah still looked glassy eyed and asked me what happened. I feel that he was still a little out of it while standing there talking to me." And, when Fighters.com spoke to Miragliotta, he had just finished watching the fight again to examine his work.

Personally, I prefer the occasional quick stoppage to a late stoppage like Josh Rosenthal's in the Brian Bowles vs Miguel Torres fight. No one gets permanent brain damage from a quick stoppage.

Photo by UFC.com

If Anderson Silva's deconstruction of Forrest Griffin didn't impress you enough, FightMetric offers up some pretty impressive stats:

* Silva landed 13 of 25 total strikes, for an accuracy percentage of 52%. Silva has still never had a fight in which he landed less than half his attempted strikes.

* If you want to consider Silva's head movement, consider that Griffin landed 1 of 35 strikes thrown to Silva's head, or 3%. The average is 29%.

* With his three knockdowns against Griffin, Silva becomes the only fighter in UFC history with two fights containing three knockdowns. He also did it in the second fight against Rich Franklin.

* The three knockdowns also moves Silva into second place for most knockdowns in UFC history, behind only Chuck Liddell.

One of thirty-five.  Jimmy Fallon has a better hit-to-miss ratio.

MMA fans might be the harshest and most fickle in the sporting world. There is no better demonstration of the "what have you done for me lately mentality" than the way we have collectively turned on former favorite Forrest Griffin. For an example see the photo shop on the right which has been making the rounds in the BE comments, on the UG and the Sherdog boards.

Not all of the criticism has been mean or knee-jerk. There are questions about whether he was ever any good to begin with, Zak Woods:

Is Anderson Silva just that good or have we been inflating Forrest Griffin's status and abilities for some time? 

We always knew that Griffin's chin was not a solid rock nor did he have heavy hands but Forrest had reinvented himself into a tactician. None of that was on display last night. 

For the record Forrest Griffin is now 2-2 in marquee fights at light heavyweight (victories over Quinton Jackson and Mauricio Rua, loses to Anderson Silva and Rashad Evans). If we include the Keith Jardine loss than Griffin slides to 2-3 in fights against top competition. All three of those loses come via knockout.  

If we dissect Griffin's victories than they appear to be paper tigers as well. Griffin was the beneficiary of favorable judging against Jackson on top of Quinton's mental issues that became apparent after the fight. In the Shogun bout Rua was fighting on one leg due to an ACL tear and was still able to bloody Griffin though in the end Rua would be submitted in unspectacular fashion.

And BE reader FlyByKnight declares Forrest's career over in a thoughtful and even-handed piece, that is nonetheless, damning:

Whether one wants to admit it or not, Forrest Griffin's career is pretty much dead as we know it. His days as that one guy who helped bring millions of fans into the UFC are over. His days as that one guy who had his career slaughtered at the hands of Anderson Silva has begun. There's no shame in losing to Anderson Silva. None whatsoever. But, this loss stands out above all others. In one of the most bizarre, embarrassing, and highlight reel knockouts ever completed, Anderson Silva ended Forrest Griffin's career in essentially the same jaw-dropping fashion that it began. And it, quite simply, is a shame.

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The Event:

• Live Results and Commentary -- Brent Brookhouse

• B.J. Penn Chokes Out Kenny Florian to Defend His UFC Lightweight Championship -- Kid Nate

• Anderson Silva Dismantles Forrest Griffin -- Kid Nate

• Forrest Griffin NOT injured in loss to Anderson Silva-- Kid Nate

• Johny Hendricks Batters Amir Sadollah to First Round KO -- Kid Nate
• Kendall Grove Drops Decision to Ricardo Almeida -- Kid Nate
• Kurt Pellegrino Defeats Josh Neer by Decision -- Kid Nate

• Kurt Pellegrino bitch-slaps Josh Neer by request -- Jesse Holland

• UFC 101 Results: Aaron Riley Defeats Shane Nelson via Unanimous Decision -- Kelvin Hunt

• Results from the prelim card for ‘Declaration’ -- Druby Sunshine

• UFC 101 bonuses and awards for ‘Declaration’ PPV fights -- MMA Mania

• Penn once again silences doubters -- Kevin Iole

Multimedia:

• UFC 101 Photos -- MMA.Fanhouse
• UFC 101 Photos -- Philly.com
• UFC 101 Photos -- MMA Weekly
• Post-Fight Interviews (video)

• UFC 101 post fight extra with ESPN MMA Live (Video)

• Brawl in the Crowd (video)
• Dana White's instant reaction to UFC 101(video)
• Dana White UFC 101 Vlogs (video)

Post-Fight Analysis:

• Post-Fight Analysis-- Kid Nate

• Silva, Penn Among the UFC's Dominant Champions -- Michael David Smith

• UFC 101 reaction -- Beau Dure

• What Did You Learn From The Event? -- Kelvin Hunt

• Recap and post-fight discussion for ‘Declaration’ in Philadelphia -- Druby Sunshine

• What we learned from UFC 101 -- Zak Woods

• Anderson Silva's Dominance Produces a New Set of Interesting Questions -- Leland Roling

• Anderson Silva vs. the World -- Jake Rossen
• Silva seeks new horizons -- Dan Wetzel
• Who can solve Silva's puzzle? -- Dave Meltzer

• Anderson Silva To Give Up UFC Middleweight Title For Permanent Move To Light Heavyweight? -- Kelvin Hunt

• Are Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn Too Dominant? -- Kid Nate

• Forrest Griffin NOT Injured in Loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 101 -- Kid Nate

• Did we overvalue Forrest Griffin? -- Zak Woods

• UFC 101 Hangover -- Zak Woods
  

WEC 42 Miguel Torres vs Brian Bowles:

• Live Results and Commentary -- Kid Nate

• Brian Bowles KOs Miguel Torres, Wins Bantamweight Title -- Michael David Smith

• WEC stunner: Bowles KOs Torres, takes bantamweight belt -- Sergio Non
• Bowles delivers WEC stunner vs. Torres -- Kevin Iole
• Bowles shocks the world with a KO of Torres -- Maggie Hendricks
  

Odds and Ends:

• What is Sakara signing at UFC 101? Does this mean Loretta Hunt was right again? -- Zak Woods

• Seeing UFC 101 Live: Experience and Thoughts -- Son of a Psycho

• Bloody Elbow Betting Game Results -- Eugene Schelfaut

Graphic by Eugene Schelfaut

The morning after two utterly dominant performances by UFC champs Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn all the chatter is focused on what can the UFC do to keep fans interested in such dominant fighters?

Michael David Smith says this is an era of dominating champions:

It says that there's never been a time when the UFC has better champions than right now. Penn and Silva, along with welterweight champion Georges St Pierre, light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida and heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, appear to be just about unstoppable in the Octagon.

But when you look at these UFC champions, you just see five guys who are just about pefect at what they do. Penn, St. Pierre, Silva and Machida have nearly flawless styles. Lesnar is a physical freak of nature. When will one of these guys be beaten?

Ben Fowlkes talks about Anderson Silva and just how good he is:

But the way Silva fought on Saturday night there are very few fighters in any weight class who wouldn't have appeared similarly outclassed. "The Spider" slipped punches as if it were part of a choreographed dance and struck with violent precision whenever he saw even the slightest opening.

After two lackluster title defenses at middleweight, Silva used the move up in weight classes to show that, when he cares to be, he's still the most dominant fighter in the sport.

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