Philadelphia played host to the UFC and most importantly the Lightweight title fight between BJ Penn and challenger Kenny Florian. Also, Anderson Silva went for another swim in the Light Heavyweight pond, taking on former 205lbs title -holder Forrest Griffin.

Josh Neer Vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Both of these guys always put on a great fight inside the octagon, win or lose and both had a point to prove with the winner moving himself into contention territory. Pellegrino used his wrestling and ground skills to subdue a frustrated Neer throughout the fight. Kurt avoided Josh’s striking and managed at least one take down per round. Although he didn’t overly punish Neer, “Batman” stuck to his game plan and did enough to get the nod from all three judges on the score sheet, despite a busy Neer who worked tirelessly from his back to try and get the win. Pellegrino by unanimous decision.

Kendall Grove Vs. Ricardo Almeida
“Big Dog” and “Da Spida” had a tight battle, exchanging plenty of good knees and each connecting with a few strong punches. Ricardo closed the distance to muffle Kendall’s obvious reach advantage and pushed to the fence. From there he looked for the takedown every time and stayed busy on top, out scoring the Hawaiian in the first round.

Almeida closed again in the second and gets the fight to the ground, where Grove has his best chance in the fight and sinks in an armbar and almost locked it down. Ricardo stays calm and powers out of it. From here he is not headed and controls the fight from the top position for pretty much the whole time until the bell. “Big Dog” started to tire in the latter stages and took some good shots but he had already done enough for the W. Almeida winning by unanimous decision.

Amir Sadollah Vs. Johny Hendricks
Returning to the octagon from a long spell due to a couple of last minute injuries, season seven TUF winner Sadollah, only managed to last 29 seconds against a debuting, bearded Hendricks. Amir got caught by some punches from John and went down (taking a few more) but he was on his way up when the referee stepped in and pulled Hendricks away, stopping the fight. In slow motion the stoppage didn’t look too bad but in real time, he could have let it go a while longer. Hendricks wins via TKO in the first round.

Anderson Silva Vs. Forrest Griffin
Having looked a little disenchanted in his last couple of outings, the UFC brass thought that another jump to LHW would put some fire back into “The Spider” and against Forrest Griffin no less. Well it did what was intended as Silva steam rolled through the former division champion with plenty of time left in the opening stanza.

Griffin was supposed to trouble the Brazilian, but all he did was look like he was moving in slow motion, as Silva swayed, weaved and slid away from everything that Forrest launched at him. Seemingly every punch that Anderson threw found its mark – he rocked Griffin a couple of times, even once offering assistance to Forrest when he was on his back. The third time Griffin got jolted he fell backwards to the canvas and waived away any further assaults from the dynamic middleweight, handing Silva his tenth straight victory inside the octagon. Griffin pulled himself up off the canvas and ran from the arena, not staying around for the official post fight announcements… Silva by KO at the 3min 23secs mark of round one.

BJ Penn Vs. Kenny Florian
Looking strong and lean, thanks mainly to his new strength and conditioning coach, BJ was back in his rightful division to defend his belt against number one challenger “Kenflo”.

“The Prodigy” set the pace of the fight and controlled proceedings from the opening bell. Florian avoided most of the champs’ strikes but when he did get caught, he felt it. Kenny tried regularly to take the fight to the mat and was thwarted every time by a balanced Penn. Florian threw plenty of good leg kicks and moved around the octagon quite well, however BJ was just too good on the night.

Every takedown attempt was deflected and eventually in the fourth round BJ caught Florian with a combination of punches and wound up in top position. From here he started to really punish Florian, who tried to escape by rolling out, instead giving BJ his back. Penn worked him over and popped in some heel kicks to the stomach before pressing home with a strangling rear naked choke. “Kenflo” had no other option but to tap – BJ Penn retained his title due to a submission victory in the fourth round.

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