This is to address the controversy surrounding the UFC 101 fight fixture between Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin.  This author, along with as it turns out a great many other people felt immediately that this fight was fixed.  Why? On first glance, mainly because it looked like one of those movies when I guy gets paid to throw a fight but doesn't know how to make it exciting and is making it suck so much that his opponent, who is slated to win, actually pleads for him to bring some kind of fight to him, like when Silva actually asks Griffin to get back up.  In those movies the fighter who gets paid to throw the fight usually gets the hell out of dodge right after the fight, which Griffin did in this case.

It really doesn't matter what the motive is (I strongly doubt that Dana White would be involved in this sham or Griffin would have been given better training on how to make it exciting - DW is too good of a promoter to let this guy go out and stink up the ring that bad), it is a distinct impression that was left immediately.  If you want to walk through a blow by blow of suspicious stuff in the fight, I think the case becomes even stronger, and should definitely warrant a review by the Penn State Athletic Commission:

1. There seemed to be all kind of hand signaling between the two fighters

2. When FG gets seriously tagged for the first time, he makes an open-hand stop gesture, like one would make when you know you're about to get hit but don't want to get hit too hard (that's not how a trained fighter blocks a punch...if he can stick his hand out 'stop' he can lift his arm up to block the punch, or even more probably get the hell out of the way)

3. Silva looks clearly disappointed with the lack of effort put up by Griffin and lets him get up instead of finishing him...some people see this as taunting a man you know you feel confident you are going to beat (it seems a bit odd that in 101 UFC events and all the other MMA events...that this is the first fight where a guy risks defeat by letting off a guy and letting him up...).  It appears to those who think the fight is fixed that he wanted to make some excitement for the crowd knowing for sure he was going to win.

4. When Griffin gets up he looks at the clock...shortly thereafter the fight ends...it is a common bet in sports betting to bet on how soon a fight will end and how...

5. For a guy who is supposedly knocked out, Griffin gets up awfully quick and runs out (looking a lot like a guy who's pissed that he had to throw a fight)

6. According to gambling insiders at Gambling911.com, the amount of betting for UFC 100 was a significant increase over previous events and that the trend was expected to continue with UFC 101 http://www.gambling911.com/sports/ufc-101-betting-could-be-hot-080509.html 

7. Griffin got paid just $60K for the fight...only one serious bettor, putting let's say a $250K bet on Silva taking it in the first four minutes, could afford to double Griffin's payday.  Let's say ten serious bettors pooled their reward for Griffin...the money he get paid to fight becomes a rounding error...

It also seems a little suspicious that where and when someone suggests that the fight was fixed, commenters immediately pop in insulting the intelligence of anyone who makes that observation and trying as best as possible to make the thread degenerate into a flame war (thus discrediting the general thread).  These are called 'agents provocateurs', and the tactic is as old as it is well known among schemers. 

Even if this fight was fixed, and I'm pretty certain it was, this won't be a death knell for the UFC like some people are suggesting...this is part of the growing pains involved with potentially replacing boxing as the marquee combat sport for PPV viewership and gaming interest/$$.  The UFC has become a big business but even there it is probably a bit unprepared for the massive amounts of $$$ that changes hands once sports bettors and sports betting become seriously involved. 

In fact, if you want a good conspiracy theory other than Forest Griffin got paid a boatload of dough by some deep-pocketed sports bettors to throw the fight, consider this: who stands to gain if the UFC is discredited by a poorly-executed thrown fight?  How about boxing? Would it be in boxing promoters' interest to have interest drop in UFC in favor of boxing?  The infrastructure that is built up around world-wide boxing is massive and includes some questionable individuals to say the least...you think they want to just let their cash cow get overtaken without a fight?