Fallout from the Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs. Thales Leites championship snoozer continues and fans will ultimately be the victors.

Their five round UFC middleweight championship bout at UFC 97 was mundane to say the least. Silva was fighting to cement his legacy as the first UFC fighter in history to win nine bouts in a row. Fighting not to lose, Silva succeeded in winning the bout and taking the record, but he lost some style points due to the passive manner in which he fought.

There now seems to be two Anderson Silvas: the current Anderson Silva and the Anderson Silva who got him there.

The Spider burst onto the UFC scene in June 2006 when he absolutely obliterated Chris "The Crippler" Leben with a stunning array of Muay Thai strikes and kicks. In an absolute tour deforce of his striking ability and evasiveness, Silva landed twenty-one unanswered strikes to Leben to win by first round knockout. Sliva's speed is so unprecedented, it was difficult to review the fight and count the strikes landed.

Nineteen, no wait, that was twenty-one.

Silva's next six fights were much of the same -- complete rule as he earned the UFC middleweight belt and retained ownership over and over.

That was the Anderson Silva of old. With his last two fights, against Patrick Cote and Leites, he was fighting to tie and to then break the UFC record for consecutive wins. He fought smartly and technically to avoid falling to his opponents' strengths. Although a great strategy to achieve victory it drew boos from impatient crowds.

Even UFC president, Dana White chimed in on the bout "I'm embarrassed by both fighters," White said after the bout.

One may wonder, is it UFC management's place to chime in on how exciting a fight should be?

Sure they want to sell tickets and advance the popularity of the sport. One can argue though that the manner of how someone won should be dictated by the rules of the game, not how management wants a fight to pan out. Former NFL Commissioner, Paul Tagliabue never chastised the 2000-01 Super Bowl champion/entertainment black-hole, Baltimore Ravens.

The UFC made a move to make amends to fans. Anderson Silva will now move up to light heavyweight to take on perennial fan-favorite, Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 this August.

There will be no passive Silva because Griffin brings it each and every second of each and every round.

From a story-line perspective there are some imperfections in this match-up.

It can be seen as a bad fight for Griffin. After coming off of a loss to Rashad Evans, he needs a victory to move back up in becoming a light heavyweight contender.

If he loses to the talented Silva, his stock dwindles even more, something bad for a UFC posterboy who once had a sky's the limit potential. If he wins against Silva, he's just a light heavyweight who beat a smaller middleweight champion.

Recent history may prove to be against Anderson Silva's chances of a victory.

This is an era of parity in MMA where upper echelon fighters from a lower weight class cannot hang with upper echelon fighters from a higher weight class. One can look no further than BJ Penn losing to Georges St. Pierre and Shinya Aoki losing to Mach Sakurai.

Silva's skill alone might buck this trend when he faces an upper echelon larger fighter in Forrest Griffin.

The main thing here is that fans will be rewarded with a great, great fight style-wise. Now that Anderson Silva has the record and faces a tough opponent, fans will probably get to see the Anderson Silva of old.

David Estrada Jr. is a Mixed Martial Arts columnist for the Port Arthur News. He can be e-mailed at DavidEstrada@DavidEstrada.com