Nov-19-2009

Forrest Griffin – The Quest to Get That Winning Feeling Back

UFC 106 Official Event Poster Related Products UFC 106 Official Event Program UFC 106: Ortiz v. Griffin 2 DVD Forrest Griffin UFC 106 Walkout T-shirt UFC 106 Official Event T-shirt - Grey Related News James Te Huna: Last pick becomes a wanted man UFC 109 Musings Better Late Than Never, as Couture Submits Coleman in UFC 109 Main Chael Storm – Sonnen Earns Shot at The Belt Danzig’s Back with A Win; Davis Impressive in Debut Headlines James Te Huna: Last pick becomes a wanted man UFC 109 Musings Better Late Than Never, as Couture Submits Coleman in UFC 109 Main Chael Storm – Sonnen Earns Shot at The Belt Danzig’s Back with A Win; Davis Impressive in Debut

By Thomas Gerbasi

“Where’s Forrest?”

Missing in action for a few days last month, Forrest Griffin was suddenly a wanted man when Mark Coleman got injured and was forced to withdraw from his UFC 106 bout with Tito Ortiz. But the former UFC light heavyweight champion was nowhere to be found.

Not to worry though, as Griffin was simply enjoying his honeymoon with new bride Jaime in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest, a spot with little to no cell phone reception.

“I would recommend that to anyone looking to go on vacation,” said Griffin, who only had four days of peace before he and his wife started to head toward Yosemite and had his cell phone “going off like a machine gun. Apparently the UFC called one of my cornermen, ‘Where’s Forrest, where’s Forrest?’ Usually I answer my phone. If Dana White texts me, I give him a call. There’s not a whole lot of people I get right back to, but he’s definitely one of them.”

And when Griffin got on the line with the UFC President, he received a simple question: do you want to fight Tito Ortiz again? Griffin agreed, and despite a shortened training camp, the chance to get back in the Octagon after a first round defeat to Anderson Silva in August and to do it against Ortiz, a fighter who holds a close split decision win over him, was too enticing for him.

“That was obviously the selling point,” said Griffin, who has as many questions swirling around him as Ortiz does heading into Saturday’s main event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. For Ortiz, it’s whether he will be able to recapture the form he once had as 205-pound champion after undergoing spinal fusion surgery, but his opponent is expecting the best Ortiz possible when the bell rings.

“I assume that he’s fine and one hundred percent ready to go, and that’s what you’ve gotta think,” he said. “You can’t count on injuries serving you well. That’s kinda like saying ‘well, if he hits me enough, he’ll break his hands and then I’ll be all right.’ And on a more technical level, you can’t prepare for one thing with Tito because he’s a crafty guy. He’s gonna mix it up, he’s gonna set up his takedowns with hands, he’s gonna shoot and then throw punches. He’s a veteran fighter, he fights smart, and I saw somewhere that he said he’s not a guy who’s taken a lot of damage, and he really hasn’t. You take out the Chuck Liddell fights and the fight with Randy (Couture), he really doesn’t even get hit.”

As for Griffin, some are wondering whether he can rebound from back to back knockout losses to Silva and Rashad Evans, get his career back on track, and then get back to the top of the division.

Those are some serious question marks, but what isn’t in dispute is what has already happened between the two in Anaheim on April 15, 2006. On that night, Griffin – in his first major fight since winning the first season of The Ultimate Fighter – was steamrolled in the first round by Ortiz and almost stopped. By round two, Griffin got his bearings and roared back in rounds two and three, only to lose a decision.

Afterwards, Griffin talked of being in the Octagon that night and freezing under the enormity of the situation as Ortiz walked from the locker room. He says it’s not something he expects to happen again, but that the feelings are always there in some form.

“That fear for me is always there,” he said. “It’s a scary feeling. You’re alone in a cage and everybody’s watching and the fear really comes from knowing that I owe this to myself. I’ve done this much work and this is the thing I want. It’s that fear that the thing you want most in your life is within your grasp and it’s up to you to take it. That’s a lot of pressure, but I’ve been around a couple more times. I’ve had it happen a bunch now so I’ve become more accustomed to the fear. It’s like skydiving. It’s never gonna be mundane.”

You could say the same thing for the career of Griffin, who has gone through quite the rollercoaster ride since emerging at the first TUF winner in 2005. And through the highs (winning the UFC crown from Quinton Jackson, defeating Mauricio Rua) and lows (the losses to Silva, Evans and Keith Jardine), perhaps the most interesting part of the whole situation has been watching Griffin dealing with life in a fishbowl, something he admits he hasn’t always excelled at.

“I can’t say I’ve dealt with it well,” said Griffin. “I’ve been rude to a lot of people and I’m a little bit ashamed of my behavior in some instances. You take any average guy and put him in extraordinary circumstances and put a great amount of pressure on him. Randy (Couture) has kinda got an open door policy (at the Xtreme Couture gym). You can just come in, and people are just standing there watching you like you’re the show. And I know where it’s coming from and it’s a good thing, but I don’t know, it could be Tito’s buddy. I’ve seen people videotape me and then put it up on the internet, and it’s kinda almost like I have a distrust of people. But in life, I’ve been trying to turn a corner and be nicer to people in general.”

It’s an admirable attitude from the 30-year old, who has taken more than his share of abuse on message boards and from the media for bolting from the Octagon without a post-fight interview after the Silva fight. But who knows how they would react in such a situation, especially given the sacrifice and work that goes into a training camp for a fight that lasts less than three and a half minutes. Griffin has always worn his heart on his sleeve when it comes to the fight game, even breaking down in the Octagon after his 2006 loss to Jardine. So for some to criticize and say to Griffin, ‘well, you wanted this,’ frankly, he didn’t. He isn’t in this for the fame; it’s just come with the territory. But truth be told, he did wonder why he still does this after losing to Silva.

“After my last fight I asked myself that, and the thing is, I can’t come up with anything I’d enjoy doing more than training,” he said. “I can’t think of a job, whether it’s training police officers and SWAT guys or something fun like that that I’d actually rather do more than to kick some pads and wrestle around. You get beat up and get dinged, and there are ups and downs, but there’s still nothing I’d rather do more.”

Of course, he did say training. What about fighting?

“The fight is the fight,” said Griffin. “It’s weird. Where I’m at right now, I’ve got to remember how good winning feels. I know how bad it feels to lose. It’s the worst thing in the world, and you can’t associate fighting and training with that feeling. You’ve seen me lose a bunch of fights and I don’t deal with it well. I’m not a fan of it, and it breaks you down - it breaks me down anyway. So you’ve got to remember how good it feels to win.”

He hopes that feeling comes back on Saturday.