Title: Wanderlei helps Forrest prepare
Tags: Wanderlei Silva Forrest Griffin UFC MMA interviews fights
Blog Entry: A little over three years ago, the idea of stardom hadn’t set in for Forrest Griffin. A three round victory over Stephan Bonnar at the first Ultimate Fighter finale and captivated a nation with his self-effacing humor and ability to smile through a mask of blood. He was just another guy taking out his stitches with the aid of an Xacto knife nine days after the biggest fight of his life. “I still do it,” he deadpans, three years and seven fights later. “It's convenient." He’s still pretty much the same guy – celebrity sits unsteady on his head, he’d rather have a good book in his hands than doing the rounds of the hottest clubs, and life is fairly simple – train, eat, train, sleep, train, fight. Throw in the usual media obligations and you’ve got the picture. But on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, the Georgia product won’t be the unknown brawler looking to make a name for himself while trying to earn a spot in the UFC. He’ll be 25 minutes or less away from becoming the UFC light heavyweight champion, the best 205-pound fighter on the planet. Three years ago, that was a pipe dream at best, a Hollywood ending for a story that for all intents and purposes began on reality television. But it’s real for Griffin – almost too real - and given the blood, sweat, and tears to get here and the pain he will have to go through to beat reigning champion Quinton Jackson this weekend, he doesn’t even allow himself to picture what Saturday night will look like, to get his hopes up, to dream of hoisting that championship belt to the sky. “I never thought about what it would be like that night,” he said. “Not one second." Maybe because in this game, more than in any other, there are no guarantees. What works in Hollywood rarely does in real life. Griffin’s career is a case study. On top of the world after beating Bonnar in April of 2005, Griffin would win his next two bouts over Bill Mahood and Elvis Sinosic before a high-profile clash with former UFC light heavyweight boss Tito Ortiz in April of 2006. On a UFC 59 card aptly titled ‘Reality Check’, Griffin survived a frightful first round beating to come back and arguably win the next two rounds. He would lose a close decision to Ortiz, but his stock may have risen even higher in defeat. That wasn’t the case two fights later, when Keith Jardine halted him in the first round in December of 2006. Unable to accept simply getting caught and stopped, Griffin questioned himself incessantly after the bout’s conclusion, wondering if he could compete with the best in the division. Suddenly the always wisecracking Griffin began to snarl, and when an April 2007 bout with Lyoto Machida was scrapped due to a staph infection, he was not only kept from the gym, but from the Octagon, forced to relive the Jardine loss every day for another two months. “Basically, I just sat on that loss for almost five months and it was pretty rough,” said Griffin, who would finally get the call to return in June against hard-hitting Hector Ramirez. “I know your body needs rest, and if you really want to prepare for the next guy, you've got to take that time. But there's a part of you that wants to go and get that taste out of your mouth and fight again immediately." Against Ramirez, Griffin showed a different side of his fight game as he picked his foe apart methodically and with a discipline he sorely needed. No longer was it ‘hit Forrest and watch him put his head down and swing away.’ He looked like a contender. “It wasn't that dramatic of a thing,” Griffin counters. “I've got some pretty decent tools and I'm not worried about my resolve. I think at some point I realized that I naturally don't have heavy hands and I'm not a big power puncher, so I've tried to be more technical with my striking now, and the thing is, if you don't have to get hit, don't get hit. I know I could fight just about anybody. The question is, can I beat these people? You answer that one fight at a time." On September 22, 2007, most questions about Forrest Griffin disappeared in 14 minutes and 45 seconds, the time it took him to dominate and then submit Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, the PRIDE star with the win over Jackson and the reputation as one of the top 205-pounders in the world. Griffin made him look like he shouldn’t even have showed up for the fight, and when it was over, the idea of Griffin as light heavyweight champion wasn’t so far-fetched anymore. So the UFC made the fight, prefaced with a six week stint on The Ultimate Fighter that saw Griffin and Jackson matched up as coaches. And while there were no serious confrontations or bad blood on an Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock level, there is enough of an intensity beneath the laughs to make this fight one that needs no pre-fight drama. Few are as intense in the gym as Griffin, who gingerly walks the line between training hard and leaving his fight in the gym. One who may match Griffin’s intensity is one of his regular sparring partners, fellow light heavyweight contender Wanderlei Silva, the owner of two stoppage victories over Jackson back in Japan’s PRIDE organization. “He actually has given me a couple (of tips), just some little technical things about how to clinch a little better and just his take on fighting,” said Griffin. “If there's anyone who's been put on this Earth to fight, it's that guy. He's like no one I've ever met." And when the bell rings in the gym, there is no feeling out process with Griffin and Silva, no working on specific techniques. It’s war. “We usually fight,” said Griffin of sparring with ‘The Axe Murderer.’ “He doesn't give you a lot of quarter. He goes after you and he goes hard." Have they taped any of these sessions? “We should tape one,” chuckles Griffin. “I just want to make sure I'm fresh on the day we tape. They're definitely better than some fights I've been in, that's for sure." So if you see Griffin on fight week with a black eye or some bumps and bruises, don’t be surprised. “You're always a little banged up for a fight,” he said. “At least I am. If you're training to fight somebody, you've got to practice fighting people and you usually get hurt doing it, so that's just the way it goes." At this point though, the hard work is done. Griffin tapers down on the last eight days before fight night, and his goal now is to stay sharp, stay healthy, and stay focused. Keeping that trinity in check is harder than you might think. “Things are great, but I feel the pressure of it all though,” he said. “I feel like all the things I want are within my grasp, so I feel a lot of pressure to attain them." Think about it – once you get past the money and the fame (one Griffin could use, the other he could do without), being the best, even if for just one night, is what every athlete dreams of. Fighting has become more than a job for Griffin – it’s his life – and not only will he be facing a champion who seems to be getting better with each fight, he’ll be doing it at a distance he has never been before. It’s a dilemma he’s pondered. “The big thing for me is that he (Jackson) has gone 25 minutes with (Dan) Henderson before,” said Griffin. “I was hoping that would be one of his weaknesses in the later rounds, but he's done that and I haven't actually even done that before. I can do my rounds, but I've never been in a fight that long." Maybe he has – not in one night, but in the last three years. For Griffin, his UFC career has seen him start strong, face adversity, hit the canvas, and come back swinging and winning. He’s not the same fighter and man he was in April of 2005. But though the names and circumstances change, the bottom line remains the same. “It's not at all hard to get motivated for a fight when you think about everything that's at stake,” he said. “Whether it's financially, or what I want as far as how I want to be remembered in the sport. There are so many things, and good things happen when you win a fight. Bad things happen when you lose.
VIEW FULL VERSION: Link