If anyone wishes to send flowers or cards, they can be sent to Jeff Tanner, 504 S Harrison Street, Amarillo TX 79101. The family has also set up a memorial fund with The Amarillo National Bank. If you are interested, please email me for the details. The bank is supposed to have it on their website but it isn't there yet. I tried calling them but no one was still there that could help me. I will call them first thing in the morning and get back with everyone about how to proceed.


I think it would be wonderful if Evan's family could truly understand how much Evan meant to our MMA world. Please share your encounters and inspirations with his family. I believe in this dark time for them it would bring light and help them heal.


If you need anything

teamtanner@gmail.com

Thank you

Kyria

Tags: Evan Tanner Memorial MMA UFC

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While some of you may see the brief reprieve we’re enjoying from a whirlwind last few weeks of high-profile throwdowns as a bit of welcome rest for the weary, you’re all wrong. Yes, every last one of you.

Now is the time to discover the fighters you’ve been ignoring, parked in front of your screen researching the next generation while selling your less-than-essential organs for rare fight tapes.

Luckily, I’ve done most of the work for you, finding five of the most pugilistically inclined superstars in the making of whom you’ve probably never heard. In the event you’re familiar with these guys, just smile and nod for the sake of everyone else.

Yoshiyuki Yoshida

OK, so choking out Jon Koppenhaver isn’t exactly the most impressive accomplishment in the world -- especially when you consider Koppenhaver’s real gift lies in the realm of anti-social blogging -- but Yoshiyuki “Zenko” Yoshida remains a criminally underappreciated commodity.

In a division backlogged with wrestlers, Yoshida (10-2) sticks out as a fascinating example of the stylistic synthesis that plays out when talent meets technique. A judoka by trade, Yoshida doesn’t seem to miss the traditional gi one bit, as his arsenal of throws has made him a nightmare inside the clinch.

That’s to be expected, and Yoshida’s success lies with talents that remain shrouded in rumor and hearsay for the average fan. While most fans got to see Yoshida show off his excellent jiu-jitsu against Koppenhaver at UFC 84, “Zenko” has some savage ground-and-pound still waiting to be put on display in the Octagon.

One former fistic great familiar with Yoshida’s ground-and-pound exploits is Akira Kikuchi, whose own hopes of UFC greatness were dashed in brutal fashion by Yoshida in the GCM Cage Force welterweight tournament; the event played a key role in netting Yoshida a UFC contract.

If knocking a former Shooto champion into retirement isn’t enough to get you interested in Yoshida, I sincerely hope you enjoy watching the men’s Olympic handball quarter-finals instead. They’re on tape delay by the way. If you want to be up to date on all things Yoshida in time for his tilt with fellow judoka Karo Parisyan at UFC 88 on Sept. 6 in Atlanta, track down the smash-mouth goodness listed below:

Required Viewing:
GCM Cage Force 4: Yoshida vs. Kikuchi
GCM Cage Force EX “Eastern Bound”: Yoshida vs. Matt Cain
GCM Cage Force 2: Yoshida vs. Katsuya Inoue

Jake Rosholt

If you’re not familiar with Team Takedown yet, Jake Rosholt may be the guy who ends up getting everyone on the same page.

One piece in an army of elite collegiate wrestlers who Team Takedown has banded together with the purpose of launching them all to the top of the sport, Rosholt (4-0) stands out as their most decorated member with three Div. I national wrestling championships.

Of course, we all know black belts and trophies carry about the same weight inside a cage as a scary pre-fight interview. What makes Rosholt stand out is his preternatural talent for the sport. A natural striker who has taken to jiu-jitsu with shocking ease, Rosholt’s wrestling pedigree is the glue that holds everything together, although he often prefers using his wrestling to deport his opponents from the land of the conscious.

Now signed to World Extreme Cagefighting as a middleweight, Rosholt will take on Danilo Villefort at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 in Hollywood, Fla., and with all the talk of an impending, multi-divisional annexation by the UFC, it may only be a matter of time before Rosholt is carrying the Team Takedown banner into the self-described Super Bowl of MMA.

For further confirmation of Rosholt’s Megatron-level credibility, lie, cheat and steal to get your mitts on the matches below:

Required Viewing:
Extreme Fighting League: Rosholt vs. Chad Jay
High Roller Productions “Fight Night”: Rosholt vs. Jeremiah Caves

Masakatsu Ueda

Imagine being one of the best fighters on the planet in your weight class and still maintaining the anonymity of a random Hollywood extra. That’s what unbeaten Shooto champion Masakatsu Ueda deals with as one of the world’s premier bantamweights.

Unlike our previous unknowns, Ueda’s all but married to invisibility. He toils across the Pacific while peers like Miguel Torres rocket to superstardom under the WEC banner. It’s tragic considering Ueda’s a preposterous talent blessed with spectacular wrestling ability and the kind of submission savvy you would never expect from a guy who makes his living with the takedown.

It goes without saying that Ueda (8-0-1) jumping aboard an American-bound flight would be a boon for the sport, but, like many Shooto stalwarts, he appears to be a part of the promotion’s present and future.

While we’re left to dream of the day Ueda makes his way to the land of fried chicken and Fox News, it doesn’t mean you can’t jump aboard the bandwagon now by updating your Shooto library:

Required Viewing:
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 7”: Ueda vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 4”: Ueda vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 2”: Ueda vs. So Tazawa

Jorge Santiago

Forget everything you know about Jorge Santiago.

Getting high kicked into “bolivion” by Alan Belcher? It never happened. Dropped in a heap by Chris Leben? No, good sir, I know not of what you speak.

The truth is that the Jorge Santiago with whom we became familiar once upon a time in the UFC is a thing of the past, replaced by a fighter that resembles him in appearance and little else.

Once a surefire bet to come up short at the absolute worst moment possible, Santiago now seems fueled by a career full of disappointments and marked his rebirth with a stunning display of dominance at the Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” middleweight tournament in 2007.

Ridiculous event naming aside, Santiago (17-7) won the tournament in about the time it takes a normal human to lace up a pair of boots. If that seems long to you, then take that sentence as confirmation of your lacking dexterity. Sorry I had to be the one to break it to you.

To make up for the disappointment, check out some of Santiago’s finest moments thus far. You may develop a healthy fear for this American Top Team middleweight:

Required Viewing:
Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives”: Santiago vs. Trevor Prangley

Art of War 3: Santiago vs. Jeremy Horn
Bodog Fight “Clash of the Nations”: Santiago vs. Andrei Semenov

Donald Cerrone

Try to take this last one with a grain of salt, but whatever you do, don’t take it with hydrochlorothiazide.

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone can tell you all about the misadventures involved with that particular diuretic, as he went from blue chip lightweight prospect to the latest member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s suspension list following his WEC debut against Kenneth Alexander in September 2007.

An easy 54-second submission win for Cerrone (8-0), the bout was declared a no contest after he tested positive for the banned diuretic. An eight-month suspension was the price Cerrone paid for his weight cutting follies.

Now seemingly vindicated after a successful return to the WEC that saw him pick up another submission win and, more importantly, a clean drug test, Cerrone will battle former lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 in Hollywood, Fla.

Don’t sleep on Cerrone while everyone else hypes McCullough; the effortless submission slickness that he brings to the table is a rare sight that should be appreciated at every turn. Here are some reference quality examples of Cerrone’s handiwork:

Required Viewing:
GCM Cage Force 3: Cerrone vs. Yasunori Kanehara
Ring of Fire 28 “Evolution”: Cerrone vs. Ryan Roberts

According to sherdog

Tags: MMA Fighters Upcoming

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Please add or re add Rockstar. She lost her profile... thanks! 

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- SEAN SHERK TO RETURN AT UFC 90 VS TYSON GRIFFIN
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - by Tom Hamlin - MMAWeekly.com

 

Sean Sherk’s quest to regain his Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight belt begins again in Chicago.

After losing the strap to B.J. Penn at UFC 84 in May, Sherk will face off with Xtreme Couture standout Tyson Griffin at UFC 90. Both fighters have agreed to the bout, and are in the process of signing bout agreements, according to sources close to both camps.

Since his loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC 67, Griffin has been on a four-fight tear, recently defeating American Top Team’s Marcus Aurelio at UFC 86 in July.

Griffin’s camp had reportedly been wanting for the fight for quite some time, and with Sherk’s loss, everything seems to have worked out nicely.

In an interview with MMAWeekly.com this past weekend, Sherk would not confirm the fight, but spoke about his next opponent and UFC future.

“I’ve got five fights left, and I feel like I have a good strong future with the UFC,” Sherk said. “Maybe one or two wins and I’ll be back in title contention again.

“I’ve been real careful with who I’m going to fight. I don’t want to fight up-and-coming guys. You start fighting up-and-coming guys and you have to fight more guys to make your way up to the top. I want to fight the best of the best, and that’s what I’m doing with this upcoming fight.”

Griffin, still on leave from a week-long camping trip, was unavailable for comment.

Tags: Sean Sherk Tyson Griffin UFC 90 MMA Fights

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HONOLULU – Kala Kolohe Hose picked up a much-needed victory, as he stopped Rolando Dominique on strikes 1:05 into the second round in the main event at Icon Sport "Hard Times" on Saturday at the Blaisdell Arena.

After a disappointing non-title loss to Robert McDaniel in June, Hose, the Icon Sport middleweight champion, needed to get back on track and prove his win over UFC and Pride Fighting Championships veteran Phil Baroni earlier this year was no fluke.

The relatively unknown Dominique was not going to make it easy for him, however, even though Hose’s middleweight belt was not at stake.

The Alaskan came out with guns blazing and showed no hesitation when it came to trading blows with the heavy-handed Hose. Both fighters landed, but Dominique got the best of the exchanges and connected with a left hand that rocked his Hawaiian counterpart.

Though he appeared to be in trouble early, Hose regained his composure, found his rhythm and started to land more shots. Dominique felt the pressure, shot in for a takedown and then quickly took mount. But the Hawaiian powered his way out, as he shoved off the bigger Dominique. Hose gained top control and landed punches until time expired in round one.

In the second frame, Hose built on the momentum he had picked up at the end of the first and dropped his opponent with a right hook. From there, he finished.

“I caught him,” Hose said. “I didn’t know that he was going to go down that quick. It kind of shocked me, so I just tried stay on top of him. I caught an up-kick, but I got the finish.”

The man Hose defeated for the Icon Sport middleweight crown also came through with a solid performance.

After a number of disappointing losses, Baroni earned his second victory in three weeks, as he dispatched Hawaiian workhorse Ron Verdadero (Pictures) in less than a minute.

The two fighters engaged in a slugfest, and while both connected, it was Baroni who landed the first meaningful blows. The 32-year-old New Yorker delivered an uppercut and right hook that put Verdadero on the mat. Baroni followed him to the floor, as referee Yuji Shimada called a stop to the bout just 51 seconds into the first frame.

The crowd, questioning the stoppage, erupted with a chorus of boos, as Verdadero quickly returned to his feet.

“It was a flash knockdown, man,” Verdadero told Sherdog.com. “I hit the mat, and I got right back up. I didn’t even realize myself that the fight was over.”

A winner in back-to-back fights for the first time in more than three years, Baroni took the opportunity to campaign for a rematch with Hose.

“I wanted to go out there and do my thing,” Baroni said. “I’ll show it to you guys next time when I knock out Kala Kolohe. I’ll fight him anytime, any place, anywhere -- for free.”

Meanwhile, Bao Quach and Mark Oshiro left the crowd begging for two more rounds after the two fought an extraordinary battle at 140 pounds that saw Quach take a hard-earned decision after 15 minutes of non-stop action.

Quach showed no interest in trading with the hard-hitting Hawaiian, as he countered an early low kick with a well-timed takedown.

“Mark’s a tough guy,” Quach said. “He has good stand-up. I just felt like I have better wrestling; I have better submissions and better control on the ground.”

The Colin Oyama-trained fighter landed knees to his opponent’s body from side control, then trapped Oshiro’s arm in a crucifix. From there, Quach transitioned into what appeared to be a tight armbar, but Oshiro endured and waited out the clock.

The second round started much the same as the first, as Quach scored the early takedown and worked for the submission. The Huntington Beach, Calif., fighter secured another armbar, but the flexible Oshiro escaped, rolled on top of Quach and fired away with heavy shots that had his opponent stunned.

“I honestly thought I had him,” Oshiro said. “I saw him; his eyes were dazed, he went to his back, I tried to finish. And somehow, some way [Quach] came right back, took me down and put me on my back.”

With Quach back on top, the two fighters exchanged knees from side position. As time ran down, Quach secured another armbar, but he did not have the time to finish it.

The opening seconds of the round three played out like an instant replay of the first two. Oshiro threw a low kick, and Quach got the takedown.

Bloody and battered, Quach looked content to ride out the round from top position, but that plan was interrupted when the referee stood up the fighters over lack of action. Back on his feet, Quach landed a big right hand, but Oshiro fired back with a right of his own and followed with a knee that put Quach on his back.

“It was a hard hit,” Quach said, “but it didn’t really faze me.”

The young Hawaiian attempted to finish, but the submission-savvy Quach seized his leg and twisted a heel hook. Oshiro winced in pain, as Quach cranked the submission.

“Ninety nine point nine percent pf my body was telling me to quit,” Oshiro said. “My mind was telling me just tap, but my heart was saying no way. I like to fight. I don’t like to lose. I don’t ever plan on tapping, you know … no matter what.”

Oshiro finally escaped but was stuck underneath his opponent. The tired warriors again traded knees from the ground, as time ticked away. Both men turned in gutsy performances, but Quach did enough to earn the decision and with it the Icon Sport 140-pound North American championship.

In other action, Sidney Silva made quick work of Hideto Konda, as he coaxed a tapout with a first-round armbar.

Their showdown started the day before at the official weigh-in when Silva -- who was dropping from 170 to 160 pounds -- mistakenly thought he had made weight and began to rehydrate. Before the miscommunication was realized, the Brazilian fighter had gulped down enough water to put him over the 161-pound limit by two pounds.

Faced with a second weight cut, Silva pleaded with Kondo and his trainer, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. However, his pleas fell on deaf ears, as the Japanese fighter and his trainer seemed to enjoy watching Silva struggle.

“After the episode at the weigh-ins, it frustrated me a lot,” Silva said. “I just got a little angry. I tried to hurt him as hard as I could.”

Silva came out strong, as he landed a head kick and a series of low kicks that seemed to take their toll on Kondo. After landing a knee, Silva took the fight to the floor and secured back control. He then transitioned nicely into the fight-ending armbar 3:40 into the first round.

“To be honest, I don’t really know how it happened; it was kind of fast,” Silva said. “I just go for the arm, you know, whatever. He gave it to me. I just tried to stretch his arm and make him tap.”

Elsewhere, Matt Hume protégé Mario Miranda kept his undefeated record intact, as he needed only 1:27 to pound out Jose Diaz.

Miranda landed a high kick, took the fight to the floor and latched onto Diaz’s back. With both hooks in, he flattened out Diaz and pounded away at his defenseless opponent until the referee stopped the bout. Diaz looked disappointed but did not offer much of a protest.

At lightweight, Maui-based Eddie Rincon earned his first professional victory, as he was awarded a unanimous decision against the tough Dean Lista. Though he scored with takedowns, Lista could not capitalize on the position. Rincon, meanwhile, landed heavy leather throughout the fight and swayed the judges with his striking.

Maui Wolfgram, Brad Taveras and Alan Lima were also victorious, along with Ed Newalu and Kyle Miyahana. A 140-pound bout between rookies Keola Silva and Ian Dela Cuesta ended in a no contest after Silva landed an accidental low blow 22 seconds into the fight.

Finally, the scheduled 140-pound match between Kurrent Cockett and Sadhu Bott was cancelled when Bott failed to make weight. Their bout will be rescheduled for the next Icon Sport show.

Tags: Icon Sport Hard Tinmes MMA Fights Baroni Verdadero Hose Dominique

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One of the sport’s most beloved and revered figures, he will be featured on an installment of A&E’s “Biography” next week. The Emmy-award winning series has profiled some of the world’s most influential people, from statesmen and Supreme Court justices to activists and pop-culture icons. Soon, Couture’s name will placed alongside those of Princess Diana, Oprah Winfrey and Christopher Columbus. His hour-long episode -- scheduled to premiere at 10 p.m. on Wednesday -- will be sandwiched in between similar pieces on professional wrestling superstars Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, though it will be remiss of any fight footage which Zuffa refused to grant to the show.





“Biography” is the longest-running single-topic documentary series on television and profiled enough figures by 1999 that A&E spun the program off into an entire network -- The Biography Channel.





Couture’s episode includes interviews with his two oldest children, his mother, former referee “Big” John McCarthy and a host of others closest to the only five-time champion in UFC history.


The list includes Sherdog. com news editor Loretta Hunt, the collaborator on Couture’s memoirs, “Becoming the Natural – My Life In and Out of the Cage,” released through Simon and Schuster Inc. on July 22.

Tags: Randy Couture MMA Interviews Biography

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Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann likely to finalize UFC 88 main card

September's UFC 88 event at Atlanta's Phillips Arena in apparently has its final televised bout.

A source close to the event tells MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that middleweight contenders Nate Marquardt (26-8-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) and Martin Kampmann (16-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) have agreed to meet at the show. Official announcement of the bout is expected within the next week.

The fight rounds out a pay-per-view main card headlined by a light heavyweight bout of "The Ultimate Fighter 2" winner Rashad Evans vs. former UFC champion Chuck Liddell.

With Yushin Okami on the shelf with a broken hand and Patrick Cote set to take on UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in October, the Marquardt-Kampmann fight could have a significant impact on the division's title picture.

Marquardt, a 29-year-old Team Jackson fighter, is coming off a bizarre loss to Thales Leites. After a defeat to Silva and a subsequent submission victory over Jeremy Horn, Marquardt was hoping to reclaim top contender's status. Instead, he suffered two costly (and arguably controversial) point deductions in his UFC 85 fight with Leites and ultimately suffered a split-decision loss.

It was just his second loss in 10 fights and nearly five years.

Kampmann, meanwhile, goes for his fifth straight victory in the UFC -- and 10th win overall. Back in June the 26-year-old Xtreme Couture fighter returned from a 16-month layoff (due to a knee injury) and scored a first-round submission victory over Jorge Rivera.

Of Kampmann's 16 professional wins, only one has come via decision.

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DreamFighters.com has learned that Fedor Emelianenko has just recently made public his next fight with Affliction. Affliction, has yet to confirm, nor the other fighting party, but this comes from the mouth of Fedor Emelianenko.


The next Aflliction event is being prepared for November but we are trying to move it to October so I can have enough time to prepare for my other fight in Dream around December (NYE)''. For his next opponent, Fedor has been clear: It will be Andrei Arlovski. I still don't know who I am going to fight in Dream ("Probably Mirko CroCop"), but I plan to fight Josh Barnett in March in USA.


Fedor has said: My next opponent is Andrei Arlovski


We will wait for further confirmation from Arlovski's camp and Affliction to make this 100% Official.

http://dreamfighters.com/site/?action=detail&id=1216833983

Tags: Fedor Arlovski MMA Fights Affliction

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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.

Tags: Wanderlei Silva Forrest Griffin UFC MMA Interviews Fights

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