Forrest Griffin: Enough Is Enough.

By Bryan Levick on Aug 13, 2009

forrest By now most of you have seen or at the very least heard of Forrest Griffin’s mad dash from the octagon following his devastating knockout loss to Anderson Silva last Saturday night at UFC 101. Being a self described Griffin fanatic, I didn’t want to comment on the situation in fear of not being impartial. In the words of a true American hero, “That’s all I can stand and I can’t stand no more.”

While some internet scribes have chosen to look at this from a fighter’s perspective, most others have decided that they would get some cheap laughs at the expense of a former UFC light heavyweight champion, a man who along with Stephan Bonnar helped save the UFC and MMA as a whole from near death and brought it into the mainstream media.

Before I run down the list of accomplishments that Griffin has accumulated in a short but very prosperous career, first let’s go over last Saturday night and the events leading up to the bout and what happened immediately after the conclusion of the bout. As far back as March, Griffin was scheduled to take on tough Brazilian slugger, Thiago Silva. A dangerous fighter in his own right who was eager to redeem himself after suffering his first career loss to current light heavyweight kingpin Lyoto Machida at UFC 94 in January.

Griffin himself was looking to bounce back from a loss as well. Back in December he lost his light heavyweight crown to fellow Ultimate Fighter winner Rashad Evans. Not only did Griffin suffer a knockout loss, he had to undergo surgery for a broken left hand. With the loss behind him and rehab underway Griffin was preparing for his bout with Thiago Silva. Fast forward to the end of April, more than a full month after he began preparing to fight Thiago Silva, the UFC was in a quandary because of Anderson Silva’s last two underwhelming performances, the UFC once again calls on the ultimate company man and asks him to take on Anderson Silva instead of Thiago.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Griffin readily accepts even though he was in a mindset to take on a different fighter and knowing he would have ring rust that comes with being out of action for well over 8 months. To say the MMA world was excited is an understatement. Griffin had already beaten two top five light heavyweights in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Many fans wondered if he would get the trifecta and once again upset a heavy favorite or would he fall to the man many consider to be the pound for pound best fighter in the world.

Yes he lost and he lost badly. Did he show poor sportsmanship in bolting from the octagon without congratulating Silva on a flawless victory? Of course he did. Do we know what was going on in his head at that time? No we do not. The last time he suffered a similar emotional loss was against Keith Jardine back in December of 2006. He was vilified by the media and fans alike for showing too much emotion when he cried after being knocked out. Maybe he didn’t want to suffer the same indignity once again. We won’t know until he shares with us the feelings he had right after the fight.

Griffin has shown time and time again a mental and physical toughness that not many other fighters can match. How many other fighters can say they have defeated both Jackson and Rua? The answer to that one is none. I don’t want to hear excuses about Shogun’s knee. Not many people realize Griffin was fighting with a bum shoulder that night and that he had been nursing the injury well before his fight with Rua. No one mentions that because no one knew, Griffin doesn’t mention things like that. He too underwent surgery after the bout. When the UFC needed an opponent for Rua’s much ballyhooed UFC debut, who stepped up to the challenge? Forrest Griffin did.

When the UFC needed a fighter to coach opposite Jackson, who stepped up to the plate even though he confessed that he was a neophyte at coaching other fighters? Forrest Griffin did, he took the ball and he ran with it, all the way to capturing the most prestigious title in all of mixed martial arts. After defeating Jackson, fans began to make excuses for Rampage. The long layoff caused by the show hurt him, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Give me a break, the layoff didn’t bother Griffin? Excuses are like ***holes, everyone has one.

Not many fighters can say they have faced the list of fighters that Griffin has. His last four fights alone have come against the current middleweight champion, two former light heavyweight champions and a man who at the time was the consensus #1 205lb fighter in the world. Add to that list, Keith Jardine, Tito Ortiz, Stephan Bonner (2x), Jeremy Horn, Chael Sonnen, Jeff Monson and last but not least Dan Severn whom Griffin took to a decision in his very first professional fight. The man defeated another fighter while fighting with a broken arm!

So before you rip into Griffin for his actions last week, I implore all of you to take a good hard look at the man who may be the reason that we are enjoying such a huge growth of the sport we all love so dearly. No one can ever question his heart and at the same time no one should ever try and question his motives until you have walked a day in his shoes.

Filed Under: MMA