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FORREST GRIFFIN
The Force and the Fury
 Forrest Griffin - The Ultimate Fighter Champion
© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com
All photos copyright 2004 Zuffa LLC
Photography by Joshua Hedges UFC’s Forrest Griffin became an instant MMA star when he defeated Stephan Bonnar to become The Ultimate Fighter’s first light heavyweight champion. After his Spike-TV victory, Forrest went on to show he would also be a force in the bigger competition, after he submitted Bill Mahood in just 2.18 of round one at UFC 53: Heavy Hitters. And now Griffin will face Australia’s Elvis Sinosic for UFC 55: Fury, on October 7 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. Forrest was to fight England’s Ian Freeman, but due to an injury Freeman was replaced by the Octagon veteran Sinosic, who is best known by MMA fans for having defeated Jeremy Horn at his UFC debut. In comparison to many professional combative athletes, Forrest took up a fighting art at a late stage in life, when he was nearly twenty-one. "I was just lucky I guess. I was in the police academy and we started doing some defensive tactics. It was kinda like a combination of jiu jitsu and boxing. I liked the boxing, so I decided to give it a try," says Griffin. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Forrest now fights out of Athens, Georgia, and says although he did make fast progress with his training at the police academy, he didn’t get to use his newly acquired skills on the beat. "You don’t want to be hitting or choking people from a law-enforcement standpoint. It’s a high area of liability, and you want to use more passive restraints, and the force companions. If you can spray somebody or do something else then that’s preferable. You don’t get into a fight unless you have to. Hitting somebody is the last resort." Fighting under the tutorage of the now Light-Heavyweight Champion, Chuck Liddell, Forrest admits the experience of competing in The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) did have a big impact on his MMA career. "I’d been away from fighting for a year. The experience helped me polish everything up. I learnt a lot – not just from the coaching, but from the guys out there I trained with and so on. "Prior to TUF, I broke my arm during an MMA fight in Brazil, and I didn’t have any medical insurance. I’d had enough of fighting, so I elected to take a year off from training and just move on. I had talked to UFC’s Joe Silva eighteen months before TUF and I was kinda on the radar. They needed a 205-er as a last-minute replacement for the show, and my name came up. So I ended up doing it."
Forrest, does UFC plan on staging a Griffin vs Bonnar II? "I’m certain they do. I mean, I can’t speak for them, but that’s just something that’s gotta happen eventually." You seem to be pretty good mates outside of the competition. "Yeah, we get along very well. He’s a good guy... I’m a good guy… It’s not a matter of anything like that. You’re just competing for finite resources. We both want to achieve the same thing." Do you do a lot of weights? "Now I try to lift. I’ve got a good strength coach I work with. That’s one of the aspects recently of my game I’ve been really trying to improve upon - my strength and conditioning program." Do you expect Elvis Sinosic to be a tougher proposition than Ian Freeman would have been? "I think Elvis is definitely more rounded. I believe, with Freeman, he’s got some big weapons. You know, watch out for those. With Elvis, I don’t think people realise what a good stand-up fighter he’s become, because it seemed he got overwhelmed in his early UFCs, and because he did fight off his back and use his guard so much. I know with Elvis, he can submit me and he’s got good high kicks, and his stand-up and Muay Thai has gotten a lot better." What do you expect from him? "It’s hard to say what’s going to happen in a fight, but I expect him to come out crisp, and to throw some high kicks and some nice little Thai leg-kicks. I think he’ll be willing to bang a bit." How are you going to win this match? "To tell you the truth, I haven’t really figured that one out yet." Forrest, is there anything you’d like to add?
"Only that I’m excited, I
appreciate the opportunity to do the interview, and I appreciate the
opportunity to fight Elvis. It should be a good fight. I’d also like
to thank the fans and everyone who’s supported me."
For more on Forrest
Griffin and UFC 55: www.ufc.tv.
FORREST GRIFFIN
© Marc Wickert
At the time of this interview,
Forrest Griffin is in the gym preparing for his rematch with Stephan
Bonnar, and he has taken time out to chat with us.
Forrest, you're known as a slow starter
in bouts. Is that something you're looking to change? “Of
course not. I felt like garbage.” I thought the opposite. I thought you withstood the onslaught and you just stood there in defiance. “No.
I was just mad at myself.” After you weathered the storm of the
first round, did you hear the crowd getting behind you?
Do you expect the rematch to go the
distance?
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