Keller's Take
KELLER'S BLOG on UFC 101 Thoughts: Forrest Griffin humiliated, but he joins a prestigious club
Aug 9, 2009 - 2:43:42 AM KELLER'S BLOG on UFC 101 Thoughts: Forrest Griffin humiliated, but he joins a prestigious club

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GRIFFIN'S SPRINT TO THE BACK

Forrest Griffin is going to take deserved heat for sprinting out of the Octagon and to the back after his humiliating showing against Anderson Silva at Wachovia Center last night. He also might have made the right choice. Accept the heat for dashing away without a post-fight comment. That Octagon belonged to Silva at that moment, Forrest knew it, and Forrest had nothing to say.

Most people go to work and have good days and bad days. Fighters work every day all year, and overtime for about two months, before entering that Octagon. Losing like Griffin lost was something close to a novelist having his hard drive crash and his back-up drive catch on fire when he was just about finished with his 300 page draft. Everything was for nothing (except the payday). So while Griffin is a professional and fans would have liked to hear from him, it's understandable that he just wanted to hold it together long enough to get out of the public eye and then let out his emotions. He's an emotional guy, and there's good and bad that comes along with that. After a great fight, even in losing he's going to give a great post-fight interview. Forrest, though, knew he fell short of even the most pessimistic predictions.

Anderson Silva [artist Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]

SILVA'S CONDUCT

There are some message board comments critical of Silva for showing up Griffin by dropping his hands, egging him on, offering patronizing handshakes, and challenging him to bring it on. That's totally unfair. Silva took heat - undeserved in my opinion, but I respect and understand the conflicting views - for two boring victories in his last two fights. Fair enough. Fans want fighters who are vitriolic, who are demonstrative, who are larger than life personalities. They either want to love or hate you, not "respect you" but feel nothing stronger.

Silva gave the fans what they asked for. He was cocky and in the face of Griffin once he realized Griffin was no threat to him. He was so sure he had the fight wrapped up, he took the type of chances that fans wanted him to do in his previous recent fights. It was also a fight strategy. Silva knew Griffin was matched against him because Dana White (and fans) knew Griffin would push the pace. When Silva sensed Forrest was intimidated and hurt, he played into Griffin's pride. He got Griffin to be aggressive at a time when Griffin should have gotten conservative and used the break between rounds to try to gather himself. Griffin was obviously thinking along those lines; he looked up at the clock after Silva showed him early in the round why he is the most feared striker in MMA today. Griffin should have laid back and mentally he knew it. Emotionally, though, he didn't want to be "another one of those fighters."

What Silva did last night wasn't actually that different than what he did in his two recent title defenses in one key sense: In each fight, he employed the fight strategy that was most likely to get him a victory. Against Thales Leites and Patrick Cote, the smart strategy was to lay back and let Leites or Cote make a mistake. In this fight, the smart strategy was to goad the prideful, typically aggressive swing-for-the-fences Griffin into fighting hard when he would have been better off stalling until round two.

The outcome probably wouldn't have been any different. Silva's striking is in a class all its own, and Griffin after taking the first Silva punch seemed to have that look in his eyes that he had seen a God of Fighting before him who was in another class. Griffin was mentally beat already. Silva knew he could win anytime, probably. He also knew the best time was right away, with Griffin hurt, but not wanting to back off and be like Silva's last two opponents.

Silva wasn't classless this time any more than he fought bad fights the last two times. Silva fought to win, and against Griffin, in this context (with pressure on Griffin to deliver an aggressive offensive fight), his best chance to win was to showboat and make faces and bob and weave and drop his hands. It worked. Silva knows how to win. Sometimes it thrills fans and other times frustrates them. He's undefeated in UFC for a reason, and being the smartest fighter in the game might just be the main one.

Forrest Griffin [artist Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]

DID FORREST TAKE A DIVE?

There are some fans suggesting that Griffin took a dive, comparing the fight to WWE. First of all, people in pro wrestling don't "take dives." It's staged from start to finish. Rocky Balboa didn't "take a dive" when he lost to Apollo Creed; they were characters executing a script, just as WWE performers do.

Second, and more importantly, I don't think Griffin took a dive, but it is one of those finishes that will have people speculating. He charged at Silva, in an already dazed and vulnerable condition, as Silva was throwing a punch to his exposed face. Silva knows how to get power behind his punches from every angle, and there was power there. In essence, Forrest charged face-first into a brick wall. All of Forrest's weight was behind him as he charged in, badly missing two punches, and leaving himself totally open to a fist to the face. Not just anyone could have pulled off what Silva did. Silva may be one of the few, in fact. But coming from Silva, it's totally believable.

For it to have been a dive, Silva would have had to have been in on it, too. Silva didn't seen the least bit surprised by Griffin going down, and if he didn't feel that was a KO punch, he would have reacted with suspicion and shame, not elation. Silva sensed - rightly so - that Griffin was in trouble already.

In fact, if Griffin was taking a dive, and Silva and Griffin were both in on it, Silva would have made his punch more believable. There would have been no way Silva, if he knew Griffin was taking a dive in round one, would have thrown a punch to end the fight that would have been suspicious. There are also much better ways to close out a fixed fight than asking a fighter to take a fake dive on a half-assed looking backwards punch. I mean, that'd be the last option you'd use if you were fixing a fight.

If the argument is Griffin was strong-armed into taking a KO dive in round one to satisfy some MMA gambling mafia who had their money on that specific finish, then Silva would have reacted with more surprise that Griffin went down like that from a punch like that. Or he'd have been in on it. There's no realistic reason for Griffin and Silva, or just Griffin, to have thrown that fight. In fact, in retrospect, it played out as it should have given the character, history, style, and expectations of the fighters involved.

The fights that are fixed, if there are any at all, are going to be by tapout because it's a lot easier to make that "look real." The last way a fixed fight would be scripted would be this way.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR GRIFFIN

Griffin might quit MMA. I mean, this was a humbling, humiliating loss. He was matched against Silva to deliver a good fight, not imitate Tim Sylvia against a washed-up boxer.

More likely, though, Griffin will realize that he's in good company. Rich Franklin was humiliated in his first fight against Silva, too. Griffin is just the latest world class fighter to lose to Silva convincingly. Dan Henderson, Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, Nate Marquardt, and on and on all fell to Silva.

Griffin's track record is deep and strong enough that he can make a good living as a fan favorite "gate keeper" in the light-heavyweight division, and he can use the Silva fight as motivation to improve his game and realize the limitations of his balls-out KO-or-be-KO'd approach. That's a mid-card style that will get him booked on UFC cards and earn five-figure paydays for years to come. Or he can decide to try to become a champion again by changing his approach to training and adjusting his style based on his opponent, and getting better at picking his spots even at the risk of being a less exciting fighter in the eyes of the fans. It's his choice. He has a lot to consider.

What Griffin did was vindicate, to a degree, Leites and Cote, because he showed what would have happened had they gotten aggressive and took the chances Griffin took. Griffin did what was asked of him, and he got thrashed and outclassed.

I'll suggest this. If UFC wants to get some ratings on Spike TV, promise a live sitdown interview with Griffin at the next Fight Night. Have Griffin say nothing until then. It'll be the highest rated segment of the show, and if Griffin plays his cards right, it could make Griffin an even bigger star going into his next fight than anything else he could do at this point.

Kenny Florian [artist Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]

OTHER THOUGHTS

Let's try outlawing the word "class-act" or "classy" from the vocabulary of UFC announcers the rest of the year. Mike Goldberg gives out the adjective "class-act" like candy on Halloween... After yet another useless post-fight B.J. Penn interview, White should start giving out bonuses for best post-fight interview, and take away money for fighters who don't answer Joe Rogan's questions and go off on boorish tangents... Penn looked really good. He's going to be happy he won, but a little disappointed Silva stole his thunder. There's not an MMA headline out there leading with his win right now. Florian was crushed in defeat, but a week from now he'll realize he will be better for this loss and there's no shame in losing to Penn. Penn has more big fight experience, and Florian held his own really well. He put in a respectable performance. But "solving" Penn, with Florian's skillset, is going to be a challenge... I agree with both Jamie Penick and Shawn Ennis, who gave the three undercard fights two stars each. It was a forgettable undercard... I had Penn-Florian at three-stars and Forrest-Silva at three-stars-plus. Incredible KO finish, but given the anticipation for a slugfest, it was a bit of a letdown saved only by the incredible nature of the KO...

***

Wade Keller is the Supervising Editor and Founder of MMATorch.com. He has covered MMA for the Torch since before UFC existed, including Japanese shoot-fight cards such as Pancrase in the early 1990s, plus all of the early UFC PPV events (some of those reports can be found in the MMATorch Flashbacks category). He covered the first UFC event in Las Vegas in person in 2001 and Brock Lesnar's recent return to his hometown Minneapolis when he defeated "Crazyhorse" Heath Herring. He has interviewed Dana White, Mike Goldberg, the original UFC match-maker Art Davie, and others in MMA over the years. He has also been interviewed as an MMA reporter by major newspapers dating back to the mid-1990s. He has trained in karate, judo, and jiu jitsu, with over 12 years of formal martial arts training and tournament fighting. He is a double black stripe belt in tae kwon do.