Forrest Griffin says he's plateauing or almost getting worse sometimes
Posted on August 23, 2011, 07:00 PM by Trent Reinsmith
When Forrest Griffin steps into the Octagon on Saturday, August 27 it will be his 13th fight in the UFC since winning season one of “The Ultimate Fighter” in one of, if not the most memorable fight in UFC history. Since that win he has won and lost the UFC Light Heavyweight title while going 12-4. His opponent at UFC 134 will be a man he defeated via third round submission in September 2007, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Griffin writing on his own blog at Yahoo Sports! admitted that even though he has been fighting for the UFC for over six years, he still struggles when it comes to training and his training camp, admitting that he feels that he is doing things wrong.
The more surprising revelation from the former champ is that his job is no longer fun, “It quit being fun when I realized wasn’t getting better. I’m plateauing or almost getting worse sometimes. One of the essential elements to have in this is your perceived expectation of the future, and I’m a painful realist, so I realized that I’m not going to get better; this is it. It’s only gonna get worse from here on and you fight as much as you can, you fight until you don’t have it anymore, and then you fight a couple more times after that.” - For complete blog from Griffin vist Yahoo.com.
So LowKick’ers, is Griffin in the right place mentally going into UFC 134?
Comments
Not that Forrest isn't legit, but if he had some knock out power he'd be a beast. I can't see why a dude that big wouldn't hit harder.
Well it's kind impossible to say. If the doughy Shogun that spent the night punching Jon Jones in the fist with his face comes out, then I can't see him touching Forrest's GnP game. Old Shogun has way more of a chance of getting a KO or Sub but I think either way Forrest has to be favorite because he doesn't really have to rely on a finish to win like I think Shogun does. And Forrest is a tough SOB so he's damn hard to finish (unless your name is Anderson Silva)
Maybe a change of training camps would get him past this feeling?
Sounds lack an excuse in the making, albeit a legit one..
To me it sounds more like his current training camp isnt teaching him anything new, and he needs some outside input before he can push his game any further.
I don't think Forrest has the potential to reach any new level in any area , it just seems he will always looks kinda sloppy no matter how much he trains , he is just that type of big fighter kinda like Tim Sylvia but smaller
I disagree. His striking is where he looks most sloppy, and it would be silly to say he wouldnt be able to get some better striking technique training somewhere that's more focused on strikers. Look at Rashads results with only a few months at his new camp - he took his already high level wrestling and mixed in some better strikes now.
Or even some wrestling would work good on Forrest - both his strikes and wrestling always been "okay" and his ground grappling and general toughness/heart have been his strengths.
Forrest is always so hard on himself! He looked sick against Franklin and he's beaten some of the best fighters of all time. He's never regained his confidence since the AS fight
I feel bad for Forrest, this kind of stuff happens in fighting, he is getting old and just like Hamill he's probably getting tired of fighting, my money is that Forrest just doesn't know what he wants anymore so he can't focus. Forrest you're way too important to this sport to just quit, hang in there man your fans got your back.
Forrest would make a great heavyweight.
He looked sharp against Franklin. Rua has more Power but Forrest has the heart - Griffin by decision.
I think almost every fighter can always improve, I extremely doubt that Forrest has reached his maximum physical, mental and skill potential.
Hopefully this is a statement made in humour, if not then I disagre with him.
Either way he is a great fighter.