Is Forrest Griffin overrated?
By Curtis Clontz on Nov 10, 2009
I posted this on our brother website (HERE), but thought I would share it here as well…
Forrest Griffin is arguably the most popular fighter in the UFC. He is a fan favorite and loved everywhere he goes. After all, he is THE Ultimate Fighter, and was the victor of one of the best MMA fights in history. He makes people buy PPVs, and has been great for the UFC, but is he overrated as a fighter? The results of this look at his career may surprise you…
Forrest exploded onto the scene as the crazy monkey guy with the bent arm on TUF. He has been known as super star, poster boy, and champ. His career has been one that fighters dream about, but has been a result of great timing and match ups?
I need to say this before I get into and get smashed in the comments. I am a Forrest fan. I went to 101 with the hopes of him dethroning Anderson Silva. He is a great fighter and deserves the respect of such, he has made the best of his fights…but he very well may be overrated.
In his UFC career, Forrest has fought in 11 fights losing only 4. Unfortunately he has lost his last two fights, but to extraordinary talent. Although he had key fights early in his career, his title run truly started with his win over Hector Ramirez.
Ramirez is a better than average MMA fighter, but he was never able to get his hand raised in the UFC and was cut from their roster after two fights. In the big scene of things Ramirez can fight, but the only fighter of note that he has defeated is Kendall Grove.
After this fight things really got hot and heavy for Griffin, his next bout was to welcome former Pride superstar Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to the UFC. Forrest was a huge underdog and was not being given much of a chance to win the fight (according to odds makers).
To be honest only a shell of the current Shogun was at that fight. He was on the mend from a few serious injuries and his cardio was no where near the level required to fight in the show. Rua looked bad, but Forrest did what he needed to win. While Forrest handily won that fight, to say that he defeated one of the best 205 pound fighters in the world would be ridiculous. It would be like saying if you KO Chuck Liddell or Matt Hughes now, that it means you are one of the best.
After this fight Forrest got his first title shot of his career. He was tapped to coach TUF and fight the other guy, who just happened to be Rampage Jackson.
We all know that match ups make fights, and Rampage is still considered to be one of the best fighters in the world (retired or not). I am one of those skeptics. This very well could have been the worst possible match up for Rampage.
At this point Rampage had been turned into a glorified boxer. His camp had concentrated on his hands, power, and boxing more than any aspect of his game. It had been working, but Forrest was the person to show everyone…KICK HIM IN THE LEGS!
That is exactly what Forrest did, and did well! Rampage had no answer for the perfect game plan. Forrest stuck and moved constantly chopping at the tree trunks. It was enough to win the title and go from Ultimate Fighter to Champion!
Since that time Forrest has lost two straight fights to Rashad Evans and Anderson Silva. Both are great fighters. Rashad Evans could be a staple in this division for a long time, and Anderson Silva is one of the best fighters of all time.
To answer our initial question, is he overrated? Well maybe, but not by this account. While he is not the dominating type of fighter like Chuck, Rampage, or Wand. He is a great fighter that knows what he has to do to win. His fight against Tito Ortiz in a few weeks is arguably the biggest fight in his career. If he is not able to beat Tito then the critics will come out of the closets and truly start to hate on Mr. TUF.
Is he overrated, no…but he will be called that if he loses to Tito.
Filed Under: MMA
Loading ...
I wouldn’t say “overrated” but maybe “over-hyped” by the UFC and some fans. If he is dominated by Tito it will definitely hurt his reputation amongst some. But Forrest has claimed that he is not “that technical a fighter” and that can be his problem. He is not that good at any facet of the game, but he is a character and he will not shy away from a challenge or fight.
What hurts Forrest is that because he is a “game” fighter he can beat a lot of opponents, but because he is not that skilled of a fighter he can be dominated by not only Anderson Silva or Rashad Evans, but also those like Keith Jardine. This means that for every fight against Rampage or Shogun that he wins, he will loose to guys both top fighters and mid-tier ones. Hopefully he will beat Tito, but I cannot see the UFC letting him go.
Bill
(Long Rant and kinf of all over the place)
Curtis his the problem. The UFC spends a lot of money promoting their shows and advertising. They’re the biggest ticket in town. So MMA fans will be inundated with repetitive hype and video footage. It’s the reason why many fans could not fathom Brock Lesnar deserving, not to mention competing against Randy Couture. It is only a matter of time before Anderson Silva gets beat and his legacy will be questioned. Of all people, Fedor Emelianenko’s legacy is constantly called into question by fans with serious short-term memory loss. In my opinion Fedor can lose the his next 2-3 fights against Rogers, Lesnar or Carwin and his legacy is still in tact.
I personally think there are many guys in the UFC over-hyped & overrated. Shogun beats Mark Coleman in a very bad showing. This is the same Coleman that turns around and beat a very tough Bonnar, who wasn’t stopped in the UFC. Then Shogun is the underdog versus Chuck Liddell based on his last fight, only to be told that he fought an old man. Now he has a great performance against Machida and now he’s the proverbial sh*t?!?
People still claim that Griffin dominated Shogun in their fight. Shogun busted Griffin up via g-n-p in the 1st round. I think it is very odd that many fans now acknowledge that Shogun wasn’t himself against Griffin but do not acknowledge how limited Tim Sylvia was when he fought Randy Couture. The Tim Sylvia that fought Vera and Noguiera was a completely different fighter.
Sigh.
So is Griffin overrated? No. He is what he is, a mthufkking fighter. He was well aware that all the hype surrounding him like he was the 2nd coming of Randy Couture was very premature and over top. He has some tools that will cause many problems for fighters including Pride Grand Prix winner Mauricio Rua, and superstar Quinton Jackson.
Sadly, people are judging Griffin harshly because of his loss against Silva. That was just Anderson’s perfect night with a perfect performance. Just like Machida’s performance against Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans. It happens but it doesn’t mean Thiago Silva sucks, was overrated or anything else. He just lost a fight.
— —
Wardog, Rashad Evans did not dominate Forrest Griffin. And Keith Jardine DEFINITELY did not dominate Griffin throughout their 1 round match. The UFC will not let Griffin or Bonnar go. Dana White has said that on a number of occasions. A fighter like Bonnar would have been let go a long time ago.
You are right he wasn’t dominated by Jardine, it was an even fight, until the last 30 seconds of round 1. Then it was a beat down, if he wasn’t dominated. But Griffin also did nothing in it. Also he did not stand out in the Evans fight either. But I say if am man beats you to tears and running away, then you got dominated. And I like Forrest, the reality is he is inconsistent, and all this “he’s a dog” and a “muthafin fighter” talk does not change the fact that he is not that skilled.
I don’t like Forrest Griffin. I think he has very little power. It’s almost like he plans to go the full 3 or 5 rounds when he fights. That is so boring. Imagine if every fighter had the same gameplan as Forrest (circle around and lightly paw at my opponent for 3 or 5 rounds) before a fight? MMA would quickly become unwatchable.
He’s been doing this professional fighting thing for a long time and he still doesn’t have any power in those punches of his. He wants to be a technician, and go the full 3 or 5 rounds every time. Thankfully there are fighters out there who don’t go for that type of fighting and look to win by knockout.
If I was the matchmaker, I would match Forrest up against strikers from here on out. Mean, ferocious strikers at that. Don’t let his fights go to the judges’ scorecards ever again. Let him keep losing until he gets some power in those punches of his.
Sadly, he’s got Tito next, and he will probably play patty-cake punch with him for 3 rounds until it goes to the judges’ scorecards.