Forrest Griffin Fell, Everyone Heard

Within the last year, Forrest Griffin has gone from the top of the Light Heavyweight division to a gray area amongst the rankings.

He is the winner of the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter and put on one of the best fights in recent history on the show’s finale against Stephan Bonner.

Since his debut, he has built an impressive resume, beating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and even taking the title from the seemingly unbeatable Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

Since his upset of Rampage, Griffin has fallen into a bit of a losing streak.

In his first title defense, Griffin had to take on “Sugar” Rashad Evans. Rashad Evans earned his shot at the title with his brutal knockout of now UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell. Griffin is often an underdog in his fights and this one was no different.

Griffin utilized his renowned leg kicks and some quick flurries to keep a point advantage in his corner. Through the first two rounds, Griffin appeared to hold an advantage on the scorecards as Evans hadn’t thrown many punches but merely danced around and stalked Griffin, awaiting his chance to strike.

That moment came in the third round.

Just under two minutes had passed in the third round and Griffin threw one leg kick too many. Evans caught Griffin's leg and took him down.

Within the next minute, Evans had taken various positions of advantage over Griffin, and had rained down countless punches on the defenseless face of the champion. Before long, referee Steve Mazzagatti jumped in and stopped the fight.

After that fight, Griffin had to wait for his next chance to fight and get himself back on the road to the championship. His first opponent coming off losing his title, middleweight champion and recently maligned Anderson “The Spider” Silva.

Griffin once again found himself as an underdog going into the fight. Silva, a deadly striker, utilizing Muay Thai knees in regularity, and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, easily out matched Griffin. However, Silva had been lackluster in his last two title defenses, failing to finish or show any of his usual octagon aggression, despite winning both fights.

Dana White was a genius in pitting the aggressive, no-quit former champion Forrest Griffin against the seemingly disinterested champ of the Middleweight division.

Griffin was put into the fight to bring out the Anderson Silva of old, the Anderson Silva who destroyed Rich Franklin with his knees and choked out Dan Henderson with a superior ground game.

Griffin was fresh meat for arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC and maybe the world.

For the first two minutes of the fight, Griffin was tentative in his striking, throwing some feelers of jabs at Silva, working on the range and the timing of the shifty and dangerous Silva.

He threw a leg kick or two, since he is so good at it, and landed one or two without much damage done.

Griffin threw one too many and Silva caught the leg and it brought back memories of the last time Silva had fought at 205.

In his fight with James Irvin at 205, Silva caught a kick from Irvin and proceeded to pound Irvin’s face while holding the leg. At 1:01 of the first round, Silva walked away with a knockout victory.

In the fight with Griffin, he didn’t get the chance to finish the fight as he didn’t have full control of the leg and allowed Griffin to retreat and reset.

Griffin performed admirably in those first two minutes, but was rocked a couple of times by strikes from Silva. He regained some semblance of composure, but it was apparent in the way he was breathing and the loss of any and all speed in his strikes.

He was out on his feet, barely holding on and fighting to do just that. All heart.

After his best impression of Muhammad Ali, dropping his hands and dodging every strike Griffin threw his way; Silva backpedaled away from the attacking Griffin and placed a rather dainty right hand on the former champ’s chin.

Griffin crumbled to the mat and put his hands up in a “no, stop, please, no more” manner, prompting the referee to call the fight, awarding the victory to Anderson Silva.

Griffin had entered the arena to raucous cheering and a standing ovation, whereas Silva entered to boos and jeers. The fighters exited the octagon in the exact opposite fashion.

Griffin forwent the post fight interview and ran to the locker room to boos and jeers similar to those that Silva had endured. Silva exited the octagon to the same raucous cheering and a standing ovation Griffin entered to.

Post fight rumors said Griffin had suffered from a broken jaw during the fight, which is why he was knocked out by the swat from Silva and why he exited the ring with untold quickness.

Those rumors have since been disproved, but the fight did not put Griffin in any sort of favorable position within the Light Heavyweight division.

Silva’s next fight has him defending his title in a rematch against Dan Henderson, who is coming off of a brutal knockout of fellow coach on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter Michael Bisping.

After that fight there are rumors of a fight with Welterweight champion George St. Pierre, who himself is in the best pound for pound fighter conversation.

Griffin’s future is hazy, following the embarrassing loss to Silva.

Whenever he does return, Griffin will have to work his way back up through the ranks of the division. He will likely have to go through the likes of Rich Franklin, Mauricio Rua, Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, recently returned Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson and potentially Wanderlei Silva. There are a slew of light heavyweights Griffin could and may fight in his climb to the top.

Forrest Griffin has two ugly losses to motivate him to get better and there are plenty of reasons to believe they will. He has a long road ahead of him and more than enough potential road blocks to get in his way.

It all depends on how he handles them. He can quit the way some people feel he did versus Silva, or he can show his heart and fight his way back into the top ranks of the Light Heavyweight division.