Forrest Griffin on Nogueira: "This is a horrible fight for me."

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Forrest Griffin, former UFC light-heavyweight champion and winner of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter" season 1, will return to the Octagon on May 29 when he faces Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 114.

Griffin, in his familiar self-depreciating way, has a single word to describe the match-up.

Horrible.

It's really not too hard to see why Griffin feels this way when you compare the records of the two men over the past two years. During that stretch, Griffin has gone 2-2, with his most recent win a close split decision victory over a rusty Tito Ortiz at UFC 102. Over the same period, Nogueira has gone an impressive 6-0, and in his last fight needed less than two minutes to finish a dangerous Luiz Cane by TKO, also at UFC 106.

Speaking to MMASportsMag last year, Griffin summed up his feelings about a potential match-up with Nogueira.

"That is a horrible fight for me," Griffin stated flatly. "I have trained with his brother a little bit, so he already has the "inside scoop" on me, he's a southpaw, has got a good chin, and has good power. Plus he is pretty solid on the ground. The only place I would have an advantage would be wrestling... and my wrestling is not that good. So yeah, that's a tough matchup for me. I'd do it, if that's what they wanted, but being straight up, there are other guys I'd rather fight."

Unfortunately for Griffin, the fight with Nogueira, which at that time was only a possibility, has now been finalized. Of course, Griffin has turned the tables in tough fights in the past, most notably when he scored a shocking upset over then-champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to win the UFC light-heavyweight belt at UFC 86.

Griffin will doubtless have his chin tested by the heavy-handed Nogueira when the two men meet in May. However, when asked who hit the hardest of all the fighters he has faced, Griffin had a somewhat surprising answer, picking a former sparring partner rather than any of his Octagon opponents. On second thought though, maybe his choice isn't really that hard to understand at all.

"The hardest I have been hit without being knocked out was from Wanderlei (Silva)," Griffin said. "He hits you like 10 times as your falling back, and then you just take a knee and are like "Damn!". He will knock a couple years off of your life, if you spar with him too much."