The Forgotten Spyder: What's Up with Kendall Grove?

Several talented fighters have come from Hawaii like Renato Verissimo, Cabbage Coreira, BJ Penn, and Kendall Grove.

Unfortunately, Verissimo and Cabbage are no longer with the UFC, Kendall Grove has seemingly been wipped off the middleweight map with back to back losses to Cote and Rivera. It seems only BJ Penn is doing good these days.

The question I'm asking myself is... where is Kendall "Da Spyder" Grove?

Grove began fighting with the UFC in 2006 as one of the 16 fighters competing on TUF season 3. He was chosen on Team Ortiz and became one of the top fighters on the show with victories over Ross Pointon and Kalib Starnes.

In the end, the middleweight finale was set and team Ortiz's Grove fought team Shamrock's Ed Herman in one of the best finale fights ever. Kendall Grove's journey in the UFC began that night when he won a unanimous decision against Herman.

When the show was over, Grove began training at Big Bear in California with Tito Ortiz's Team Punishement. His next fight was against Chris Price. Kendall went on to win in the first round, via strikes that forced Price to tap out.

Kendall's next fight was at UFC 69 against Alan "The Talent" Belcher. Kendall had a great performance finishing off Belcher with a D'arce choke in round two. When he won the fight, Grove used Tito's grave digging taunt and he seemed destined to be one of the top middleweights in the UFC.

At UFC 74, lightning struck Grove in the butt when he was TKO'ed by Patrick Cote in the first round. Looking to get back on track at UFC 80, "Da Spyder" battled UFC veteran Jorge Rivera. In what alot of people considered an upset, Grove was TKO'ed in round one again and his dreams of making it big were slowly fading.

After suffering back to back losses, Grove returned to his homeland of Hawaii and trained with UFC lightweight champion and good friend, BJ Penn.

Kendall returned to the stage that had made him famous in the first time, returning to TUF stage on June 21st, 2008. He fought in the main event of TUF Season 7 finale against former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner. Tanner had returned to the UFC at UFC 82 where he lost to Yushin Okami.

Grove called his fight with Evan Tanner the "loser leaves town fight" because of both men's losses in the previous fights.

Kendall Grove looked better than ever winning a split decision (for some very odd reason one judge scored it 29-28 Tanner and the two other judges scored it 30-26 Grove, seems one of the judges was clearly on drugs that night) over Evan Tanner.

Alot of people considered it to be Grove's best performance yet in the UFC and since that victory...nothing. That was five months ago, and we haven't seen or heard of Grove since, no upcoming fights no nothing.

I know Kendall has been occupied with his new status as a dad and his new MMA school he opened in Hawaii, but isn't it time for him to return?

I think he can return and possibly be one of the top fighters in the middleweight division if he trains seriously and uses his skills. Grove is 6'6" and weighs 185. He has reach advantage over everybody in his division, he's well rounded and can give any fighter a run for their money if he trains well.

I would really love to see the "other" Spyder soon, maybe against Martin Kampmann or another fighter not in the top 10. I think he can make it back up, he's just 26 years old and he's got great talent.