Forrest Griffin vs. Kenny Powers – I’m there

If there’s one certainty in Forrest Griffin’s light heavyweight bout with Anderson Silva at UFC 101, it’s that Griffin’s book, Got Fight? 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat, will sell a few more copies as a result.

“I don’t think they’re actually going to let him kill me,” Griffin has joked a few times. “And if he does kills me, book sales will really go up. Boom…win-win, bitch.” (BTW, it’s a great fuckin’ book, way funnier than anything I’ve ever read, like the Bible or the Kama Sutra.)

And if he happens to beat Silva, well, “I’ll probably just never fight again. I’ll probably just retire, and say I was the greatest ever. Fuck all you, bitches.”

And that’s what we love about Griffin, his jockish self-deprecating, no bullshit attitude and willingness to say what everybody else is thinking. That and his empty-the-tank fighting style and willingness to put his face on the line. “If you think about what a bad dude Anderson Silva is, you can fuck yourself silly,” Griffin told MMA Weekly. “He’s gonna hit you. You’re gonna miss him, and he’s going to hit you again. But you’ve got to keep pressure, keep moving. Once you close the distance, make it count for something. Go in, get hit, and then change your angle and go again. Look for the takedown, look to drive up against the fence.”

It’s the kind of strategy that could get ugly, especially if you’re on the receiving end of Silva’s precision strikes (Rich Franklin’s face, anyone?). That means taking Silva to the ground and punishing him. “Yeah, I’ve got to get on top of him, no doubt,” said Griffin. “I’ve gotta find a way to get him on the ground, make him carry my weight on the fence, on the ground, be heavy on him, hang on him. Otherwise, I’m just a big slow guy. I’ve gotta use the weight.”

And now that I think of it, there are actually two certainties in the Griffin/Silva fight – Griffin, the scrappy, swing-for-the-fences former 205-pound champ, will make the elusive and occasionally very cautious Silva fight back. Silva’s last two fights at middleweight were snoozes, especially the most recent against Thales Leites that almost had Leites napping on the mat, and not in a “I didn’t tap fast enough and now he’s choked me out” kind of way. Two boring fights and UFC president Dana White sends him packing to the next weight class up, pitting him against a fighter who isn’t afraid to mix it up.

And Griffin is no walkover. He will have the size advantage and being the underdog – as everyone is against Silva – has always worked for him. When he’s the favourite, as he was against Keith Jardine or Rashad Evans, it hasn’t turned out well. If he can keep his composure, not get too aggressive, which will only open the door for mistakes, he’s got a chance to give Silva a run for his money. Silva is a tactician who looks for weakness to exploit, openings to penetrate, Griffin just needs to take those away from him, frustrate him.

Was about to end this post when I came across an interview with Griffin over on MMA Fanhouse. I’m going to excerpt a little of it here just because it’s so damn entertaining (and I know you lazy clods can’t be bothered clicking on over to some other site and to be honest I’d rather you stick around Fighting Words anyway).

Griffin on a re-match with Tito Ortiz: Yeah, I think me and Tito would be a good fight. I think it would be a good seller. I know I want to fight him; I’m pretty sure he wants to fight me. So I think there’d be two guys with pretty decent names that could maybe put some asses in seats.

Griffin ranks Silva as the best pound-for-pound fighter above Fedor Emelianenko and Georges St-Pierre. On where he’d rank himself: Um … just under Bob Sapp.

On whether he’d ever do a pool jump stunt like BJ Penn did: If I jump out of a pool, I’m coming out naked wearing only a cock ring. So I mean, I would be the ultimate Internet sensation.

On who he’d like to fight before he retires: My fantasy is to fight Kenny Powers. Kenny Powers is probably the guy that I most pattern myself after.