Forrest Griffin

Forrest Griffin was born on July 1st, 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. After spending his initial school years in his home town he moved to Athens, Georgia to serve as a law enforcement officer at the University of Georgia. While serving the law Forrest trained for a continuous five years with Adam and Rory Singer, slowly preparing himself for a new career path. He appeared in many professional bouts in leagues such as the RSF and ISCF during his training, winning every fight save for a KO loss to Jeremy Horn at IFC: Global Domination. Griffin finally retired from the police force in 2005 to pursue an MMA career full time via his invitation to appear on the original season of Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter.

After slugging and submitting his way through his opponents for the majority of the show’s episodes, it was determined that Griffin would face Stephan ‘The American Psycho’ Bonnar in the finale match. The winner was to be awarded a six-figure, three-year deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Judges scored the final bout a very close 29-28 unanimously in one of the most lauded fights in UFC history. Forrest received his contract and Bonnar was awarded the same given his amazing effort in that fight and throughout the show’s season.

Griffin faced his first official UFC opponent in the form of Bill Mahood at UFC 53: Heavy Hitters, winning the fight handily with a submission due to a rear naked choke. A TKO win against Elvis Sinosic at UFC 55 prompted UFC management to put him against a more worthy opponent. The stage was set for Griffin’s first real UFC challenge: a bout with legendary Tito Ortiz at UFC 59. Though he fought valiantly, Griffin lost a split decision to Ortiz.

Griffin’s next fight was a must anticipated rematch versus Stephan Bonnar which Forrest won by unanimous decision after clearly sweeping all three rounds. After this convincing win he was pitted against the very tough Keith Jardine at UFC 66. This fight became well-known for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Jardine won by TKO in the very first round. Griffin appeared to be very distraught after losing, collapsing in his corner of the octagon and crying loudly enough for the crowd and cameras to hear. When he was approached after the right for the customary interview with Joe Rogan, Griffin said simply "Keith came in and he did exactly what I wanted to do, he knocked me the fuck out. Let's go home." He proceeded to run at full speed out of the ring, through the crowd, and into the dressing area.

Griffin pulled out of his scheduled fights at UFC 70 against Lyoto Machida due to a persistent staph infection but was able to redeem himself at UFC 72 by defeating Hector Ramirez in a unanimous decision.

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