Revisiting Griffin vs. Rua I
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- Category: UFC News
- Published on Thursday, 18 August 2011 05:00
- Written by By Thomas Gerbasi
A little over two years into his UFC career, Forrest Griffin had established himself as not only a crowd-pleasing light heavyweight contender, but a free spirit who could always be counted on to go against the grain in whatever he decided to do. But when he asked for a fight with UFC debutant and former PRIDE Grand Prix champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in 2007, this was going a little bit too far.
Why? Just look at Rua’s resume before he entered the Octagon for the first time at UFC 76 .
In addition to the aforementioned PRIDE Grand Prix title, which he won in 2005 by defeating Quinton “Rampage” Jackson , Antonio Rogerio Nogueira , Alistair Overeem, and Ricardo Arona, the aggressive native of Curitiba, Brazil had also taken out Cyrille Diabate , Kevin Randleman , Kazuhiro Nakamura , and Akihiro Gono in the organization, leading many to consider him the best 205-pound fighter in the world.
The last hill to climb would be in the UFC, and the majority of fight fans saw the scrappy Griffin, who was just one win over Hector Ramirez removed from a knockout loss to Keith Jardine , as a high-profile sacrificial lamb for “Shogun.”
There was one believer though; the man with the gloves on his hands.
“He’s one of the best in the world,” said Griffin at the time. “That’s why I wanted to fight him.”
But why now, at the height of his powers?
“Why not?” responded Griffin. “I’ve watched him fight for years. I see a guy with aggression, great cardio, good jiu-jitsu, but I think there are a lot of holes and I think he can be caught. If I play fast and loose, I think I can catch him.”
As for the critics that saw him as the highlight reel victim for Rua’s long-awaited UFC debut?
“I don’t care,” he said. “I didn’t even think about it, to be honest.”
And what people forgot is that when it comes to grit, determination, and doing whatever it takes to win a fight, Griffin had it. He knew what his strengths were, and more importantly, he was aware of his weaknesses. Plus, this was a new venue – literally – for Rua, whose PRIDE career took place in a ring. Moving to the UFC Octagon for the first time was an overlooked factor in this bout. But it wasn’t overlooked by Griffin.
“It’s gonna be something I can hold him against and hold him down on, and make it hard for him to work his jiu-jitsu game with a combination of elbows and using the cage to smash him up against.”
Rua was well aware of the transition he was making too, and he said all the right things before fight night in Anaheim, California.
“I’m not concerned about the transition,” said Rua in a pre-fight interview. “My training in the last two months is inside the Octagon, and a few years ago I fought twice in the Octagon. The main difference is in the rules, but my team is making the adjustments and from now my kicks can be replaced by the elbows.”
It wasn’t really a fair trade, considering that the stomps and soccer kicks allowed in PRIDE rings were a huge part of Rua’s fight game and his intimidation factor. With Griffin not having to worry about either technique, it left him on a fairly even playing field. What wasn’t revealed until after the fight was that Rua was dealing with a knee injury that would require multiple surgeries over the ensuing years. But he was not going to let his fans down, and he felt that he had enough in the tank to get through the fight. He also didn’t pay attention to those who made him a huge favorite in a year that contained some of the biggest upsets in UFC history, including Matt Serra’s knockout of Georges St-Pierre and Gabriel Gonzaga’s knockout of Mirko Cro Cop .
“In this sport it is very difficult to talk about being the favorite before the fights,” said Rua at the time. “See the example of (Mirko) Cro Cop and (Gabriel) Gonzaga. So to be honest, I don’t...
