Did people think Forrest Griffin was going to beat Silva

[TusculumPioneer]

I could see why people would've thought Griffin could've won. He was the larger, stronger man and was recently the LHW champion. I didn't watch much MMA back then so I don't know what the majority of fans thought

 

[MTL]

 

[RJ43]

People act like Silva was a foregone conclusion now, but back then it was an interesting fight. People thought Forrest could pull a Couture and ragdoll/exhaust Silva to a UD. People forget that Forrest had huge wins over Shogun and Rampage not long before that fight.

I believe Silva was the betting favorite, but it was an intriguing fight at the time.

 

[koplin9]

no, not really.

people were very concerned about his chin heading into the match

 

[Lafwanda]

Yes

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/fights-you-were-way-off-about.2544601/page-2#post-86230589

 

[Goodfella86]

I did. Thought Bonnar had a shot, as well lol.

 

[sirmorbach]

I didn't, but I was pretty sure Chael would beat Andy. My friends and teammates still use this shit to pick on me, because I kept telling them "yeah, your boy's about to get his ass whooped, just wait".

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

People act like Silva was a foregone conclusion now, but back then it was an interesting fight. People thought Forrest could pull a Couture and ragdoll/exhaust Silva to a UD. People forget that Forrest had huge wins over Shogun and Rampage not long before that fight.

I believe Silva was the betting favorite, but it was an intriguing fight at the time.

Truth right here, Forrest is a big, big LHW they were saying.

 

[Hans Gercmiov]

I picked him to win. I admit it. I thought the size difference would be a lot more than it was.

 

[eiyuu]

Quite a few actually . . .

Pros Pick Silva vs Griffin

. . . remember, Griffin had just lost the LHW title and was ranked #4 at the time.

Sherdog Light Heavyweight Rankings - July 2009

 

[Ez Eric]

Lol yeah. A lot of people were picking Griffin. He was a lot bigger and he had been in a lot of wars so it wasn't so crazy looking back on it. I sure didn't expect it to be so one sided. I thought Forrest might get a few takedowns and GNP at least.

 

[Fight To Win]

I thought he had a decent shot but I was nervous for him. I expected it to be kind of a brawl where he got beat up but was still giving a respectable amount back. Not getting utterly, completely humiliated by Neo from the Matrix.

 

[Reaperman]

That was the biggest MMA blunder of my career. Haha At the time, Forrest was training at my gym, and his jiu jitsu and cardio were on point. I had no idea he was going to try to strike with Silva, but instead go for take downs and submissions. I thought he had a good chance because of that. When he came in trying to strike, I was totally confused......

 

[Peteyandjia]

People thought Forrest might be able to muscle Anderson against the cage, or at least make it 'a fight', as Forrest often did.

 

[Spycho]

Of course they did. They also did Sonnen the second time and Bonnar would. They is me included, LOL.

 

[jonathan274]

Silva was underrated by UFC fans for much of his UFC career. I told friends he was going to destroy before he had his first fight, no one believed me. As an avid Silva skills appreciator despite not being a fan of the ego, even I didn't expect the forrest beating to be that bad. Anderson would have done even more in LHW if Dana let him. He always had the ability to add weight and it didn't much affect his speed.

 

[Aranha21]

Still do. He's a big lhw and taps out Drysdale in training!

 

[awymore]

It's just one of those things that is impossible to look back on impartially. It's like telling someone that airplane policy used to be to let terrorists in the cockpit prior to 9/11. That just sounds absurd now, but nobody ever considered that they would fly those planes through a building. Usually they would just land them somewhere and negotiate.

 

[FadeLess]

Back then must people thought Leben was gonna wreck Anderson ... go figure

 

[houjebek]

Forrest is very underrated imo
I don't think he would have won that fight because the spider was one of the very elite in the same vein like Fedor, GSP, ... but I tought it would be a war like it was with most Forrest fights, not an instant execution
That fight was very painfull for me because the Spider & Forrest were my 2 favourite fighters at that time, (started watching MMA & UFC since UFC 77 & UFC 76, 2 great card with both Forrest & Silva at their peak.)

It's more a testimony how good Sylvia was/is.

The one thing about that fight that is often overlooked, is that Forrest actually moved forward.
90% of Silva's "opponents" just froze in fear and turtled up after the first minute. Forrest actually tried to make it a fight.