Forrest Griffin is criminally underrated

[Claude]

If a guy who spent a respectable chunk of his career in the top ten isn’t elite though, who is?

Forrest was only in elite territory for 2 fights.

 

[Jopo]

I've seen several people here claim that he had some sort of "unbeatable" period when he first came to the UFC.

wasn't the ufc lhw division for the first time kinda dying at that time?

Here he is again doing the same thing, I'm just in my own world don't mind me guys

Lol poor forrest. getting ground and pounded with your leg there though? lol your ass and legs are your strongest muscles that's why you never see shit like that. kick him away, jesus.

not trying to sound tough id get my ass kicked. but I really don't think it's possible to tko me there lol. I suck but i mean.. i'll spin and or kick. at least before I get my ass beat.

maybe i'm being too harsh. the initial blows were pretty solid.

 

[R3DV1P3Rx28]

Is that why Rampage freaked out a few days after the fight and went on a real mental Rampage? You're probably too young to remember, so never mind.

how the fuck do u know it was because he lost the belt? Exactly so stfu. And yeah I remember that incident.

 

[Paolo Delutis]

I love how fight fans talk about perennial top 10 contenders with bullshit terms like "journeyman".

In any other sport or walk of life, you're elite if you're top 10. In the fight game, half the fans think you're a bum unless you're an active champ or on the cusp of a title shot. Fucking clowns, that half.

Fight fans ?..more like filthy casuals lol

Forrest deserves a ton of respect, he always showed up and you knew if he was fighting it was going to a proper fight he had too much heart for it not to be..

Only casuals downplay Forrest..he had an amazing career and beat great fighters..injuries or not. ( its funny how injuries seem to only come out in losses..just saying)

 

[McDego]

Career wise he was at a high point. Shape-wise, he wasn't. This isn't debatable.

There's a big difference between minor injuries and injuries that don't allow you to train properly and require surgery and rehab.

Why wasn't the rematch competitive?

If the injuries were major, he wouldn't have gotten cleared.

Griffin and Shogun have the same amount of title defenses: 0

It took Shogun two times challenging for the belt to get it, it took Griffin one.

I think the biggest disparity in the shape Shogun was in was the athletic commissions and drug testing. You disagree?

The rematch wasn't as competitive because he caught him early. Do you think that is more indicative than almost 3 rounds and a submission? It's MMA, shit goes down like that sometimes.

 

[McDego]

Once again, Claude educating fools.

First Shogun fight was irrelevant because Shogun thought he could get past below-average Forrest with one leg. Rematch showed everyone what was up.

Rampage fight was odd and could have gone either way and Rampage may have been high at the time.

Forrest got mauled by Keith Sardine FFS!!

Bro, Shogun got guillotined by Sonnen and RNC'd by the guy who got mauled by Keith Sardine, less than a year after that mauling, in fact.

Weird.

 

[the ambush]

IMO Franklin was a top fighter from that same era who's even more underrated.

To be fair Forrest Griffin did beat Franklin which was a good, quality win. Yes I know of the weight-class difference.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

No.

About 95% of Forrest's career consisted in gatekeeping. He was never among the best in the division except for a very brief period of time. He was basicly only relevant in 3 fights: against Shogun, who was making his UFC debut and fought injured, against Rampage (very close fight) and against Rashad, who destroyed him.

Then he got destroyed by Anderson Silva (expected) and was never close to being a contender again. Fought Tito for the umpteenth time, got destroyed by Shogun in the rematch, beat an old Franklin and then reitred.

If anything Forrest is overrated around here because people pretend he was an elite fighter. He wasn't. He was a mid tier fighter who managed to get a couple of good wins. Elite fighters are time proven and for the large majority of his career, Forrest wasn't one of the best, nor even close to it.

He's basicly a one hit wonder.

Slightly harsh but I do think if you ran his career a couple dozen times in a simulator he only wins a belt maybe 2-3 of those times.

He got the Shogun fight off a one-fight winning streak, a decision against Hector Ramirez. That came on the heels of being knocked out by Keith Jardine.

Credit where credit is due: he showed up against Shogun, capitalized on a lackluster debut, and then fought at his best against Rampage. But that was an extremely accelerated path to the belt for a guy whose best win by far was Stephan Bonnar at that point.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

He was 12-1 in his last 13 fights before his UFC debut, only losing by breaking his arm against Coleman, which isn't really a loss.

In his next 4 fights he knocked out Coleman and Chuck then lost a decision that most people thought he won, got his rematch and took the belt from Machida, who was undefeated at that time.

He was at the top of his game, dude.

You’re just gonna gloss over that Coleman fight by saying “he knocked out Coleman” like that’s the main story from that fight?

Cmon man.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

I love how fight fans talk about perennial top 10 contenders with bullshit terms like "journeyman".

In any other sport or walk of life, you're elite if you're top 10. In the fight game, half the fans think you're a bum unless you're an active champ or on the cusp of a title shot. Fucking clowns, that half.

If you don’t use the term journeyman to refer to guys like Forrest, Matt Brown, Jim Miller, etc. that’s fine. Other people do. They are what they are regardless of how they label them. It’s like arguing whether elite is top 7 or top 3. It’s just an opinion.

 

[TGArthur]

Absolutely. Screw the Fact tellers

Fixed it for you

 

[DagOban**]

I think he is a bit overated.

He did a lot for the UFC though.

 

[McDego]

You’re just gonna gloss over that Coleman fight by saying “he knocked out Coleman” like that’s the main story from that fight?

Cmon man.

Coleman crying with his daughters in the cage?

Was that this fight?

I'm not sure what you're getting at.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Forrest was only in elite territory for 2 fights.

That not true he had some good name wins before he was in the UFC and from the time he fought Tito/Jardine onwards pretty much everyone he fought was a big name

 

[Koro_11]

At least Bisping Ktfod the champ, and on short notice.

Forrest legit robbed Rampage of his belt.

I compare Forrest’s gift over Rampage and Bonnar to Bispings hometown decision over Spider or Hendo.

Forrest vs Rua and Ping vs Luke is also comparable because it’s pretty much accepted in the mma community that both were unlikely upsets where Luke and Shogun were not at their best. It’s also comparable because Luke has a dominant win over Bisping as Shogun does over Griffin, and most agree those results are the more likely ones to keep repeating.

 

[ReadWrite]

If you asked Griffin he'd probably tell you he was overrated.

 

[Pierced7681]

I compare Forrest’s gift over Rampage and Bonnar to Bispings hometown decision over Spider or Hendo.

Forrest vs Rua and Ping vs Luke is also comparable because it’s pretty much accepted in the mma community that both were unlikely upsets where Luke and Shogun were not at their best. It’s also comparable because Luke has a dominant win over Bisping as Shogun does over Griffin, and most agree those results are the more likely ones to keep repeating.

I think Bisping beat both Anderson and Hendo, though the Hendo fight could have gone either way.

I don’t really see much of a comparison between Forrest/rua 1 and Bisping/Rockhold 2, but to each their own.

 

[King in the North]

He lost the Rampage imo and no if anything he’s overrated. Anderson took his soul.

 

[linvillegorge]

If you don’t use the term journeyman to refer to guys like Forrest, Matt Brown, Jim Miller, etc. that’s fine. Other people do. They are what they are regardless of how they label them. It’s like arguing whether elite is top 7 or top 3. It’s just an opinion.

As I previously stated, anyone who has the idea that someone who is a perennial top 10 at what he does is a "journeyman" is an idiot. It's really that simple. You in the very top percentile of participants. That's not a journeyman. Guys who are borderline UFC caliber would be fair to call journeymen.

 

[mkt]

wasn't the ufc lhw division for the first time kinda dying at that time?

More like a passing of the guard. Chuck and Tito getting past their primes, Randy moved to HW. But you have Machida and Rashad quietly building nice win streaks, and Shogun and the very promising (at the time) Sokoudjou coming over from Pride with Rampage. But yes, I'd say you were right since the UFC wasn't ready to put Machida or Rashad into the spotlight yet.