Forrest Griffin spoke to MMA Junkie about his rematch against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua this Saturday at UFC 134 in Rio and holy sh*t it was depressing! It sounds like Forrest was reluctantly forced into this match. Griffin says:
“Acceptance, just like the stages of grief… You can only stay in denial for so long… When I got off the plane, I accepted that I was in Brazil,”
Geez, you’d think he was taking his death march to the guillotine… No not the choke, I mean an actual guillotine. Griffin was a tad more enthused just about 4 years ago when he had actually asked to fight Shogun. I remember! I interviewed him here:
Watch Road to 76 I on RawVegas.tv
And no, obviously I couldn’t pronounce “Rua” correctly at the time, but forget that! Listen to how pumped Forrest was. He asked for that match when Joe Silva called him to suggest a match up with Lyoto Machida. Griffin response was:
“I said, well who’s fighting Shogun? [Joe Silva] said we’re looking for someone to fight Shogun. I said, ‘shit man, you found somebody!’ I’ve been wanting to fight that dude since forever…”
Well, gee… I guess once was enough. But boy, back then… It was a hell of fight, wasn’t it? Now, for Forrest, it sounds like it’s really just about getting the bills paid and taking care of family:
“My parents gotta retire,” he said. “My wife’s parents gotta retire. My little brother wants to go to college. I’ve got a daughter coming; she’s probably going to want to go to college, and she’s probably not going to be a genius, either. So, gotta make some money. A win. Winning pays a lot more than losing.”
So… at least, he still plans on winning and there’s a motivation there… Let’s just hope it’s motivation enough to bring out that same Forrest Griffin in the cage we saw back at UFC 76. F*cking bring it!