It was a devastating loss to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in UFC 134, all right, but Forrest Griffin is still 1-1 against Rua. Same versus Tito Ortiz.
He was also on a two-fight winning streak prior to losing his rematch to Shogun.
Some fans may ask for a third and deciding fight against either (or both) before Griffin calls it quits.
Still, his pained and portentous pre-UFC 134 confession that he “wasn’t getting better” must now be taken more seriously.
Let’s read it again:
It quit being fun when I realized I wasn’t getting better. I’m plateauing or almost getting worse sometimes. One of the essential elements to have in this is your perceived expectation of the future, and I’m a painful realist, so I realized that I’m not going to get better; this is it. It’s only gonna get worse from here on and you fight as much as you can, you fight until you don’t have it anymore, and then you fight a couple more times after that.
Sounds like the beginning of the end of an illustrious MMA career.
In any sport, when a veteran athlete claims that his game no longer improves, more often than not it’s a sign of an imminent surrender.
Here’s a recap of the proud moments of Griffin’s fighting career:
He was a former UFC light-heavyweight champion, taking the belt from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Just before that, he won his first match against Shogun, who was at the time ranked the No.1 light heavyweight fighter in the world by many MMA publications.
He recorded victories over Stephen Bonnar (2x), Chael Sonnen, Rich Franklin, Jeff Monson and as mentioned, versus Rua and Ortiz (before losing to the former and after losing to the latter).
He made history by becoming the first winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).
Most significantly, the MMA world owes him for bringing UFC into the mainstream, with his exciting TUF finals fight versus Bonnar.
Consequently, their fight is declared as the No.1 UFC fight of all time in the UFC Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights program.
And oh, his two books also earned good reviews!
Griffin is, without a doubt, leaving a memorable and deeply appreciated legacy to MMA.
So, is retirement for the first TUF winner a good idea now?
Well, why not?
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