There is a lot of great young talent in MMA today. Regardless of promotion, the sport’s growing popularity is attracting a wealth of new athletes into the fold. Some are in the UFC, some are not. Some have already hit the big time, and some are s…
There is a lot of great young talent in MMA today. Regardless of promotion, the sport’s growing popularity is attracting a wealth of new athletes into the fold. Some are in the UFC, some are not. Some have already hit the big time, and some are still working their way up the sport’s minor leagues. […]
Forrest Griffin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira should both consider retiring. Look, I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do—especially guys who could squash me as easily as I hit the snooze button in the morning. I’m not saying that th…
Forrest Griffin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira should both consider retiring.
Look, I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do—especially guys who could squash me as easily as I hit the snooze button in the morning. I’m not saying that these two legends should retire, but only that they should both consider it, for different but equally compelling reasons.
Fight careers end in one of two ways: Either a fighter chooses to retire or retirement chooses the fighter. In the UFC, retirement often comes in the reaper-like form of a feisty bald guy with lots of T-shirts. He either cuts you like excess baggage, or if he really likes you he makes you an offer you can’t refuse.
I’m speaking of course about UFC president Dana White. When Chuck Liddell’s time came, White wrangled the former champ into accepting an ambassadorial position with the company (vice president of mumbles, I think) in exchange for turning in his four-ounce gloves.
When Mark Coleman’s time came, by contrast, the legendary fighter hadn’t wiggled close enough to the corporate bosom to receive a company post, and he was unceremoniously dropped from the roster following his UFC 109 main event loss to Randy Couture.
Both Griffin and Nogueira are of a stature in the UFC such that they’re assured work with the company as long as they want it—just not necessary in the cage. Nogueira is one of the most decorated and legendary heavyweights in MMA history and has been an irreplaceable ambassador for the UFC and MMA for years. If it wasn’t for Griffin, meanwhile, and his historic fight with Stephan Bonnar in the Ultimate Fighter Season 1 Finale, the UFC might still be $60 million in the hole, or a distant memory.
When it comes to retirement, as with cage fighting, its better if you don’t leave your fate in the hands of others. Chris Lytle may not have won a championship belt, but he set a high water mark of his own in the life priorities department when he walked away from the game, still healthy, on his own terms, while still at the top of his game.
Couture’s farewell party wasn’t quite so perfect, having been spoiled by Lyoto Machida’s impromptu dental work. Still, Couture’s decision to retire was the right one, at an appropriate time and on his own terms.
Today, Nogueira now has a chance to go out as gloriously as Lytle did. With a dramatic finish of a young punk who had the audacity to call him out, Nogueira would have a career—and a retirement—to be proud of.
Griffin, meanwhile, has the less glamorous opportunity to go out more like Couture: for the right reasons, on his own terms and after getting the tar beaten out of him by some Brazilian striker. While the Lytle-style ending would clearly be preferable to Couture-style, Griffin would still be able to hold his head higher than he would, say, after a few more KO losses when White nudges him into a Liddell-style retirement.
After “Minotauro” outgunned a trigger-happy Brendan Schuab in Rio, few are currently arguing he can’t hang in the UFC heavyweight pack. Nogueira, at 35, is not even as old as teammate Anderson Silva, who you may have noticed is still at the top of his game. But in “Nog” years, Minotauro is a lot older. Since the time he was run over by a truck as a kid, Nog’s life choices have brought him an uninterrupted stream of bodily punishment.
And despite his resilience, Nogueira has little chance of scaling today’s heavyweight food chain. Certainly his brutal KO at the hands of Cain Velasquez seems more forgivable now that we’ve seen what Velasquez has done since. But the fighters at the top of the division are pushing hard to evolve their skill sets while Big Nog has been stuck in rehab for his dual hip replacement, a trend that seems like it could continue.
If I were Nogueira (a comically big “if”), I’d give my body a much deserved vacation, enjoy my new hips (Brazilians reportedly know how to do this) and phase gracefully into being a trainer. Or a politician. Or an actor. Or a UFC ambassador. Or just hang out on the beach and play soccer. He has all the money and glory a prizefighter could want.
Griffin, at only 32 years old, is atypically young for retirement talk, but when you’re talking about a fighter who’s strongest asset may be his ability to take punishment, you can assume his body has near Nogueira level of mileage on it. During the week before the fight, when he wasn’t complaining about being in Rio, Griffin had an almost Zen-like aura to him that nearly made me second-guess my pick of Mauricio Shogun. Looking back, that peaceful quality of Griffin’s may have been an expression of his grim determination that “this shall soon pass.” He also could have been thinking about home.
During the fight, while he was getting beaten senseless by Shogun, Griffin’s wife entered the early stages of labor with their first child back home in Las Vegas. That kind of impending life change can wreak havoc on your entire camp, but even without this new distraction, the odds are long that a questionably motivated Griffin re-conquers the light heavyweight division. Since losing his belt to Rashad Evans in late 2008 at UFC 92, Griffin’s only wins have been senior circuit members Tito Ortiz and Rich Franklin.
By Griffin’s own admission his game hasn’t progressed, and few would argue that. He seems to have lost the fire to evolve, as the top echelons of the sport demand. He’s financially secure, with a job waiting for him at the UFC if he wants it. What does he have to gain by getting fed to the young lions or beating up more old men?
While Griffin’s second fight with Shogun might not be the most desirable way to end a career, from a future job security perspective today could be a wise time to leave. In a post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, Dana White made it clear he’s well aware of Griffin’s impending fatherhood, as well the fact that Griffin really didn’t want to be in Rio at all. If Griffin were to go out on such a note of service to the UFC, after playing an integral part of the momentous and successful UFC 134, and after helping save the company’s ass in 2006, Griffin would easily have college tuition paid for as many children as he cares to have.
Is either one of these warriors ready to hang ’em up? Probably not. But I’d bet more on Griffin than Noguiera pulling the plug at this point.
However, if neither one will accept my suggestion to hang ’em up, I do have an alternative: Have them fight each other, and the loser goes home.
At UFC 126, Jon Jones defeated Ryan Bader by guillotine choke and after his hand was raised in victory his life would never be the same again. He was informed that since his teammate (at the time) Rashad Evans was injured, that he would be given …
At UFC 126, Jon Jones defeated Ryan Bader by guillotine choke and after his hand was raised in victory his life would never be the same again. He was informed that since his teammate (at the time) Rashad Evans was injured, that he would be given the shot to face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua just six […]
On April 9th, 2005, Forrest Griffin became a world-wide hit as he defeated Stephan Bonnar to win “The Ultimate Fighter.” It was arguably one of, if not the greatest fight, in UFC history. In fact, as the fight advanced in rounds, the number…
On April 9th, 2005, Forrest Griffin became a world-wide hit as he defeated Stephan Bonnar to win “The Ultimate Fighter.” It was arguably one of, if not the greatest fight, in UFC history. In fact, as the fight advanced in rounds, the number of viewers nearly doubled. Griffin went on to win his next two […]
At UFC 126, Jon Jones defeated Ryan Bader by guillotine choke and after his hand was raised in victory his life would never be the same again. He was informed that since his teammate (at the time) Rashad Evans was injured, that he would be given t…
At UFC 126, Jon Jones defeated Ryan Bader by guillotine choke and after his hand was raised in victory his life would never be the same again.
He was informed that since his teammate (at the time) Rashad Evans was injured, that he would be given the shot to face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua just six weeks later at UFC 128 for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World. Once the words “Let’s do it” left his mouth, Jones has not been the same person.
Leading up to the fight, you could seen a new-found confidence in Jones.
He was already signing autographs as “Champ 2011” he was in most people’s eyes extremely arrogant. One thing is for sure though, he backed it all up in the cage, but after winning the fight and becoming champion is when he was really tested.
After winning the belt, he appeared on many talk shows and was a very popular subject to discuss. It was announced that he would face Rashad Evans as his first title defense, but Jones withdrew due to a “thumb injury.” That was very fishy to many people, especially because just a year before in an interview he was quoted stating the following about fighting a teammate:
“I just think there are lots of ways around it. You know, you could fake injuries. You could do anything. I mean, there’s just so many ways around it, you know? But before I joined the team that was the first conversation we had. It was just about friendship.”
After he withdrew, it was announced that instead Rashad would fight Phil Davis. Shortly after that was announced, Jon Jones announced that he would not need surgery on his hand, and would fight later in the year. That really raised many, many questions. Shortly after, Quinton Jackson defeated Matt Hamill and was named the number one contender and will now face Jones at UFC 135.
So…Has Jones lost his focus?
At a press conference promoting UFC 135, Jones and Jackson were going back and forth, and when the two met for a staredown, Jackson made it a joke and Jones later said that he was unhappy about that. (Click here to see staredown)
Being champion is a tough task. You know what kind of champion someone is once they defend their title. Many fans, and media are hyping Jones like he is the greatest thing to happen to the sport, and as a champion and being young that sometimes can be a bad thing.
Many people will have their opinions on this topic, but just by hearing assumptions doesn’t always mean it is the correct answer. There is no doubt that Jon Jones is a phenomenal fighter, but in MMA anything can happen and at some point in every fighter’s career they suffer a defeat. Some handle it well, and some don’t.
Mental toughness is an extremely important part of a fighter’s arsenal, and at UFC 135 we will see how mentally tough Jones really is. Being young, a world champion, and defending your title for the first time against a legend, well that is something that will definitely test a fighter’s mind.
It is too soon to tell whether or not is ready to be Champion or whether he has lost focus. Actions speak louder than words and on September 24th at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado all questions will be answered and we will know what kind of Champion Jones really is.
On April 9th, 2005, Forrest Griffin became a world-wide hit as he defeated Stephan Bonnar to win “The Ultimate Fighter.” It was arguably one of, if not the greatest fight, in UFC history. In fact, as the fight advanced in rounds, the number of viewers …
On April 9th, 2005, Forrest Griffin became a world-wide hit as he defeated Stephan Bonnar to win “The Ultimate Fighter.” It was arguably one of, if not the greatest fight, in UFC history. In fact, as the fight advanced in rounds, the number of viewers nearly doubled.
Griffin went on to win his next two fights, defeating Bill Mahood and Elvis Sinosic and establishing himself as a legitimate contender in the Light Heavyweight division. Then Griffin hit a road block in his career, losing two of his next three fights to Tito Ortiz and Keith Jardine.
On September 22nd, 2007, Griffin has a career-defining moment when he upset Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 76 by submission in the third round. In his very next fight, Griffin was the new Light Heavyweight champion as he defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 86 by Unanimous Decision.
It appeared Griffin was on top of the world with no signs of slowing down, until he lost his first title defense to Rashad Evans at UFC 92 by TKO in the third round of action. His next fight was the most disappointing fight of his career, when Anderson Silva toyed around with him and knocked him out in the very first round.
Griffin went on to win his next two bouts, but those were against Tito Ortiz and Rich Franklin, fighters who are on the decline of their careers. When Griffin defeated Ortiz, it was Ortiz’s third loss in four fights (with the fourth being a draw), while Franklin has been inconsistent of late, losing three of his last five fights.
Approaching UFC 134, Griffin made some shocking statements questioning his love for the sport.
Griffin said, “It ain’t been exciting, fresh or fun since 2008. It’s a job, it’s money, and I have a great job, I realize that. Just because it works doesn’t mean I’m not gonna do it. You man up and you do your job and I make a lot of money doing this, and I love money and I love the freedom and ability money gives you. It quit being fun when I realized I wasn’t getting better. I’m plateauing or almost getting worse sometimes.”
Griffin admitted his job isn’t fun anymore and that he isn’t getting better. He went on to state that he loved the money and the freedom that comes with it.
Griffin displayed his second-worst performance at UFC 134, where he was knocked out in the first round by Rua in their rematch. Rua outstruck Griffin 16 to three, and redeemed himself after losing to Griffin at UFC 76.
While Griffin is still a good fighter, his love for the sport appears to be fading fast, if it’s not already gone. In order to be above your competition, an individual must possess a love for the sport. It appears as if Griffin’s love for money has far surpassed his love for fighting in the UFC.
It will be interesting to see what’s next for Griffin, but one thing’s for sure: if he doesn’t regain his love for the sport, he may never be the same.
Forrest Griffin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira should both consider retiring.