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Forrest Griffin dealing with his mental complexities | read this item

Forrest Griffin dealing with his mental complexities

November 18, 2009 � UFC Betting Staff � Jump to comments

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Fighters are an odd lot. Sometimes it seems like they have to be, to do what they do for a living. Forrest Griffin may take the cake. Sometimes Griffin is glib and funny. Other times he can be cantankerous and grumpy. The Las Vegas Sun did a great feature on trying to figure out what makes Griffin tick. Brett Okamoto describes the former UFC light heavyweight champs oddities perfectly by going back to prefight mood before UFC 94:

After becoming the UFC light heavyweight champ in July 2008, Griffin seemed more
angry than proud, bullying through a moody camp before losing his first title
defense to Rashad Evans

Griffin lost that via stoppage and then was embarrassed by Anderson Silva at UFC 101. Griffin snapped right after being knocked out and ran from the cage:

“I was definitely broken that day, no doubt about it. I was so
stressed about that fight and I was really disappointed because I thought I was
mentally stronger than that. I thought I could handle whatever there was. Now I’m just trying to stay positive and have fun. You know, enjoy that moment when you get in the cage.”

Griffin has often missed out on enjoying the big moments in his career:

“When he won the UFC title against Rampage, he showed the belt to a few
people then threw it in the closet,” said Griffin’s trainer, Jimmy Gifford.
“You, me — we hang that on the mantle and show it to family and friends. He
threw the UFC light heavyweight belt in his closet. That next camp he was pissed at the world because he was the champ. It’s a
bit unusual, but it’s Forrest.”

Griffin changed things up for this camp leaving Xtreme Couture to go work at Warrior Training Center. Much his work is now down with boxing trainer Jimmy Gifford. Frank Mir has also been a recent convert to Gifford on a close to full-time basis. Gifford has tried to simply things for Griffin. There are no worries about what fans and the promotion want, the focus is only on beating Tito Ortiz this Saturday.

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