It's not an overstatement to say that when Forrest Griffin defeated Stephan Bonnar in the first Ultimate Fighter Finale, he changed the UFC forever. The fight was a slugfest that attracted huge numbers of new fans to the sport as part of the first live UFC card ever to air on basic cable, and it made Griffin the fan favorite that he still is to today.
But Griffin says he doesn't really care about the fight's historical significance.
"it was just a fight for me," Griffin said today on a call to promote his fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 92. "It was a hard fight, I was fortunate to win, and there's no point in me analyzing it any further."
Griffin, the UFC light heavyweight champ, has a simple attitude: He's focusing on getting ready to fight Evans, and he's not particularly interested in thinking about anything else. Asked today to discuss The Ultimate Fighter, Griffin said he doesn't give it a lot of thought, and asked to discuss the man he defeated to win the light heavyweight belt, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Griffin said, "I'm not fighting Quinton. I'm fighting Rashad."
Griffin said that defeating Bonnar -- and going 6-2 in the Octagon since then -- has made him famous, but he doesn't view that as anything special.
"It's crazy," Griffin said. "People want a lot of your time. I don't leave the house -- I go to the gym and the grocery store -- because if you're not out of the house people can't bother you."
Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar Changed the UFC, but to Griffin It Was Just Another Fight originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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