Forrest Griffin defends against Rashad Evans in Ultimate 2008 headliner

Written by Grady Roy   |   Friday, December 19 2008

Forrest Griffin throws a leg kick in his September 2007 fight against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.  He'll likely employ this highly effective weapon as he defends the UFC light heavyweight title against Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008. (Photo: Susumu Nagao)

Forrest Griffin will make the first defense of his light heavyweight title against Rashad Evans on December 27th in the main event of UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008. Griffin, who emerged victorious as a light heavyweight in the inaugural season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show, will face the TUF season #2 heavyweight winner in Evans. This will be a great matchup between the two Ultimate Fighter champions in a talent rich weight class.

Forrest Griffin has been highly successful as of late, winning his last 3 fights since his disappointing loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 66.  Griffin was visibly distraught after he got TKO’d by Jardine.  After sitting in his corner and crying he left the ring bypassing Joe Rogan who attempted to interview him.  Before exiting the ring, he appeared on camera stating “I’ll be back”.  Griffin certainly backed up that statement and has been on a roll ever since defeating Hector Ramirez by decision, submitting Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (whom many considered the best “pound for pound” fighter in the world at the time) by rear naked choke, and eventually capturing the UFC light heavyweight belt from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson via decision.

Rashad Evans, meanwhile, sports a perfect record of 12-0-1.The only blemish on his resume is a draw against Tito Ortiz at UFC 73.  (It should be noted that Tito was deducted a point for grabbing the fence, in all likelihood costing him the victory).  Evans holds notable wins over such fighters as Michael Bisping and Stephan Bonner, but his most impressive triumph was a devastating KO stoppage of fan favorite Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell.  

Griffin is a well-rounded fighter and will need to utilize his height and reach advantage in the standup against Evans.  But he must be aware of Evans’ powerful right hand that knocked Chuck Lidell out cold.  Griffin is a hard worker on the ground, and he will have to be at his best to being able to combat Evans, who is a superb wrestler.  Expect Griffin to throw a lot of kicks, which is probably his best weapon. Look for him to concentrate his attack on a certain area of Evans’ body, similar to the successful strategy he employed against Jackson.
Rashad Evans should try to control the action using his strength advantage and dominant wrestling ability.  If he chooses to standup with Griffin he will have to find a way to get inside to overcome the height and reach differential with his opponent.  A potentially effective strategy would be to come out aggressively using the clinch and attempting takedowns.  A key factor in this fight will be Evans’ stamina.  He is not one to really push the pace and has been known to sometimes slow down at the end of fights.  If Forrest employs nonstop pressure like we’ve seen in recent fights this could present serious problems for Rashad, especially in the later rounds.

When Evans was asked about his upcoming fight against Forrest Griffin he said:

“It’s an opportunity that I have and I plan on seizing that opportunity, but if I don’t, this is by no means a make or break situation…..You have to be able to pay a lot of attention to, and be very cerebral about, what you do and the kind of person you are,” he continues. “You really have to be intuitive to yourself.”   “My theme for this fight is just going out there to beat myself,” he says. “And I do that every single day in practice. I go out there and try to defeat myself. Because if I know if I can’t beat myself, there’s no way Forrest Griffin can defeat me.”

Regardless of either fighter’s strengths or weaknesses in this fight, it’s a complete tossup.  It will come down to who wants it more and who is prepared to go the distance and do whatever it takes to get the victory.

It’s a fitting main event to arguably the best UFC card of the year, and a great way to start the post Christmas feast of MMA action that will continue through the month of January.  There’s no better way to ring in the new year than with a “savage smorgasbord” of MMA action both in the US and Japan.

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