My Mom's Basement - QUARANTINE MINI-POD: FORREST GRIFFIN

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin joins Robbie in the Basement today to discuss his legendary career, his current job with the UFC, some upcoming matchups in mixed martial arts, and much, much more. 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.comYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Forrest Griffin, one of my favorite fighters of all time. I tell him this in the interview, but he might have been my first, like, favorite fighter, because he was on the cover of UFC Undisputed 09, so I kind of just gravitated towards him right away. This show is brought to you by 3Chi, as I tell you each and every week, 3Chi is the leader in hemp-derived cannabinoid products. All of their products are formulated by a biochemist, and this stuff is Delta-8-THC. It's a federally legal version of THC that gives you the perfect hybrid of effects between Delta-9-THC, THC you find in weed, and just the CBD

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Now let's get into this interview with UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin. All right, welcome back to the show, ladies and gentlemen. I am here with a UFC Hall of Famer. He's actually in two wings of the UFC Hall of Fame. He was maybe my first favorite fighter in the UFC, to be honest with you, because you were on the cover of the UFC Undisputed Video Game in 09, and that was like, you know, the biggest thing in the world for me. He's Forrest Griffin. Forrest, how are you doing? I'm good, man. I'm good. It's good to be here, man. I'm glad to have you here. How have you been holding up through 2020 through the quarantine?

What's been keeping you entertained? I mean'm i'm great you know like like people always joke i've been social distancing for a while man so it's all good for me you know my my wi-fi works pretty well um had to upgrade to that higher data plan but you know it was what it is right the trials and tribulations of 2020 yeah i'm the same way have you been diving into TV shows? Are you diving into movies? Are you a video game guy? Are you diving into music? What are you getting into?

No, I'm not coordinated enough to play video games. I'm the worst about watching so many bad TV shows. It's just unbelievable the amount of time I dedicate to bad television. And then I've seen, I think, oh my gosh, like. Like what's bad television? You talking reality TV, bad sitcoms? Yeah, no, no, no. Like, you know, not like bad, but like the boys, you know, that's one of my favorite.

Oh yeah, I like the boys. Yeah. No, just, just, just, just down the rabbit hole of weird, like, French detective noirs. You know, I don't even know. And I assume I'm looking at your office in the UFC Performance Institute right now. Yeah, I've seen it before. So for those that don't know, you are working in there pretty often. Every day are you in the Performance Institute? You know, like everybody, I spend most of my waking time here at the ufc um

that's pretty much the the deal i don't work that much but i'm here if you needed work done i suppose i could do it yeah what is your job entail for those that don't know with the ufc right now um no i mean if you were like a ufc fighter and you needed the thing you would ask me and i would facilitate it i would make that thing happen. You know, if it's a trainer related thing, like my cardio is bad, let's say,

or, you know, who, who do I talk to about medicals or, uh, the, the, the flight stuff.

And I was like, Hey, you know what I'll do? I'll find the guy. I'm the guy with the Rolodex. I'm literally like nobody except the guy with the Rolodex. Are you like the UFC guidance counselor? Would you say that's fair? Yeah, a little bit, a little bit.

Do you take pride in helping younger fighters? Is that one of the things that you like about that job? It actually is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, of course it is. It is. Yeah. I mean, I try to, you know, to, to kind of joke and be jovial about it, but yeah, it's the coolest thing is to get to kind of give back, right? Did you know you wanted to do that when you were fighting? Like, as you were fighting, did you think, I want to transition into a coaching career afterwards

or I want to transition into something like that? I did not enjoy coaching or cornering. I would do it, but it wasn't my passion. I was always like, you know, I wanted to fight, man. And that's why the sport of MMA is the best, right? Because it's a team of one. And I like that part of it. Like I said, I'm, you know, not like a social group animal.

But, no, you know, I guess it took me a couple years. And then, you know, it did seem like the thing to do i've always kind of been a bit christian light and had like the the heart to give and help i've done a lot of charity stuff and then you know you start thinking about it i'm doing all this man i could really probably help some younger fighters out too or just like the next generation or the sport as a whole to help evolve and you know i don't want to get on my soapbox here, but that's really what we're trying to do at the Performance Institute is figure out the best way to train for mixed martial arts

and disseminate that to everybody. Less injuries, better, you know. I've seen the tours. I mean, you've given me a tour of the place. I've seen literal, you know, machines that look like there's something out of Rocky IV. We've physically met before? Yeah, we have.

That's amazing. Damn, didn't leave a big impression, I guess. This time you'll remember. This time you'll remember. That says more about me than it says about you. Well, yeah, you've been in fights. That's like an excuse for everything, right? I'm kind of a stoner.

It's the same thing. It's like, ah, it's the weed. It's the fights. Yeah. I was always dumb and had a poor memory but now i just have an excuse yeah there you go it's like the quarantine for me and like you um i assume is just an excuse not to go out now it's nice oh my gosh yeah i mean and like my wife should have been ordering our groceries from day one like why weren't we doing this before babe what's going on you know

yeah it is nice there's a lot of curbside pickup is great i think that should just be a thing that happens all the time now there's a lot of benefits to it so i'm gonna just name five opponents that you've had in your career five fights really okay and i would love for you to tell me just as a fan what you look back on that fight and think now in 2020 years later. So first up, the legendary Ultimate Fighter finale fight against Stefan Bonner. You know, for me, that was like the turning point in my life. That was literally the day I didn't have to get a job outside of fighting.

You know, before that, I'd always had a side hustle or an actual job, and fighting was a hobby. That was the day, very scary, I might add, that I had always had a side hustle or an actual job and fighting was a hobby that was the day um very scary I might add that I had no excuses I was like oh wait now I just fight people for a living and I don't have the excuse of off I didn't have to work I'd be so good I can literally just devote all my time to training becoming the best fighter I can be shit I like those excuses did you feel like that was as important as a title fight for you? Did it feel that big?

Yeah, it did at the moment. I mean, you got to think. They're talking about the six-figure contracts, and you're going to be employed. You're going to get to fight for a living. So it's a big thing for me at the time. It was basically what I've been trying to do for the three or four years prior, four years prior with no success.

And for those that don't know, Dana White has said time and time again that that fight quite literally might have saved the UFC. Without that fight and without that entire season, without the Ultimate Fighter as a reality show, the UFC may not be here today. Things were on the decline for a while. When did that kind of create this history? When did it have a historic aura around it?

Was it right away? Was it five years later? Was it 10 years later? Well, I mean, it was pretty close because they had me and Stefan's gloves and gear in the hard rock, like in like one of those shadow box things, like with a big, you know, like in a video playing of the fight. And then I would like go past it every day. So, you know, it was impactful right away. That's pretty awesome.

Up next, your fight against Tito Ortiz, a guy that's running for Congress now. Wait, Congress for real? Congress? I think he's running for congress now wait congress for real congress i think he's running for a political position for sure like like a local yeah it's like a local huntington beach thing yeah okay okay good yeah i mean all right the first fight the first fight yeah um let's see uh yeah i mean that was a great experience for me. You know, it was a good exercise and, like, you know, self-belief and whatnot, you know.

So, and it was funny. He said, like, you know, I'm going to – he said something about, you know, two minutes into the fight, I'm going to be smashing his face, and he's going to know, you know, he's going to know know he's gonna know what it's like to play with the big boys and then i said like 15 minutes into the fight when i'm still coming at him he's gonna know that i'm one of the big boys and we were both right yeah so that's i mean there yeah at the end of the fight you know when you give each other the

like embrace there you go all right we were both correct on that one um fight against shogun um i'm assuming you mean the first one first fight yep but first fight on all of these first fight i'm going down yeah i'm gonna give you uh both though so the first fight was probably the most excited i ever was about a win shogun was a legend to me um I had actually been like in a crazy place he's the only fight in my career I ever asked for um you know I wouldn't even have to have yeah yeah I wouldn't even like use people's names well I actually asked for Vanderlei too but I'm glad I didn't get him um but you know I would just you know be like I'll fight you know, I would just, you know, be like, I'll fight. You know, I wouldn't even try to like, you know. So I put myself in a situation and, you know, I just, I thought there was a way I could just be the rock he broke himself on,

you know, because the way he comes in and comes in and, you know, as a guy whose style I admired and tried to learn a little from, you know, he comes in hard with heavy hands legs and kicks uh punches and kicks kind of crashes into you then looks for a body lock takedown and i was like that's kind of what i want to do too you know kind of have the same style it's anyway yeah so up next this one is one of my favorites of all time it's the fight against rampage you're a big underdog in this fight you had the ultimate fighter leading up to it. What do you look back at this fight and think?

Well, I mean, you know, it was important for me. That was the kind of – that was what made me, right, the belt. You should always defend the belt once, but what can you do? So, at least I got the belt. And, you know, that's kind of what makes the career, right? You can say former champion. So, you got that going for you. And listen, you're talking to a kind of what makes the career, right? You can say former champion. So you got that going for you. And listen, you're talking to a Conor McGregor fan,

so you don't have to defend a belt. It's fine. It's cool, bro. You win the belt, you walk away, you box some ways, fine. We'll do whatever we want. I like the new model. I like the new model. I like it.

So you mentioned before that you didn't love the experience of coaching. Did you not love the experience of coaching did you not love the experience of being a coach on the ultimate fighter or was that completely like separate from coaching no i was totally it was very hard for me um it was hard for me you start caring caring about people you start liking people it kind of you know you know what I'm saying like yeah it's like you know your empathy and you're like I gotta help these guys they gotta do um you know like I got nervous when they would fight for a while you know I would be like in the stands or like in the back helping them warm up and I'd be like I'm nervous I'm sweaty But you know, but it was such a great learning experience,

you know, as far as my training. And one thing I'll say about the coaching that and the crew I put together, which was great, is five guys from the show ended up staying in Vegas or training in Vegas with me to some extent. Wow. Yeah. Guys were like, okay. And also Vegas is awesome. Yeah.

It was really awesome around 2007 and 8. But yeah, you know, so those big taxes, it's like so hot. It's unbelievably hot. Did I mention it at the top? It's so hot. It is super hot. I was just there and it was like 114. I was there for the Cormier-Stipe fight at the Apex.

Oh, my God. It was through the roof. You got legit media credentials, huh? I know. I couldn't believe it. Everyone tells me I don't have legit media credentials, and then I shine them in their face. I'm like, ha-ha. I was talking to Dana.

You sweet-talked him. Yeah. It's uncle dana it's uncle dana all right this last one i hate to bring up as a fan of yours but i would love to get your take on this it's the anderson silva fight yeah um you know i mean that that was that was what i had going for me after that was it was never going to be worse. Nothing worse was ever going to be. Nothing was ever going to be more embarrassing. I was never going to be more distraught with myself at that moment. And that's when I knew, you know, man, if I made it through that, then like really everything else, like I could lose a limb and be happier. You know what I'm saying?

Like not to get too dark on you, but I was pretty, you know, it's just not, yeah. And, you know, that's the thing. I don't think people get a lot of times with professional athletes is the worst moment of your life. That's going to come up 1 million times. Like the anniversary of the fight comes up. Hey, there it is.

And a million people. And then, you know, you post something or say something bad. And, you know, like I'm going to, Anderson, so you're like immediately comes out. And it's just like, that's just not clever. That's just, that's like run, force, run, buddy. That's just, come on. You got to do better.

Do you think it's different in fighting than it is in other sports? Because I see this as someone that tries to, you know, obviously cover the sport from like a comedic perspective. I always run into the trying not to actually disrespect fighters because there are like different stakes. It's not like you're losing a basketball game where it's like, you're getting knocked out. Yeah.

I could not agree more. It is. And I think it was Quentin Jackson. And they've said this, it's the epitome of ego in a sport. And when you've been beaten in that regard, it's not like, well, I couldn't shoot a basketball as well as the guy next to me. He was really good at that.

You know, or it's not even like a footballer. And it's not a team sport. You can't look around and say, well, you know, if he hadn't dropped that pass, we would have won. It's like, if I hadn't gotten beat, I would have won it's like if i hadn't gotten beat or i would have won you know it's like there's no i i and that's what always appealed to me about it uh when i was a young man i used to say you know people be like oh you're mixed martial artists i say no i'm a prize fighter man i'll fight for money i'll fight for a damn ham sandwich

if i'm hard up i'll just like and then this is the same thing with coaching as i got older i became a martial artist as i got older when i saw people getting punched i went oh god man that's and then you don't think about man is that guy gonna be okay is she oh man her elbow you know i hope i wonder and then you know in your mind man that's like six months it's gonna cost her you know a chunk of her life and career you know what i mind, man, that's like six months. It's going to cost her, you know, a chunk of her life and career. You know what I'm saying? When you see those injuries, you don't think like that when you're young. You shouldn't, you know?

Yeah. When you're young, you're just like, eh, step over the dead and move forward. So looking back at your entire career now, what would you say the absolute pinnacle was in terms of the happiest you ever were with a win? Was it that Shogun fight? It was the Shogun fight. Yeah, yeah. It was the Shogun fight. It was followed closely by the happiest you ever were with a win was it that shogun fight it was the shogun fight yeah yeah it was the shogun fight followed closely by the stephan bonner fight that that makes a lot of sense i'll give you another little story um so i had a real good camp the second time

i fought shogun things were going pretty good after i lost that fight that's when I really that's when I kind of knew I was never gonna be a title contender challenger again and I mean I still wanted to fight I didn't ever want to retire just blew my knee out twice but that's when I knew it was like all right I can maybe fight main events and louse or something you know but I'm never gonna be like a top five guy you know what I'm saying were you cool with that at the time or was that like something that was hard to come to grips with honestly man i was all right with it yeah maybe i shouldn't have been but i was like man as long as i can still fight and i can fight people that are my level i'm cool with that you know

yeah maybe i don't need i think that's Jones in the real world. But I still have a name and a marketability. And, you know, there's still a lot of people I can fight and make good fights with. Just not those top 10, 12 dogs, you know? Yeah. When you look back at... Like, find me the other old guys with bigger reputations than skill and let me fight those guys. Yeah. It's like Beaters talking about the

old people's league yeah the legends league yeah so looking back is there anything you would have changed is there anything you would have done differently or yes all of it literally everything so many things yeah it's ridiculous right i kind of feel the same way like when people say i have no regrets i'm kind of like man i have like a ton of regrets like you know yeah yeah a better man than me i'm so many regrets how old are you i'm 22 that's so great you can like um do something like check those things yeah yeah i could try yeah i mean you can live your life and not have any regrets today you'd be like i nailed that interview that was amazing yeah fair enough fair enough that's that's definitely a positive outlook to have on everything there um so how do

you think you would have done if you as a fighter were put in 2020 under the current like media landscape, the social media landscape where I feel like you probably would have, I think you would have done really well. Yeah. I think you would have been like a personable Twitter guy. Yeah. I would have crushed it. I thought you were going to ask me about the actual fighting and that I was going to be like, not good. The sport evolves quick, my friend. Yeah, no, I'm not dropping you into the octagon right now i'm dropping you into like uh the ben askren darren till uh twitter game no no no yeah i would do

really well in that that part of it but the uh the actual fighting part not so much do you wish that stuff were like around like do you wish you had the opportunity to get a little crazier with it in your fighting career or do you like that you stuck to the very respectful um route no no no what i mean there's a couple things to say about that one you got to think where i was coming from you know i'm my space generation bro i saw everything kind of blow up and i thought it was amazing i felt like oh my gosh i have like half a million people following me this is insane you know i was like i was blown away at that time by people on the on actual tv interview this is insane like so at the time you know i thought it was pretty good

you know you gotta know totally yeah i just mean the more the not even the blow up but the like the way that people interact through like memes look at the style bender paula costa thing where like style bender is just like absolutely beating the dead horse on them with all the memes like that stuff it's it's just a different mma twitter is a different landscape now than it was back then. I'd have to hire a team to do that. Yeah. Somebody do that. I can't be bothered with these memes. Yeah, it's fun to bring that fight up.

How did you feel about the way Israel handled that after he won? So for me, a Barstool sports writer, it's perfect. It's content for me. If you're making comedy, that's nice for me. It's if you're making comedy, it like that's nice for me from like an objective standpoint. I also feel like he didn't do that to Robert Whitaker really. Right. He only did it to the Costa who really, really talked trash before the fight kept calling him skinny, made that video of the guy running out of the octagon, his sparring partner.

So I was kind of okay with it. And I always fall back to what dana says pretty often is like we're talking about cage fighting here like we're talking about guys doing violent violent stuff to each other in the octagon and then a few memes are too far i don't know no i i didn't uh you know i thought you're gonna play in the mud you get muddy man you're gonna get dirty right i thought it was kind of like it was agreed upon right that's that's where they're at like it would be different like you said if he did that to robert whitaker or something it's just a totally different thing you know yeah and i think fans would respond differently too like i think he would he would

be more uh more of a heel character more backlash through it but there wasn't a lot of fan backlash it was a lot of like media backlash and people saying is this proper for the sport is this good for the sport it's like you just watched him knock the guy out well you know a little hump what's that gonna do what what uh yeah like you know what what bothered me more is there was a fight uh a grappler or this guy took it on short notice and he submitted the guy and he got up and he screamed in his face you know that actually bothered me more. I'm like, that dude didn't do anything to you. That dude was just being cool.

You just beat that dude. It's a comeback great for you, but you should celebrate, but not by yelling at that guy. Now I want you to lose your next fight, bud. Yeah, he did the TJ Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt celebration. All right, so what were your thoughts on, just talking a couple current UFC events, what were your thoughts on Stylebender's performance in the fight,

the fight itself? Man, it was amazing. It was amazing. He talked all that mental warfare stuff, and I was like, ah, whatever. Yep, he was in his head, the beachfront property. He was right there uh it's like you know like then it was like i don't recognize that paul costa there's you know he made it look easy literally which nobody's been able to do against costa literally you know

an undefeated opponent that was really crazy and then what were your thoughts on his plea to dana afterwards to really penalize people for missing weight more than they already are penalized so I think and this is something that that uh it's a commission issue first of all so and that that's what makes it good right it's third party out of the UFC's hands but I think it should be uh your bone at your your fight purse and your wind purse and any money you get should be penalized and go to your opponent right so right now i think it's just the show money right okay i didn't know that yeah i didn't even realize that win money it should absolutely and then it should also be tied

to the percentage over you are right so that guy was four pounds over at 145 so that means that that's a pretty good percentage over right yeah and so there should be thresholds where the percentage of uh 187 186.3 all right that's 10 10 of your win and show them when it goes to your opponent and then but when you start getting like you know where we're a huge percentage of the purse he was saying 90 percent overweight a person you know, where, where a huge percentage of the purse, he was saying 90% of the way, you know, a larger percent of that. Yeah. Person needs to go to your opponent. And I think that's, that's like a quick solve. We have all these problems with, with weight, especially in COVID short notice, gyms are shut down people's trainings,

diets, everything, you know, people are struggling a little bit, right? Even fighters, they're not immune from it, you know, definitely around more than they use usually do they're eating more than they're usually do because they're depressed down, they're training less than they usually do. So yeah, their weights are up. And man, you fight people for a living. Somebody gives you a fight 27 days from now, you're gonna try and take it. Yeah, I would love to see that get improved as well because everyone that i've spoken to on it agrees and you know wants that to be pushed forward well and the other thing i would say is too is like that's kind of what we're about here's man you're a professional man once you win a fight in the ufc and you or

once you're fighting the ufc what's your excuse for not setting your life up in such a manner that you can take your next fight and be ready for your next fight right totally like even the performance institute that's what that's for like they can go there and literally work out a diet and a weight cut plan and all that since I started working for the UFC I have not gone on more than five days vacation in seven years wow my wife doesn't like me but you know she does like me but she would like a proper vacation one of these years but it's like what I hear these fighters going on these vacations doing these ATV rides all right all right two weeks after your fight but then come back get back to work what are you doing I don't know that's just my mentality yeah so i'm not looking for like uh any kind of clickbait headline on this

but i'm just looking for your take on the recent dana white conor mcgregor twitter spat when you see stuff like that happening which didn't happen a ton in your era i guess tito ortiz gave dana some issues but yeah let me that funny. I don't love that people are now negotiating their contracts out in public. These are contract negotiations. Don't mistake it. This is a

play to get money, get people to side with you. I don't want to pick on Connor, but it's just what people do now. You talk about do now, you know, that you talk about the fight, you say, you know, I need to be compensated publicly more and more. You know, I don't have a problem with fighters trying to get more money. You should try to get more money, for sure.

But I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that being like a public thing now, you know, and I don't need to be comfortable with it because it doesn't really affect me. I'm just saying as a fan, I don't love it, you know and i don't need to be comfortable with it because it don't really affect me yeah i'm just saying as a fan i don't love it you know i would love i would love for guys to make a lot of money but is there not a way we can do that behind the scenes yeah and what's your take on what's your take on the overall broad scope of it where um the sport i don't want to say has moved away from the best fight the best, but there's definitely, we've moved into a territory of money fights and super fights. How do you feel about that as a guy who was literally fighting the best at the time?

So, got right here, got the UFC brand Maxim. And one of the Maxims is fans decide. Fans decide. If enough people want to see a fight That fight will happen At the end of the day man This is a for profit company If a million people say I want to see a fight

That fight should happen Does that make sense? Trust me I'm with you Again like the barstool looking for content from the sport Super fights, money fights are perfect For me yeah i mean you know does that you know almost take from a belt or this or that i don't know i just see guys out there that that you know belts are hard to come by there's only 12 of them you know what i'm

saying it's like we're come on we can have other fights that aren't big fights other than the 12 fights for the belt, right? Yeah. So, you know, I'm a fan. I'm entertained. I'd be lying if I said I usually don't want to see those fights. I do. What do you make of these three matchups I'm going to put in front of you? Two of them are scheduled fights, and one of them is just an offered fight that's been put out there that I'm sure you've seen.

One is the Korean Zombie versus Brian Ortega. Oh, yeah. I mean, hopefully it's an amazing fight, right? Yeah. I know Ortega had a little incident with one of the zombies' guys. Yeah, it was crazy. There's been some legit beef, which is funny because both of those guys, knowing them individually are super nice human beings, but they do not. Yeah.

Dana said the exact same thing to me this week. He was like, they're the nicest guys. I don't know why they have issues with each other. They're the nicest two people, but they should not, they should not be around each other. Hey, but you know what? It's fighting. That's good. That's what makes it great. Yeah. You know what would do great? Two guys that like each other will put them in a cage and beat each other up.

They'll figure it out. I would watch that, yeah. Khabib versus Gaethje. I'm super excited. I don't know, Matt. I just think Gaethje is the guy that can do it for some reason. I just think his quickness and he doesn't really get

taken down. Granted, he's never fought a wrestler Khabib's level, but, you know, Gaethje's got high-level wrestling in his back pocket. And the other thing about Gaethje is it's a one-punch, man. It's one – it's that one punch changes the course of the fight, right? Yeah. So, yeah, we'll see see i can't wait for that one and then this one's just a potential matchup the rematch of conor mcgregor versus dustin you know they're looking to do it in the charity way or at least that's what conor said and the

trying to negotiate his contract like you said and dana white told me yesterday he has legitimately made the offer it's out there for him. I would love it. I would love that fight. I would love that fight. You know, I've been a Dustin Poirier fan, I think, since he was in the WEC when he was like 19. I got to meet him through some mutual friends,

and he's just an awesome human being. You know, he's kind of like the UFC man of the year, person of the year this year. Definitely. You know, and just even if there's a charity aspect in it, you know, it's dear to my heart. So those are just amazing people there, man. You know, and, yeah, so I would love to see that fight. Yeah, I would love to see it as well.

All right, I've got one final question for you before we get you out of here. What advice would you impart to a young fighter that just came to you and said, hey, do you have any word of advice for me? What would be the one thing that comes to mind for you? Yeah, there's not one thing, right? There's a million little things. But what I always say is make sure that you're having fun, right? So, you know, the first fights i got in um only the winner got paid

and i had to win two fights to get a hundred dollars and i thought like i thought that was great because i was getting through what i love to do for hundreds of dollars so um the other thing i will say is have fun nothing's more fun than winning. Yeah. Make sure you're prepared for the fights. Nothing sucks worse than losing except retiring. Cause that's like a permanent loss. People are like, how was retirement? Dude,

retirement sucks. So if you're young, take care of yourself so you can do this as long as you can. Cause there's going to be days when you hate it. The days when you absolutely hate fighting on fight week, you're underourished you have to do 8 000 media things you just traveled around the world you can't sleep right you gotta fight this other human being and you have all these stupid things you have to do i have to talk to you on fight week i'm sure you get it now these guys these guys are like so stressed they're so so thin on everything, right? And now they've got to do media and all that crap.

They will miss it when it's gone. As much as I hated all of this stuff, Fight Week, you know, I work at the UFC now. And people have told me, man, you are a real jerk, Fight Week. I was like, yes, I was. I was doing my thing. And anything that didn't help me win that fight was not important to me. I didn't care that much about selling that fight. And the other piece of advice I would give to guys with my mentality is that's cool that you want to fight. But if you're not willing to fight for free, you're going to have to do a little bit of media. You're going to have to make people care. You're going to have to get up early and do some interviews on fight week you're gonna have to go to a media day and and sit at a freaking media table while people only ask conor mcgaggart questions you're sitting there without a phone and nothing to do except listen to this guy and answer questions for an hour of your life you know that's that's the way a media day can be

you know but sure sure as hell when it's gone you will truly miss that are you you're still you're ready to fight now you're ready like you know what no no i'm gonna don't gonna stay out of the octagon i'm gonna stay on this side trust me all the anxiety we talked about before that comes with this guy so i'm gonna not get in the octagon i was afraid i'm afraid of everything i'm afraid of flying i've been afraid i'm afraid of rides at the amusement park I'm afraid of everything. I'm afraid of flying. I've been afraid. I'm afraid of rides at the amusement park. I'm terrified of everything. But do you, like, throw up when you get afraid, like Stan from South Park when he sees Wendy? I don't throw up.

See, that's what I do, and I would be so embarrassing if I threw up in the octagon. Especially with women in high school and college. I definitely froze up, you know, school and college. I definitely froze up. You know, fight, fight, and freeze. I definitely become like a statue. Of course, you okay? I was a freezer. I was a freezer in high school.

No doubt about it. Maybe fighting's not for you, then. Running away is least of. Listen, I'll talk to you about fighting. I'll talk to whoever about fighting. You want to talk fighting? I'm your guy, but I'm not the guy for fighting. Have you ever been in a fight?

No. I mean in a hockey fight before, but never an actual fight. Well, I mean, hockey fights are legit. That's a fight. Yeah, kind of. I got suspended from the league. It was a roller hockey league. That's a better fight.

But they break it up as soon as you hit the ground, right? So, you know, you're like – They broke it up right away, and then I pushed the ref off to get back, and I got a five-game suspension, three for the fight, two for the ref thing. Yeah, yeah. You can't push the ref. I mean, that's another thing in the UFC. I agree.

But, no, that's great. I think you should try to get at least one more fight. I don't know. Next time you're in Vegas when the pandemic's over, I'm going to make that happen for you. At the Performance Institute, we could do it like Fight Club style. Closed doors, just like Forrest Griffin and a few legends in attendance. Joe B is bouncing around on the octagon right now. Joe B is?

Yeah. Joe Benavidez? Tell him I said he's one of my best friends in the UFC. Swear to you. No, no. Trust me. I picked up a little bit of his vibe off you, so I figured. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

Forrest, this has been a pleasure. I hope to talk to you soon. Hopefully next year when COVID isn't a worry. Yeah, yeah. And maybe next time I'll remember that we've met. Yeah, bro, that would be awesome. I would be honored. All right.

All right. Thank you. Have a great one, brother.