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Griffin's fight with Tito Ortiz - the third bout between the two and Ortiz's final career fight - went 15 minutes and was left in the hands of the judges. Griffin, despite being ahead on the scorecards in most eyes, wasn't wanting to stick around for the decision. For whatever reason, he left the cage at the conclusion of the third and final round, and had to be led back by UFC President Dana White.
Then, in an equally bizarre move, Griffin took the mic from UFC commentator Joe Rogan after the event and proceeded to interview Ortiz himself. With it being his last career fight, Ortiz seemed perturbed by Griffin's actions, and expressed as much at the night's post-fight press conference.
"I was pissed," Ortiz said at the post fight press conference (transcribed by MMAFighting.com. "I've been in this sport a lot longer. You have to understand, 15 years ago, May 3, 1997, Joe Rogan was the first person to interview me, and I told him, 'I'm going to make a mark in this sport.' It was my first fight. I said, 'just you wait. I'm going to make my mark in this sport.' I helped build this sport to be what it is to this day."
"For Forrest to step in and do what he did, after running? ... I can't complain about anything, as I said, I wish Joe Rogan got to interview me."
It wasn't just Ortiz who was taken aback by Griffin; UFC President Dana White expressed his frustrations with one of the original Ultimate Fighter winners and former Light Heavyweight Champ after the event as well.
"He drives me crazy, this guy," White said of Griffin. "It's professional suicide, the things that he does. People love Forrest Griffin, OK? So I ran after him. I don't have to tell you guys, everyone in this room knows exactly what I said. So he turned around, and he ran back into the ring. I saw him in the back and I said, 'What are you doing, whats wrong with you, are you mental?' Next time you're depressed about winning the fight, go back in the back and be depressed."
"It's Tito's last fight. If Tito won his fight, stand there, get your hand raised or Tito's hand raised. If your plugging for Joe Rogan's [expletive] job, it isn't going to happen. Leave the microphone alone until Joe comes over and talks to you. I love Forrest Griffin, always have. He's a great guy but he gets a little kooky sometimes."
For his part, Griffin expressed regret after the fact for his actions, and apologized to Ortiz when he showed up to the post-fight press conference himself.
"I sincerely apologize," Griffin said after getting to the proceedings late. "I don't know what I was thinking. I sincerely apologize, I'm sorry."
Penick's Analysis: It was one of the strangest post-fight situations in UFC history, truly. Griffin had clearly won the first two rounds, yet he left the cage afterward as if he had lost and didn't want to deal with it. Then to grab the mic from Rogan and conduct that bizarre interview was just disrespectful and more than unnecessary. His apology only goes so far considering Ortiz only had that one opportunity for a final in-cage UFC interview, but he clearly wasn't thinking things through at that point. It's really unfortunate for Ortiz that things went down the way they did, but there's nothing to be done from it now. For Griffin, his future isn't really all that clear either. He's become a bit of a headcase, and though he has wins in three of his last four fights, the UFC - and White particularly - seem to be growing a bit tired of his erratic mental state come fight night.
[Forrest Griffin art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_13784.shtml
Ao Hailin Shinya Aoki Andrei Arlovski Ricardo Arona Noboru Asahi
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