Griffin after Signature Dish at Featherweight

“I’m after a dominating win over him (Bart Palaszewski) and hoping to make a case for fighting for the title.” - Tyson Griffin

 

 

Tyson Griffin isn’t a fully-trained chef, but judging by his culinary portfolio, do not be surprised if one day he’s the first active fighter to compete on MasterChef. Griffin takes to Twitter to present his delicacies. Two weeks before his showdown with Bart Palaszewski at UFC 137 he picked up a steak at Whole Foods. “I earned it tonight,” he wrote. “The question is, how do I cook it and what should the sides be?”

Griffin’s post-MMA goal is to become a restaurateur. He’s been cooking for some time and among his other delights are tomato and basil soup with fried eggs, and a fruit and oat shake.

“Food is definitely one of the bigger passions in my life,” Griffin said. “I’ve been trying to create healthy stuff that tastes good in camp and keeping the good, fattening stuff out of camp.”

Griffin has literally trimmed fat, hoping to take what’s been the elusive next step in his MMA career. His recent run at lightweight was rougher than an amateur chef’s dinner service supervised by Gordon Ramsay. Three consecutive losses to Evan Dunham, Takanori Gomi and Nik Lentz left his UFC status on the brink before Dana White blasted the judges of the Lentz fight and handed Griffin a mulligan.

In just his third MMA fight, Griffin debuted as a featherweight for Gladiator Challenge in 2004 and earned a TKO victory over an upstart named Urijah Faber. Two fights into his second UFC featherweight run the stakes are much higher. It’s Griffin (15-5, 8-5 UFC) against Palaszewski (34-14, UFC debut), a 28-year old Polish competitor off a successful WEC stint at lightweight who recently had a four-fight winning streak snapped by a split-decision loss to Kamal Shalorus at WEC 53, on the Spike-televised portion of UFC 137.

Griffin’s recipe is straightforward: Be aggressive and push the pace. The prize is a significant bump up the ladder at the Grade-A prime age of 27.

“I’m after a dominating win over him and hoping to make a case for fighting for the title,” Griffin said.

Not surprisingly, Palaszewski has gone on record predicting a knockout if Griffin dares to live up to his billing as one of the lighter weights’ more exciting fighters. It’s a reputation that took a hit during his return bout at 145 against Manny Gamburyan at UFC on Versus 4. Going in, Griffin owed to himself, his fans and the UFC to push the pace. His previous contest was a controversial split decision loss to Lentz on the untelevised preliminary card of UFC 123 that extended his losing streak to three. A trio of defeats in the nefariously stacked 155-pound weight class normally translates into walking papers. White, however, announced that Griffin wouldn’t be cut and was a victim of yet another raw deal from the ringside decision makers.

“Tyson Griffin got [expletive] big time tonight,” White said.

Handed a reprieve, Griffin made a lifestyle change and tried his luck at 145. His first test was Gamburyan, a former No. 1 contender eventually smashed by champion Jose Aldo. In the third round, Griffin avoided Gamburyan’s advances, answering with counter punches and takedowns to sneak away with a majority decision victory.

The fight was a polar opposite to Griffin’s breathtaking pace. To earn brownie points with the UFC championship committee is to not only win, but to do it with a little sizzle. A win over Palaszewski won’t assure Griffin a shot at Aldo, but it will represent a second coming.

“Beating Manny I thought I acquitted myself pretty well,” Griffin said. “I guess it didn’t turn out that way because it wasn’t a very exciting fight, but Manny fought for the title and he was world-ranked. I feel like I’ve already beaten one of the top guys and I have to keep winning to keep myself out there.”

As a lightweight, Griffin was on the fast track, posting a 7-2 record in his first nine UFC fights while earning five “Fight of the Night” bonuses and a “Submission of the Night” award. A dynamic second round knockout of Hermes Franca at UFC 103 had Griffin in position to make his move. Then came a split decision loss to Dunham followed by a stunning first round knockout loss to Gomi. On the surface, the Gomi pasting at 1:04 of the first round was rock bottom, the ultimate scenario where a fighter’s mind, heart and desire are put to the greatest of tests. Film is reviewed and the healing process towards becoming a better fighter begins.

Not for Griffin, who dismissed it faster than a fed-up Chef Ramsay tosses a poor soul out of his kitchen.

“I just got caught with a punch and the fight got stopped quickly,” Griffin said. “I don’t think there was anything to learn from that, to be honest. I just got caught. I’ve had other losses I could learn from; Nik Lentz is a loss I can learn from. Even though I won, I thought it could be a little more convincing. I was getting my game plan going against Gomi. He’s a dangerous striker on the feet and I just ended up getting caught.”

The bounce-back win over Gamburyan wasn’t Griffin’s signature recipe, but it was a first step up a new mountain. Aldo has been tested in his last two title defenses, the second against Kenny Florian, who was competing in only his second fight as a featherweight. While the Brazilian Cobra remains indomitable at 145, there have been signs of fissures during a time when Griffin, George Roop and Hatsu Hioki are determined to add more depth to the division and delay any ideas of an Aldo-Frankie Edgar showdown.

Roop and Hioki will compete on the main card of UFC 137. The winner could conceivably be matched against the victor from Griffin- Palaszewski. It’s wholly appropriate that Griffin’s road to redemption is ongoing. Growing up with both his parents incarcerated, Griffin went through foster care before living with his grandmother. The ordeal is the impetus behind a charity raffle Griffin is promoting for Boys Town Nevada, a foundation that reaches out to families in need physically, spiritually and emotionally. The goal is to encourage better and closer families working together to put them on the path to brighter futures.

“I can imagine how tough it can be for someone that’s, I guess, not as mentally strong in those areas,” said Griffin, who, unlike many kids, used sports as an outlet growing up. “I like these kids and want to do a little more to explain the situation I’ve been blessed to be in. I want to help give back.”

Also blessed with a rare second chance, Griffin is determined to cook a masterpiece at UFC 137 and earn himself a thick steak, along with a thicker cut of the featherweight pie.

Thomas Gerbasi: Griffin Gives Back Before UFC 137 Bout

“Everyone comes from different walks of life, everyone’s gonna have challenges, and it’s up to you to make the most of it and embrace it.”- Tyson Griffin

 

 

He may originally hail from Sacramento, California, but for all intents and purposes, featherweight contender Tyson Griffin might as well be considered a Las Vegan, considering that it’s been his base of operations for much of his five year career in the UFC. And as such, Griffin is looking forward to contributing even more to his adopted hometown.

“I wanted to do something more for the community and something that hit home was Boys Town Nevada and the work they do with families and kids without families,” said Griffin, who is preparing for a UFC 137 bout against Bart Palaszewski. “I wanted to find a way to give back, and me and my manager (Tom Call) came up with a fundraiser / raffle for my next fight. For $25, you can buy a raffle ticket and possibly win tickets to UFC 137 and get after party passes, and all the money is gonna go to Boys Town Nevada.”

Based in Las Vegas, Boys Town Nevada has positively impacted the lives of 20,000 children and families each year since launching in 1991 through a variety of programs to help those in need. For the 27-year old Griffin, the plight of the children in the Boys Town programs is one he is all too familiar with.

“Growing up, my mom and my dad were locked up, and we got sent through foster care a little bit and then to my grandma eventually,” he said. “I was in those kids’ shoes at one point and I could have been there longer, so I really like what they do. To be honest, I was too young to actually remember, so I can’t speak on being there firsthand (in a foster home). But being there only with my grandma and having to go visit my mom in jail and not knowing dad growing up and things like that, I realized that I still came out ahead and a lot of those kids may just need a little bit of support. And there are families there too that just need help in being a better family, and to me, that’s what stood out and what I think is lacking in today’s society - just better, closer families working together.”

And while this is the first time Griffin is doing a fundraiser like this, he’s no stranger to talking to young people, including those at Boys Town Nevada about his struggles coming up and how he overcame them. His story is an inspiring one, and he isn’t shy about sharing it.

“Everyone comes from different walks of life, everyone’s gonna have challenges, and it’s up to you to make the most of it and embrace it,” said Griffin, who is coming off a June win over Manny Gamburyan. “Don’t be scared of who you are and where you come from. I’m sure a lot of kids are embarrassed by their situation, but everyone has their own things to deal with. We’re all different, no one’s perfect, and no one’s ‘normal,’ as they say. This is life, so you’ve got to deal with it as it comes.”

Thomas Gerbasi: Tyson Griffin - Fight College Graduate

“My goal right now is to climb to the top of the featherweight division and get that belt. I’m more hungry now as a fighter, and more focused on fighting now than I’ve ever been." - Tyson Griffin

 

Tyson Griffin was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but he held it, knowing how the fight game is. He had just finished a three round bout with Nik Lentz at UFC 123 last November, and it appeared that his two fight losing streak was about to become a thing of the past.

But the judges disagreed, awarding Lentz a split decision victory in one of the more controversial verdicts of 2010. Griffin, well aware of the perils of leaving his fate in the hands of outside arbiters, was still stunned.

“That night it was heartbreaking,” he said. “You leave it all out there, you fight hard, you think you win, and then the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and you land on your butt and wonder ‘what happened, what did I do wrong?’ You try and look at everything but you really can’t blame yourself and you can’t even really blame the judges I guess. So you just gotta move on, pick everything up and move forward.”

It’s a classy move, taking the high road after an experience like that, and it’s a wise one as well, because sitting on a decision like that can only drive you crazy after a while. But losses like the one to Lentz will always hurt more, and it’s not just because you know that it was only a razor-thin margin that kept you from getting your hand raised, but because it now affects more than your win-loss record.

“It definitely hurts you,” said Griffin. “It affects your sponsorships, it affects your place in your next fight - whether you’re main card or not - and it affects your money that night. So it definitely affects you financially and business wise, both that night and in the future.”

“I rewatched the fight maybe once,” he continues, “and I definitely think I won. I could see how you could give Lentz a round, but I definitely felt the first and third were my rounds.”

Yet like he said, it was time to move on and put a forgettable 2010 to the side forever. It was a year in which Griffin went from being a prime time player in the title picture at 155 pounds to getting hit with a three fight losing streak that put his future in jeopardy. But he doesn’t look at 2010 as 0-3 and nothing else. He sees it as the year in which he graduated from the school of fistic hard knocks.

“Personally and fight wise, it was a maturing year,” he said. “I had a lot of time to think in that time and this year too with my knee surgery and all that, but over the last couple of years I’ve been learning about myself and I’ve grown as a person and realized what I want out of this sport. It’s almost like I was in fight college for a few years and now I’ve got my degree and I know what I want to do and I know what direction I want to take my career in.”

And his aim is clear – to win a world title. Only now, his sights are set not on former opponent Frankie Edgar, but featherweight boss Jose Aldo, as he makes his move 10 pounds south, beginning with a Sunday bout in Pittsburgh against Manny Gamburyan.

“My goal right now is to climb to the top of the featherweight division and get that belt,” said Griffin. “I’m more hungry now as a fighter, and more focused on fighting now than I’ve ever been. I’ve always enjoyed fighting and it was fun and it paid the bills, but now it’s more about personal goals and reaching my peak as an athlete and being the best fighter I can be.”

It’s not the first time Griffin has been here, as he began his career at featherweight, most notably beating future WEC champion Urijah Faber in 2005. But a lot has gone on since then, both good and bad, leaving questions as to why Griffin would make the move now, after three losses. But as he explains, it was a move that was planned before the Lentz fight.

“I had my manager talk to (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva before that fight,” said Griffin. “It would have been nice to move down with a win so it didn’t look like I was running from the weight class, but it was just a natural progression over the years. I learned more about diet and nutrition and I actually cut down to around ‘52 for a few fights there and just got smaller naturally by eating right and eating better. So once the UFC brought that (featherweight division) over, it seemed like a natural move for me. And everyone always says it’s my first fight at ’45, but I fought Urijah at ‘45 back in the day, so I’ve been there before and I just know more now, and it should work out a lot easier.”

Easy? Not usually the word you associate with a drop in weight class, but Griffin is remarkably cool and pleasant in the time before his first UFC bout at 145 pounds.

“It (the weight cut) hasn’t affected my quality of life at all,” he said. “I’ve been eating good, eating healthy, and when you eat healthy and have a lot of fruits and vegetables, you can actually eat more volume. I don’t know how everybody else does it, but I don’t calorie count; I can’t do that, my brain just doesn’t work that way (Laughs), and my body doesn’t either. So if I’m hungry I’m gonna eat something good and healthy and keep my body full of energy. Mainly, I’ve just upped my training and I’ve been working out a lot harder and a lot more.”

And when it comes to dealing with the specter of a three fight losing streak over his head going into the Gamburyan fight, he’s not letting that dictate the way he trains and feels in the days leading up to the bout.

“It’s a fresh start,” he said. “I’m not really worried about winning or losing, and that’s something that comes from competing over the years. I hate losing, of course, but I’m not focusing on not losing; I’m focusing on doing what I’ve been working on, fighting hard and having a good fight. With all that going down good, I should win and it shouldn’t be an issue.”

The fans haven’t left his side either, making it clear that all those Fight of the Night awards he won over the years haven’t been forgotten. But as the 27-year old explains, there were times when he forgot what it took to get to that point when he was picking up bonus checks for fights against Edgar, Clay Guida, Thiago Tavares, Sean Sherk, and Rafael dos Anjos.

“I think through all those Fight of the Nights and having my bills paid, I kinda took for granted the situation I was in and kinda got a little lazy,” he said. “I wasn’t always in the gym and learning and progressing with the sport and being the best fighter I could be. I think I started just training for my fights when I had a fight two months away and it got me in a little bit of a slump. I wasn’t really having too much fun with fighting. Now I’m having fun again and I’ve rededicated myself to the sport.”

A key motivator is getting a test and a title shot against Aldo.

“Seeing Aldo fight and his style, that was the one thing that kinda motivated me,” he said. “I always liked the standup game and had fun with it, and that’s a challenge that would be fun for me. I think I can beat Aldo standing, but at the same time, I’m getting back to my roots in training and training everywhere all the time instead of just doing what I like to do.”

But before he can think of Aldo, he has to deal with “The Anvil,” and he doesn’t have an easy out in front of him in Gamburyan, who has won three of four fights since jumping to featherweight himself. But that’s just what Griffin wants. And expects.

“He’s a tough guy,” said Griffin of the Ultimate Fighter season five finalist and former WEC title challenger. “He’s got knockout power, he swings hard and fights hard, he’s always in good shape and that’s what I want. I don’t want any easy fights, I never really had any, and it’s awesome to get someone who fought for the title, a contender, in my first fight at 145, and I’m looking to make a statement when I fight Manny. I want to dominate him and beat him convincingly.”