Forrest Griffin always has another story to tell about Stephan Bonnar and their history-making run on The Ultimate Fighter.
Their April 9, 2005, scrap has long been revered as one of the most important fights in UFC history, with Griffin eventually winning a war of attrition to earn a decision over Bonnar and become the light heavyweight tournament champion of the first-ever TUF season. Since then, the bout has been inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame Fight wing and is regularly cited as playing a major role in pushing the promotion to the mainstream.
During a recent appearance on the Verse Us podcast, Griffin reflected upon his relationship with Bonnar (who died in 2022), and how āThe American Psychoā more than lived up to his moniker.
āWe became buddies,ā Griffin said. āHeās a weirdo, Iām a weirdo. Heās nuts. He reminds me of one of my best friends, whoās also passed, but heās just like he has a good heart, but heās insane. Heās like, āLetās do this,ā but he means well, Iām like, āThatās a horrible idea.ā Especially when youāre in your 20s, you like a guy that can make you do stupid things. He was an adventure. He was like a walking adventure. You just bring him in and heās like, āHey, I got an idea,ā and youāre like, āThatās a horrible idea. Letās do it.āā
āWe were walking into a bar, out of a bar, these three dudes are messing with us and itās whatever, and he just out of nowhereāthereās three of them, three of usāhe head kicks a guy, knocks out their leader,ā Griffin continued. āHead kicks. Weāre in dress clothes, walking into a club, people everywhere. Yes, Bonnar. I look at the other two guys with him. Theyāre in shock, Iām in shock. I donāt know what to do, they donāt know what to do. They just pick their guy up and move on. We just go in the club, like, āI hope nobody saw that.āā
It wasnāt a fast friendship for Griffin and Bonnar in the early days of the show. Even before it became clear they would have to go through each other to win the TUF tournament, the competition was fierce, and Griffin rubbed both Bonnar and season coach Randy Couture the wrong way at first.
āRandy didnāt like me right away because me and Stephan clashed heads,ā Griffin said. āThe old gym, there was the mat, and so I stepped down off the mat, Stephan was coming forward, and I kind of looked back like, āOw, my knee,ā because you stepped off the mat, and he hit me with a 1-2 right then. I was like, āOh, OK.ā So I clinched him and I started kneeing him, and we clashed heads, it was a big cut.
āI ended up going really hard with [Mike] Swick, too, because I didnāt know Swick was good. He immediately shot and took me down. I was like, āOh, OK,ā so I ended up throwing him on the concrete. So Randy didnāt like that I was just kind of likeābut you put people in sparring, I donāt know these people. I donāt know these people. All of a sudden, people are going hard with me, weāre sparring, the first week. Itās crazy, right?ā
In the end, Griffin became close friends with Bonnar and even earned Coutureās respect, with the multiple-time UFC champion later inviting Griffin to train with him after TUF was over.
Everything comes back to his first fight with Bonnar, though, which memorably aired live on Spike TV on. Since it wasnāt a pay-per-view event, the first TUF finale managed to draw plenty of casual eyeballs throughout the evening, no more so than when it became clear Griffin and Bonnar were throwing down in an instant classic.
At the time, the two were competing for a six-figure UFC contract. They had no idea that this little fight on free TV would help to shape the entire MMA industry.
āYou could feel the stomping in the cage,ā Griffin said when asked if he had any concept of the impact his fight with Bonnar would have in the long run. āIād been in some big fights, Iād fought in front of thousands of people, Iād fought all over the world by that time, which is really good, kind of like Iād had a career before I got to the UFC, which is important.
āBut no. The thing is, after that fight, I knew my life was changed.ā
Tea Tow ESQ
Itās crazy how things turned out for Forrest. Most modern mma fans probably arenāt even aware that he was once the light heavyweight champion, heās just known as the guy from the UFC who cried on live television on several occasions.
Itās a shame because he was actually a pretty good fighter for his time but I guess thatās what happens when you cry on tv multiple times.
Heās known to modern fans more recently for saying he got the decision against Rampage because heās white lol.
His self deprecating style wouldnāt go over so well in this era. Too much cultural shift. Heād be considered a bitch or cuck like Ian Garry instead of the goofy fan favorite he was back then.
Him choking shogun was an all time holy shit moment
Wow i did not realize he retired in 2012 at 32. Thats wild
That IS a wow. 32??
dress shoes?
he coulda taught titoā¦
I never cared for Griffin and thought he was annoying. But his fight with Bonnar was an all-time event in the history of MMA. I still remember exactly where I was when I watched that fight.
Loved when Silva schooled him
RIP Stephan
Adam Hunter had a story about a drunk dude fucking with Bonnar, he grabbed him and Bonnar did some kind of wrist lock throw on this dude lol
Bonnar won their first fight, Forrest their second, both close but clear-cut fights.
I love the look bonnar gives Sanchez on TUFā¦the eyesā¦
RIP.
Will never forget watching the finale
I thought ken was gunna destroy this pretty boy
I was there live and itās easily in the top 5 for me. It was at a very small venue and we were all packed in sitting on bleachers. Everyone was stomping their feet and I was surrounded by legends. Hell of a night. Stephan won that fight.
And tried to blow rampage out of white guilt on his podcast.