Tyson Griffin: Steering Clear of Trouble Pays Off
By Thomas Gerbasi
Despite a host of accolades, a growing fanbase, and the type of grudging respect you only get from your peers if you have shown that you can perform at the highest levels of the game, unbeaten lightweight prospect Tyson Griffin is undaunted by the pressure that comes with being anointed The Next Big Thing in mixed martial arts. In fact, if you ask him if hes heard the increasing buzz about him, he just chuckles.
“I guess not,” said Griffin. “But I am a pretty laid back guy, so I just do my thing and don’t get worried about it.”
His thing has been taking out opponents with the type of efficiency best practiced by a former heavyweight champion whose last name matches Griffins first. But what impresses you about the Sacramento native is that he has compiled a 7-0 MMA record that isn’t filled strictly with fighters two notches below him. He’s come up the hard way and succeeded, stopping the likes of world-class competitors Duane Bang Ludwig and Urijah Faber in the last 12 months, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Hasn’t that surprised some people?
“Yes and no,” he admits. “There are a lot of people who are surprised by it, but I know how much hard work I’ve put in, how many hours I’ve spent in the gym, and how many times I’ve been to get stitches, had my ears blowing up, had things hurting and all that good stuff, so in that short time I’ve definitely put in a lot more work than some people who have been in this sport longer.”
Working primarily out of Northern California with UFC middleweight contender David Terrell, Griffin has seen firsthand the type of work it takes to get to the UFC, and more importantly, how to stay here. Terrell has also filled him in on the pitfalls of being a pro fighter expected to do great things consistently.
“He (Terrell) took me to his last UFC when he fought Scott Smith, just to let me be in that limelight and see the crowd, just to make things easier for me,” said Griffin. “When he was coming up, he followed (former UFC title challenger) Gil Castillo and got a chance to see things before he was fighting in the big show. It made it a lot easier on him and he passed that on to me. Another thing is that he let me know that things can get to you in the ring, like hearing the crowd boo and stuff like that, and when they started booing him against Evan Tanner in the first minute, it kinda freaked him out and he took off and started throwing punches.”
Terrell would lose that fight to Tanner, blowing his chance to win the vacant middleweight crown. Griffin remembered the lessons his MMA mentor taught him when he faced the heavy-handed Ludwig in June.
“When I fought Duane, they started booing because nothing was going on and I just thought to myself don’t let the crowd get to you, don’t worry about it, fight your fight.”
And by the 3:57 mark of the opening round, Griffin had pounded Ludwig out with strikes and had his seventh consecutive victory. But instead of gloating and patting himself on the back, Griffin went back to the gym.
I definitely take things one day at a time, and after beating Urijah, I forgot about that real quick and after beating Duane I forgot about that real quick, he said. People remind me by asking about the fights, but other than that, I just move on and don’t worry about the past.
It’s a shockingly mature attitude to have at just 22, but for Griffin, this is his life, and he’s not going to let anything get in the way of his dream of being a full-time professional fighter.
“You say there are easier ways to make a living, but for me there wasn’t,” he admits. “I didn’t get along with college, I dropped out early and started working and I really didn’t like breaking my back every day. I had a wrestling background and I was in Santa Rosa at the time and heard about Dave Terrell’s place and I just wanted to work out again. I didn’t even think about fighting. The next thing you know, Dave started talking to me about fighting and he told me I could actually make a living doing this if I really wanted to put my mind to it. I sat down and thought about it and that’s what I started doing. I definitely made only a couple hundred bucks for my first fight, but slowly but surely I was patient, I had a good manager who kept me level-headed and patient, and now I’m making good money.”
But even more than the money is the fact that Griffin gets to satisfy his jones for competition each time he steps into the gym or the ring. It’s something that the middle of three brothers learned early on, and as the product of an upbringing that didn’t exactly fit on a Hallmark greeting card, sports were his savior.
“I definitely had to grow up real early,” admits Griffin. “My mom didn’t start out with a great life and my parents got locked up when I was three and we got sent to live with my grandma. My mom got out three years later, went back to college, and changed her life around 100 percent. I had an older brother and a younger brother, so I got put in check by my older brother and had to keep myself in line to set an example for my younger brother, so I had to grow up real early and realize what life’s about. Its not about being out there, getting crazy and getting in trouble. That’s just gonna keep you going down and not up. I played a lot of sports growing up that helped me keep grounded and not worry about things.”
And instead of using his formative years as a crutch or as a reason to go down the wrong path, Griffin stayed on the straight and narrow, always deathly afraid of losing what he loved the most because of a moment of weakness.
“A lot of my friends were troublemakers when I was growing up, a lot of the guys on the sports teams, and I love competition way too much to get in trouble,” he said. “You get in trouble in high school and you can’t play that week. That was my biggest fear, not being able to compete and not being able to play in that baseball game or that football game or wrestling match. And I watched one of my senior captains in baseball get in trouble for a senior prank and he had to miss the last game of his career in high school. That was something I definitely wasn’t gonna let happen.”
But once high school and a failed college experiment left him working construction, Griffin had few career options until meeting Terrell. That subsequent decision wasn’t surprising to some, but it did come as a shock to others in his circle.
“My mom raised three boys on her own and she had three wrestlers, and we were always scrappin’ and fightin’, not necessarily in the streets, but we were always tough kids and it wasn’t too far-fetched for me to do it,” said Griffin. “At the same time, a lot of people laughed because I was the nicest kid in the family. Everybody was like ‘why’s the little mama’s boy fightin’? (Laughs) Out of all the brothers, you’re the one fightin’?’ I guess it is what it is.”
It’s obviously paid off, as not only is his Mom proud, but he’s on his way to the Octagon on September 23rd to face London’s David Lee. It’s a daunting task, competing in one of the sports most loaded divisions, but Griffins quietly confident and already scouting.
“Every time I watch the guys fighting in my weight class I definitely line them up and critique their games a bit and go I can take them there and beat him here, maybe I can be the best at this thing, he said. I guess it makes things realistic for me.”
But despite his success thus far and his cool in the ring, Griffin is still like every fighter just before the bell rings.
“That’s the only time I actually get nervous,” said Griffin. “All those thoughts going through your head what am I gonna do, should I do this, should I do that, ding, it’s too late to think. A million things go through my head right before that bell rings, but once it rings, everything goes out the door and you just do what you’ve done in training.”
So far, that’s been good enough for 7-0 and a berth in the UFC. What happens from here should be interesting.
