PHILADELPHIA -- From the beginning, he's been the underdog. You want to talk about taking the hard road? In his first professional fight, Forrest Griffin didn't face a fellow rookie. He didn't even compete against a hot prospect. The first time he stepped into a cage, Griffin fought Dan "the Beast" Severn, an ex-UFC tournament champion in his 58th career fight. Most fighters don't have 58 fights in their entire career, so Griffin was literally fighting a guy with two careers worth of experience on him. Proposed bouts with such an experience disparity would not even be sanctioned today. Though he lost, he showed the toughness that would become his trademark, taking Severn to a decision. So Griffin isn't exactly intimidated at the prospect of facing UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, a winner of 10 straight who is moving up to 205 pounds to face Griffin in a non-title bout at UFC 101.
"There's the old saying, 'If you're going to be stupid, you better be tough,'" he said. "Well, I've been a lot of both. I'm trying to be maybe a little smart and tough. We'll see how that works out for me."
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