Forrest Griffin is Kind of a Dick to Reporters
Forrest Griffin interviews make me feel good. Not because Forrest is a funny dude, but rather because they make me realize that not only was he a dick to me when I interviewed him for the first time last summer; he’s a dick to every reporter that interviews him.
Don’t believe me?
Check out the recent clip above of Forrest telling an interviewer that his hair is terrible and calling him racist for assuming Griffin was referring to Alistair Overeem when he referenced Cro Cop giving up during a fight in which he got kneed in the groin repeatedly. The reporter was right. Overeem did foul Mirko during a DREAM bout, but Forrest assumed he thought our boy Cheick Kongo looked like “The Demolition Man” and he called him on it.
When I interviewed him after he spent four hours signing autographs at the Toronto MMA Expo, I assumed he was simply being ornery because of the long day he had.
Just before we began the interview, which I waited to conduct after a one-hour delay in which Griffin signed a few extra autographs, he tossed aside the Cage Potato t-shirt I gave him to a girl working the booth, told me he had no idea what CP was and then proceeded to “X” out the devil horns symbol on my shirt, informing me that I now had his autograph. Needless to say, I wasn’t overly keen on doing the interview after the way things got started.
That seems to be Forrest’s MO: insult the reporter at the beginning of the Q&A session and make him feel uncomfortable for the whole interview. The end result is usually an awkward and strange exchange that ends with Griffin smirking and the reporter red-faced and wishing they hadn’t wasted their time talking to him.
(Video courtesy MMAFix)
Even perennial favorite MMA reporter Ariel Helwani has not been immune to Griffin’s spite.
In the clip below, AH mentions that interviewing Forrest is unpredictable to say the least.
(Video courtesy Vimeo/Fanhouse)
(Video courtesy YouTube/MMARated)
Maybe next time I interview him, I should wear a shirt with this photo on it to throw Forrest off a bit.
