Forrest Griffin frequently shares anecdotes about Stephan Bonnar and their historic journey on The Ultimate Fighter. Their clash on April 9, 2005, is widely recognized as one of the most pivotal bouts in UFC history. Griffin ultimately won the grueling decision over Bonnar, securing the light heavyweight tournament championship in the inaugural TUF season. This fight has since been inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame and is commonly credited with significantly boosting the promotion`s mainstream appeal.
During a recent appearance on the Verse Us podcast, Griffin reflected on his friendship with Bonnar, who passed away in 2022, and how “The American Psycho” truly embodied his nickname.
“We became friends,” Griffin stated. “He was a weirdo, I`m a weirdo. He was wild. He reminds me of one of my best friends, who is also gone now, but he was just like, he had a good heart, but he was completely insane. He`d be like, `Let`s do this,` and he meant well, but I`d think, `That`s a terrible idea.` Especially in your 20s, you appreciate a guy who can push you to do crazy things. He was an adventure personified. You`d just bring him around and he`d say, `Hey, I`ve got an idea,` and you`d respond, `That`s a horrible idea. Let`s go for it anyway.`”
Griffin shared one particularly memorable instance: “We were walking into, or maybe out of, a bar, and these three guys started hassling us. Whatever, right? And he just, out of nowhere – there were three of them, three of us – he head kicks a guy, knocks out their main guy,” Griffin recounted. “A head kick! We were in dress clothes, heading into a club, people everywhere. Yeah, that was Bonnar. I looked at the other two guys with him. They were stunned, I was stunned. I didn`t know what to do, they didn`t know what to do. They just picked their friend up and left. We just walked into the club, thinking, `Hope nobody saw that.`”
Their bond wasn`t immediate during the early days of the show. Even before it was clear they would face each other in the tournament, the competitive atmosphere was intense, and Griffin initially rubbed both Bonnar and coach Randy Couture the wrong way.
“Randy didn`t take to me immediately because Stephan and I clashed,” Griffin explained. “In the old gym, there was a mat, and I stepped down off the mat. Stephan was moving forward, and I sort of looked back like, `Ow, my knee,` because I stepped off, and he hit me with a 1-2 right then. I was like, `Oh, okay.` So I clinched him and started kneeing him, and we head-butted, causing a big cut.”
He continued, “I also went really hard with [Mike] Swick because I didn`t realize Swick was so good. He immediately shot and took me down. I was like, `Oh, okay,` so I ended up slamming him onto the concrete. So Randy didn`t like that I was just kind of… but you put people in sparring, I didn`t know these guys. All of a sudden, people are going hard with me, sparring, in the first week. It was crazy, right?”
Ultimately, Griffin developed a close friendship with Bonnar and even earned Couture`s respect, with the multiple-time UFC champion later inviting Griffin to train with him after TUF concluded.
However, everything traces back to that initial fight with Bonnar, famously broadcast live on Spike TV. As it wasn`t a pay-per-view event, the first TUF finale attracted a large number of casual viewers throughout the evening, peaking when it became evident that Griffin and Bonnar were engaged in an instant classic.
At that time, they were competing for a six-figure UFC contract. They had no idea that this free TV fight would play such a significant role in shaping the entire MMA industry.
When asked if he had any inkling of the fight`s long-term impact, Griffin said, “You could feel the stomping in the cage. I had been in some big fights, I had fought in front of thousands, I had fought all over the world by then, which was good – I had a career before the UFC, which is important.”
“But no. The thing is, after that fight, I knew my life had changed.”
