Tyson Griffin’s last seven fights have gone to a decision, most recently with a win over Rafael dos Anjos. At UFC 103 in Dallas, he will be seeking to take control away from the judges with a stoppage victory over veteran Hermes Franca.
TriStateFighter.com spoke with Griffin earlier this summer at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas about Franca … the need to ‘fight exciting’ … and the one rule in MMA he would have changed or altered.
New Jersey’s Frankie Edgar will need all his tools Saturday night Vs. Hermes Franca in Las Vegas. We know Edgar’s wrestling is world class - but it is his stand-up game that is catching up very quickly. In a ferocious workout with his training partner, Chris Liguori - Edgar shows how dangerous he can be wherever the fight may go. In Liguori’s words, Edgar was a “beast” in the final weeks leading up to this fight. Check out this behind the scenes training video of Frankie Edgar and Chris Liguori. Click through to watch the video.
In early May, I was down at Almeida BJJ to shoot and produce a feature on Frankie Edgar tied to his photo shoot for FIGHT! magazine. That video will be on Fightmagazine.com soon. While working, I was lucky to witness one of the great sparring sessions in my day. Edgar was going toe-to-toe with Eddie Alvarez who was one week out from his fight V. Josh Neer. Now, I have known Frankie for some time, so I might be biased but he did seem to control the action. Standing, his fast hands and feet allowed him to get off first much like we saw against BJ and Sherk. Each man got a couple takedowns but the overall pace and forward movement seemed slightly in favor of Edgar. Now, in Eddie's defense, he may have been only seeking to work on one element of his game V. Edgar and only trying to react or setup something only he knew of, specific to the Josh Neer fight ... so in that respect, it was not a true test of each fighting the other under the same context. That said, there was not really anything off limits - it was vicious jab/right combos from Frankie followed, at one point, by a head over heel body-throw take-down from Eddie on Frankie ... neither giving an inch. It felt like the real thing minus the the bright lights and octagon. It seemed to get harsh a couple of times but that may have just been my read. In the end, hard core sparring at play. Two of the top-5 lightweights on the planet going after each other at 110% on a lazy Thursday morning in Hamilton, NJ. After the session, what did Edgar do... relax-no, he went to use a chainsaw and chop down small trees in a friend's backyard for three hours.