Griffin-Bonnar makes MMA mainstream
The UFC was on life support.
Mixed martial arts as a whole was suffering, stigmatized by its no-holds-barred past and labeled as “human cockfighting” by Senator John McCain, and the biggest organization in North America, the Ultimate Fighting Championship was barely staying afloat.
In a last ditch effort to change the company’s fortunes, the UFC entered into the booming reality TV market with The Ultimate Fighter, a show built around 16 fighters – 8 light heavyweights and 8 middleweights – battling to win a lucrative six-figure contract with the company while showing viewers the dedication, hard work, and skill that goes in to be a mixed martial artist.
After a season filled with drunken arguments and captivating television, it was time for The Ultimate Fighter Finale – the first UFC event to be broadcast live on Spike TV. On April 9, 2005, the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas played host to the nine-fight event.
In the first bout of the televised main card, Diego Sanchez earned a first-round stoppage victory over Kenny Florian to become the first Ultimate Fighter winner, but it was the fight that followed that changed the course of the company.
Forrest Griffin, an easy-to-like Georgia native, and Stephan Bonnar, a long-time martial artist from Indiana, were set to meet in the finals of the light heavyweight competition. What followed was one of the most iconic bouts in UFC history.
“For some reason, I knew that we were going to have a barnburner of a fight,” says Bonnar in the brief video retrospective on his historic first encounter with Griffin above. “I was going to make sure that we had a barnburner because that was my best chance at winning.”
“It was the gateway to fighting for a living and not working,” says Griffin, now retired following a 7-year UFC career that produced a light heavyweight title reign and a 10-5 record inside the Octagon. “Once we got in there, there was a lot of energy, and it did feel really important. I remember before (the fight), me and my coach – between the two of us – drank a whole bottle of Pepto Bismol because we kept getting more and more nervous about it.”
The fight began and right away you knew you were watching something special.
“Even if you weren’t a fan of the sport and you happened to be flipping through the channels, you just had to stop and watch,” says Sports Illustrated’s Jeff Wagenheim, echoing sentiments shared by fellow journalists John Morgan and Ariel Helwani, and everyone else that watched the fight.
As the back-and-forth continued, people started calling their friends, telling them to tune in.
“And the number just starts to grow and grow and grow,” UFC President Dana White says of the ratings for the broadcast. “We knew we made it.”
But who had won the six-figure contract and a spot on the UFC roster? Over the course of three five-minute rounds, Griffin and Bonnar hit each other with everything they could muster, neither man giving an inch.
Griffin earned the unanimous decision victory, but the decision was made right there in the cage to award Bonnar a contract as well.
The Ultimate Fighter was picked up for another season immediately following the event, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Check out the clip from the captivating Fighting for a Generation documentary above and re-live the night the UFC started to make their way into the mainstream with thoughts and memories from the fighters, Dana White, the Fertittas, and many others.
