Griffin: Tim fought a tough opponent in TUF7

by FORREST GRIFFIN, InsideFighting.com

Updated: April 29, 2008, 6:03 PM EST 9 comments

I wanted Tim Credeur to fight one of Team Rampage's middle tier guys. I didn't want him and he didn't want to fight one of their weaker guys just to notch an easy win.

I thought Matthew Riddle was a good, tough fighter that would pose some challenges to Tim, but also that Tim could beat. Tim spoke about how he was there to become a better fighter and to learn about himself. You always want the good fights, you don't want to take the easy path.

In past seasons, there have been times when fighters or coaches may have had a strategy to take their strongest guys and match them up against who they thought were the other team's weakest members right from the start. That isn't very smart in my opinion because all that ends up happening is you lose your last four fights. We had a plan in place for what we would do if we kept control, and it's been working so far.

Tim may have been feeling some of the same things I was when I competed on TUF 1. He spoke about feeling that this shot for him may be a do or die situation. Like I've mentioned in a past week's blog, when I had the opportunity to do The Ultimate Fighter, I had basically already given up on the sport for myself. I thought I had some good fights but that I never caught my break and was ready to move on with my life. I took the chance because I didn't want to look back and regret not trying.

TUF Talk

Watching the trash talk begin in the fighters' house was pretty funny because I started to understand a little bit of the things I was told about in practice. At the time, the guys would from time to time mention this person or that person or various incidents, but I had no idea what was going on or had happened because I wasn't in the house.

Watching the show on television now has started to give me a better understanding of why the guys told me they wanted to fight the people they did. It's starting to make more sense now.

Tim's win

I thought the episode's fight was a good one and that Tim did well. I want to clarify something in particular that was shown.

After Tim won and we were in his corner talking with him, I was shown telling him that he had a "sub par performance" but still won and so it was a good day. Part of my saying that was just because I am a jerk, but I said that in response to something Tim said right before that wasn't aired. He came back to the corner and said to us, "I'm sorry."

I wanted him to understand that he shouldn't feel bad because even though he felt he didn't do as well as he should have, he was still able to submit a tough, strong opponent who kept coming at him and that said a lot. So that's why I made that statement about his performance.

The thing that surprised me the most about the fight was how game Riddle was. I thought he was a good fighter going in, but I didn't realize he was that game. He just never stopped moving or fighting. And now watching the show and seeing more of him and the way he spoke, I have a new respect for Riddle.

It was just the way he talked about fighting, his attitude towards it and just enjoying a good scrap. He showed a level head for someone that you maybe didn't assume would be level headed at his age and in this situation.

"Rampage's" reaction to the fight, when he said something to the effect of, "We're losing to these guys and they can't even fight," didn't faze me then or now. It's just like, whatever.

My whole thing then was to just keep my mouth shut and stay away from him. If we won and he was upset I wasn't going to tell him, "Oh, it's all right," and I wasn't going to rub it in either.

Matthew didn't look like he was too upset at losing, but I would not have been angry at him because he put up a great fight and obviously tried very hard. It did feel good though to put together two wins in a row because it let us keep control of the match-ups. Every one of the guys understood how that was an important part of our strategy.