UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin will be part of Dana White’s Power Slap League in 2023.
Power Slap is the UFC President’s attempt to commercialize the viral sport that rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans may not be familiar with any of the sport’s competitors yet, but viewers will be treated to a familiar face in the former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin. Before you get too excited, Griffin will not be appearing as a competitor. Instead, he’ll fill the very important role of ‘head catcher’ when the promotion makes its debut on January 11th.
“I’m gonna be a head catcher,” Griffin revealed.
As described by Griffin himself in an interview with TMZ, the ‘head catcher’ is responsible for catching competitors who lose their balance after getting rocked by a slap.
“That double impact,” explained Griffin. “You’ve taken the first trauma and when your head hits the ground, bang bang, both sides of your brain actually bounce against your skull. We want to prevent that and make it just the initial impact and have that be what causes you or not causes you to win or lose the competition.”
Griffin will add a little star power to Power Slap as a former UFC champion who competed in perhaps the most important fight in the promotion’s 30-year history. Griffin met fellow Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar in the first Ultimate Fighter final in 2005. The fight which is considered to be one of the greatest fights in UFC history helped launch the organization into the stratosphere and make it the global juggernaut it is today.
Forrest Griffin won the bout via unanimous decision, but Bonnar was awarded a contract immediately following the announcement. Though he never achieved the same success that Griffin did inside the Octagon, Bonnar’s name was forever etched in the annals of MMA history for his absolutely epic battle with Griffin. Sadly, Bonnar passed away on December 22, 2022. He was 45.
