Norfolk, VA — Jordan Griffin turned 30 a day ahead of UFC Norfolk, and got one heck of a present for hitting “dirty thirty.”
That came in the form of a technical submission choke over TJ Brown — a guillotine from side control, that he later referred to as a “black belt killer” guillotine. The submission came with a Performance of the Night bonus. Meaning, an extra $50,000 to celebrate with.
WOW! @JordanGriffin29 gets the finish!! #UFCNorfolk pic.twitter.com/AIlT3bWhrw
— UFC (@ufc) February 29, 2020
Happy birthday indeed. Addressing the win, Griffin told Cageside Press and other media outlets at the Chartway Arena that “the whole camp, and since the beginning of my career, we’ve been battling the wrestlers. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. So I’ve got Raufeon Stots over there in my corner. Two-time NCAA wrestling champion, and the dude’s just a f*cking awesome wrestler. I’m happy to have him in my corner, and on a day to day basis giving me tips and stuff.”
Stots, Griffin mentioned, is also a solid jiu-jitsu guy, and between that and his jiu-jitsu professor, “we’ve been able to kind of transition my ground game. So it’s going to continue to progress.” It certainly showed on Saturday, given his slick submission win.
With his back to the wall, Griffin feels they key to success was that “I just needed to calm down, and I had all the right people in my corner. I think that’s what I needed, I needed Roufusport, I needed all the right people in my corner.” Including his mom, aunt, and the rest of his family.
As to what’s next for Griffin, who improved to 18-7 on the night, there’s the possibility of moving up a weight class. “I’ve been talking about going up to 155 for a while. The cut to 45 is really hard for me,” he revealed. “It’s hard. It would be nice to kind of dip my toe into the 155lb division, and lift weights, and really mentally and physically get myself there. But this last cut was amazing. Every cut I’ve done something different, and I feel this last one, I was on point with everything.”
The difference this time, he feels, was water-loading earlier in the process. It led to his best cut to featherweight yet. So if he can replicate that, said Griffin, “continuing in the 145lb division shouldn’t be a problem. But dipping my toe in the 55lb division would be kind of fun too.”
Watch the full UFC Norfolk post-fight press scrum with Jordan Griffin above!
