Tyson Griffin Looks To Continue Climb At Featherweight This Weekend

Source: MMAWeekly

Tyson Griffin has spent the last five-plus years of his MMA career in the UFC, putting together a 7-5 record against some of the best fighters in the world. Now, back at featherweight, Griffin is set to face Bart Palaszewski this Saturday at UFC 137: Penn vs. Diaz.

Griffin (15-5) defeated Manny Gamburyan earlier this year to halt a three-fight losing streak. During his slide, however, he was given a pass by UFC President Dana White following a controversial split decision defeat to Nik Lentz.

The Xtreme Couture fighter continues to adapt his approach as he is in his seventh year of fighting. Griffin, who is 27 years old, has been involved in five Fight of the Nights with the UFC.

"I've been doing a lot of jiu-jitsu at Robert Drysdale's (gym), who is one of the best grappling coaches I've ever had the pleasure of working with," said Griffin, in a recent interview with MMAWeekly.com. "Being opening to learning new things and being versatile, just like the name of the game is mixed martial arts, you have to really mix it up and learn the best from each martial art."

The passion for MMA has always driven Griffin, but now he understands that devoting himself to being a full-time student is also needed to survive and thrive in the UFC.

"You've got to be a smart fighter," Griffin said. "You've got to pick your opponents apart and being where you think they're the weakest and where you have the greatest advantage."

Griffin-Palaszewski is part of the Spike TV UFC Prelims special that will be broadcast an hour before the pay-per-view starts.

Dana Becker is a staff writer for FightLine.com. He can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DanaBecker.