For a mixed martial artist, there may not be anything that hurts worse than a loss. Just ask Forrest Griffin. Following his loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 66, Griffin was devastated.

At UFC 65, Jeff "The Snowman" Monson faced UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. The fight went five rounds. Sylvia earned the decision and retained the crown.

In the following story, JC Santana-who trained Monson-talks about the loss, how things changed during the course of the action and how the camp dealt with the outcome. And Griffin opens up about his loss.

FIRST CLASS

As I have always said, Jeff is a true warrior, regardless of the outcome. He is a class act. He never talks trash about anyone and always shows the utmost class in the ring and toward his opponents.

THINGS CHANGE

We don't know what Jeff saw or felt that forced him to change the initial game plan. For example, we practiced a weave to a leaping left hook that he did not execute. Perhaps he did not see the opening. I trust his judgment in the ring; only he sees what he sees. We also trained cutting off the ring and bum-rushing Tim into the cage. That situation did not manifest itself either. We trained elbows from the side mount, which Jeff was also not able to execute.

100 TO 1

To the untrained eye, it might have seemed that Jeff got tired. Anyone who is educated in MMA, however, knows that Jeff spent $100 energy dollars to Tim Sylvia's $1. For Jeff to sustain the long-range shots and be able to establish control of Sylvia is a testament to his conditioning and strength.

How many athletes of Jeff's stature have you seen hang in there for 25 minutes against a monster like Silvia? The answer is no one. Jeff will tell you that there are no excuses. He was in great shape, there were no injuries and there is no sob story. He lost to a better man that night ... period.

RISKS AND REWARDS

Tim did a great job. He was prepared and stuck to a very intelligent game plan. Notice he did not take any risks ... in spite of [referee] "Big" John's warnings and the crowd booing. He was happy to get out of there with the belt. Let history tell the story ... he got the "W."

Loss Crushes Griffin

THE STRATEGY

I wanted to keep the fight standing. I wanted to focus on footwork, move to the right and catch him when he threw a kick. I had watched film, and he didn't seem to have a good left hook, which turned out to be ironic. I thought he was a right-leg, right-hand kind of guy, but that was not exactly correct.

NEXT TIME

What would I do differently next time? I do not know. That is something I have to figure out in the future. I am not going to worry about it right now.

RELIVE THE LOSS

I have not watched the tape [of the fight with Keith Jardine], and I won't watch it. Why would I? It was [even] hard for me to watch when [former UFC middleweight champ] Rich [Franklin] got beat up [by Anderson Silva]. It hurts me when I watch guys who I have trained with lose, but I am a sissy crybaby ... and emotional.