{"id":290939,"date":"2018-11-10T10:53:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T18:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=290939"},"modified":"2018-11-10T10:53:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T18:53:52","slug":"shaquille-oneal-had-one-major-concern-prior-to-his-grappling-match-with-forrest-griffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/shaquille-oneal-had-one-major-concern-prior-to-his-grappling-match-with-forrest-griffin\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal had one major concern prior to his grappling match with Forrest Griffin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal reveals he had one major concern prior to his grappling match with UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin.<\/p>\n

The multiple-time NBA champion, Shaq, squared off with Griffin at the UFC Performance Center in Las Vegas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O’Neal opened up about his experience grappling with the former UFC light heavyweight champion in a recent interview with For The Win (as transcribed by MMAJUNKIE<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was only worried about not getting submitted,\u201d<\/em> Shaquille O’Neal said.\u201cI\u2019ve been doing it (MMA) but not on the level he has so I just had to stay safe and play it safe. But he was a strong fella and he said the same thing about me. I\u2019m gonna blow my head up pretty high for not getting submitted because when you cross over into somebody\u2019s sport talking all that trash you better be able to back it up.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

Despite being locked in the octagon with a UFC legend, Shaquille O’Neal claims he was not the least bit nervous.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no,\u201d<\/em> he said. \u201cI\u2019m a fighter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Former UFC women’s strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha also made an appearance in the now infamous video. The Brazilian standout proceeded to jump into the cage and choke out Shaquille O’Neal just seconds after his match with Forrest Griffin had ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was supposed to wrestler her next but she saw me wrestle with Forrest and she realized she couldn\u2019t beat me. Because I told her, I said, \u2018Listen, little young lady, if you can make me tap out I\u2019ll give you $10,000 right now. So then she came in in the back and got me when I wasn\u2019t looking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While Shaquille O’Neal has trained mixed martial arts for many years now, the former NBA MVP admits fans would most likely see him in the WWE before any professional fight organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not that world, probably the WWE world,\u201d<\/em> he said. \u201c(MMA) is like real combat and it\u2019s ok to do every now and then but twice a year, or three times a year \u2013 I like to fight, but I don\u2019t like to fight that much.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal reveals he had one major concern prior to his grappling match with UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin. The multiple-time NBA champion, Shaq, squared off with Griffin at the UFC Performance Center in Las Vegas. O’Neal opened up about his experience grappling with the former UFC light heavyweight champion in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":290435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10653,10314,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nShaquille O\u2019Neal had one major concern prior to his grappling match with Forrest Griffin | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal reveals he had one major concern prior to his grappling match with UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/shaquille-oneal-had-one-major-concern-prior-to-his-grappling-match-with-forrest-griffin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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