Evans alum pens book about his life as a fighter

Forrest Griffin's resume is growing.

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The Evans High graduate has been a police officer, a reality television star and an Ultimate Fighting champion.

On Tuesday, he'll make his debut as an author.

Got Fight? The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat , a book co-authored by Griffin and Erich Krauss, hits bookstores and Amazon this week. Krauss, who is also a professional fighter, has written several other books on mixed martial arts.

According to a description on Griffin's Web site, "The pages in this book will feature his boisterous personality and trademark sense of humor to demonstrate to readers that being a fighter takes more than simply an adrenaline rush -- it takes focus, a little cunning, and the intelligence to know that the best way to avoid serious injury is to stay away from 'Rampage' Jackson's right hand, bro."

Jackson was Griffin's opponent during the light heavyweight title bout Griffin won last summer. The championship was the pinnacle of Griffin's meteoric rise in the sport, which started when he won the first season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series on Spike TV and later served as a coach on the show. Griffin also is on the cover of a new video game, UFC 2009 Undisputed .

Griffin will launch a book tour Monday, starting in Huntington, N.Y. The closest he'll come to the Augusta area will be a stop in Atlanta on Thursday, when Griffin visits the Barnes and Noble on Peachtree Road at 7 p.m.

I haven't seen the book. There is a short excerpt posted on Amazon and two reviews from customers who apparently got a hold of advanced copies.

The early word is that Got Fight? would be a good read for fight fans, though it doesn't appear to be heavy on technical instruction. From the Amazon reviews, and take them for what they are worth, Griffin's book will be ripe with dark humor, sarcasm and random anecdotes.

Amazon's PDF excerpt includes a section titled "If you want to appear tough, you only need to accomplish six things." The excerpt goes on to list eight items.

"Even if you say you're going to list six things, like I did above, always list more," Griffin wrote for his eighth point. "The fact that you've lost your ability to count is verification enough that you are a fighter."

Griffin played football at Evans. In a clip that can be found on YouTube, he was captured ripping off his helmet after a big tackle and head butting a teammate on the sideline. He went to the University of Georgia and later worked for the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.

His fight against Jackson last year was the culmination of his role as a coach in that season of The Ultimate Fighter . Griffin relinquished the title after losing to Rashad Evans in UFC 92 in December 2008.

He is scheduled to fight Anderson Silva on Aug. 8 in UFC 101.