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Grant Dawson Fighting Forward
Top 10 Lightweight Relishes The Pressure That Comes With His First Main Event Assignment vs Bobby Green October 7
Ahead of his first UFC main event, Grant Dawson is going to have plenty of material to use for his TikTok advice show, “Making it to the UFC using Fight IQ,” but viewers shouldn’t expect daily updates as he approaches his Saturday showdown with Bobby Green.
“I'm going to have a lot more experience to be able to tell people how to get ready for it, so that's good,” said Dawson. “More and more people are watching, but I've taken a slight break from it just because of the camp. I want to make sure that I focus on what I need to focus on.”
It’s a smart move from a smart fighter, one who, despite being four months away from his 30th birthday, has become a mentor of sorts to an up-and-coming group of fighters he only knows through the window of modern technology.
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“I wouldn't say that it feels strange,” Dawson said. “I’ve coached a lot, so I'm used to younger fighters coming to me and asking for advice. I'm used to helping guys make decisions about their careers. And I'm not saying that it works a hundred percent of the time, but I definitely think that there have been a couple of careers where it's like they asked me for advice, I give it, they listen, and I think it would've been a lot worse if they didn’t take it.”
Grant Dawson: From DWCS To A UFC Main Event | UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs Green
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Grant Dawson: From DWCS To A UFC Main Event | UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs Green
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It's hard to argue with the path Dawson has taken with his own career. Training hard is one thing, but also knowing when to leave a certain situation to get that right training in, upping the level of competition each step of the way, and performing when the lights are on has led him into the top ten of the historically tough lightweight division. That was never more evident than in his most recent bout against Damir Ismagulov in July.
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“The pressure of fighting is always different,” he said. “There's always going to be different things to expect, but I'm going to be completely honest with you: I was pretty free that night. I wasn't feeling the pressure. I was the underdog, so a lot of people were expecting me to lose. It was really just about going in and doing what I know how to do because I've had a little bit of experience of going with Damir before, so it wasn't the total unknown. I just don't think I feel the pressure anymore like I used to. I think I'm getting to the point where there might be pressure, but I'm getting better at knowing how to handle it.”
Good thing, because headlining a UFC event is as much pressure as a fighter can face. Yet after feeling “free” against Ismagulov in a fight he won by way of a shutout unanimous decision, that’s got to be a good sign heading into his bout against the veteran Green. Whether it is or not, though, Dawson isn’t putting too much thought into it.
“I don't worry about it,” he admits. “The biggest thing I think that I've come to realize is it's going to be different every time, and I have no control over what I'm going to be feeling that day. All I can control is my actions. You can't really control feelings. You can only control actions. I've had fights where I'm like, ‘This is my day. I'm not losing tonight.’ And I've had fights where I truly believed that I was going to lose while I walked to the cage. And I've won both. So I know I can perform whether I'm feeling good or bad. It's just about doing everything that I can in camp to make sure I'm feeling the best that I possibly can that day.”
FREE FIGHTS: Grant Dawson vs Mark O. Madsen | Bobby Green vs Tony Ferguson
And this isn’t baseball, where a bad pitcher gets to redeem himself four days later, or football, when a quarterback gets his shot to rebound from a bad game in seven days. If Dawson is not on top of his game on Saturday, he likely will have to sit on that performance until early next year. That’s a tough reality to deal with. Not for Dawson.
“A pitcher can say, ‘I played a perfect game, and my team just didn't pick up the slack or didn't pull their weight; that's why I lost.’ For me, it's me. If I win, I get all the credit, but if I lose, every bit of that is on me. And I like that. I like that pressure. I like putting that weight on my shoulders. Men back in the day used to kill wild animals to feed their families, and if they didn't kill those animals, their families went hungry. What we're feeling now is just a mild comparison of that. I can handle all of it. Put the weight on me, I can carry the boats.”
Grant Dawson: Whatever It Takes | UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs Green
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Grant Dawson: Whatever It Takes | UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs Green
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Mentally, Dawson is on. Physically? Check. All that’s left is a fight that he hopes will propel him into the title conversation at 155 pounds.
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“I was presented with the main event opportunity, and who was standing against me really didn't make a difference,” he said. “I do think that Bobby Green is a good matchup for me, but that's only because I think everybody's a good matchup for me. I want to be the best in the world, and I'm ready to fight guys like Bobby; I'm ready for 'em all. And it's funny that people are kind of dismissing Bobby against me. I'm not. I know how good he is. I know that if I'm not on one hundred percent, it's going to be a long night for me. So I'm going into this fight fighting forward. This isn't a step backwards for me. This is two steps forward for me. Keep in mind that Islam Makhachev got a title shot off of beating Bobby Green. So, with that in mind, I'm going in there thinking this is make it or break it. The pressure's on me. I love it. Let's get after him.”
UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs Green took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 7, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
