It’s become a given that if fighters have to train over the holidays, they’re of a particularly unfortunate lot.
This time of season typically is rife with extra parties and celebrations and gatherings, and that means temptations at the buffet table, for starters. And while just about everyone else gets a chance for a few extra days off and relaxation, in-camp fighters are winding down prep work and starting to dial in on weight cuts.
To watch the holiday splendor all around, knowing yours is on hold could be frustrating – but not to UFC lightweight Grant Dawson.
Dawson (22-2-1 MMA, 10-1-1 UFC) has one of the biggest fights of his career coming up in a month against Diego Ferreira (19-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) at UFC 311 at the Intuit Dome just outside Los Angeles.
But he’s not really worried about the holiday stuff. Instead, he’s happy to stay busy. He’s had two fights each year he’s been in the UFC, so maybe this is the year he finally can get a third for extra momentum.
“I’m probably going to live ’til I’m 90. I can celebrate the holidays after I’m done fighting. I don’t really care about that,” Dawson told MMA Junkie Radio. “I wanted to stay active. I’ve begged to stay active. I’ve never not been active because of something with me, and it’s not the UFC’s fault – (matchmaker) Sean Shelby’s doing a great job.
“It’s just I’m a guy that not a lot of people want to fight. I’m a guy that there’s a high risk, low reward of fighting me, so I feel like that’s why I’ve been on the bench before for a long time. But this is great: I’m going to start 2025 off fighting in the first month. I feel really hopeful that I’m going to be able to get three fights in in 2025.”
The bout against Ferreira is one that was supposed to happen more than three years ago, but Ferreira had to pull out with an injury. At that point, Ferreira was coming off back-to-back losses – though both were Fight of the Night winners – in a three-fight skid. Now he has back-to-back knockout wins, also both for bonuses.
Dawson has back-to-back wins, himself, after a knockout loss to Bobby Green 14 months ago that was the first setback of his career. Dawson was more than a 4-1 favorite in the fight, but Green caught him early and took him out in a 33-second stunner.
The road back to title contention could be a little shorter, though, with a win over someone the likes of Ferreira. Neither fighter is in the UFC’s top 15 at lightweight, but Dawson is hopeful that could change after UFC 311.
“I’m super excited about this fight and I’m super excited about being on a pay-per-view, especially such a big pay-per-view to kick off the new year. There’s a lot of big fights on this card. A lot of ’55s on this card. There’s a lot of teammates on this card,” he said.
“There’s pros and cons to fighting on a big one. I think I’ll get a lot more notoriety than I usually do. A con is, probably not going to win any bonus money. It’s really hard to remember good performances when another good performance comes or another exciting fight comes. We’ll see. I’m going out there to make a statement and hopefully with a big win over Diego, I will be able to break into my next fight being somebody in the top 10, which will hopefully keep me in the rankings for Pete’s sake.”
Check out Dawson’s full interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
