Grant Dawson made a big change in his fighting career after his draw against Ricky Glenn.
Dawson trained at Glory MMA under James Krause for his entire pro career and spent the last couple of years helping coach. Yet, after his last fight, he says he felt burnt out and knew he needed to make a change which is why he changed gyms to go to American Top Team.
“It was obviously one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life, if not the hardest decision,” Dawson said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I came to James when I was 0-0 as a pro and we had 19 professional fights together, he was in my corner for all of them except for two. It was very hard to make that decision and separate myself from him, but being here for two months now I think it was the right decision to make. Usually, the hard decisions to make are the right decisions to make…
“I trained at Glory for 8 years which is a great gym with a ton of high-level fighters, but if you see the same faces, and the same grey mats with the same white walls with grey walls behind that, it burns you out a little bit,” Dawson continued. “I wanted some different training partners and some different looks. The other thing was the weather. In my camps, I would get sick a lot so it was train hard for a week, be sick for a week, train hard for a week, be sick for a week and I think that was due to the weather constantly going up and down. Being here the weather is consistent, and I haven’t been sick yet.”
Now that Dawson has had spent some time at ATT, he will have his first fight under them on Saturday at UFC Vegas 53 against Jared Gordon.
Although Grant Dawson took this fight on relatively short notice, he is confident in his cardio and style to make this a tough fight. Dawson believes he and Jared Gordon are very similar styles which is why he is expecting a 15-minute grueling fight.
“I like his fighting style, I like him as a person but I don’t like his chances in this fight. We are both very similar, I think we are good grinders but the only thing is I do everything he does but just a little better and I’m a bit more dangerous than him,” Dawson explained. “He doesn’t have many finishes in the UFC, I have a lot of finishes. I think my danger factor is higher than his and everything else is pretty even. It’s going to be a grinding fight, it’s going to be a grueling fight and I don’t think I will get him out of there and that’s what I want after my last fight to prove that was a one-time thing.”
Not only does Dawson think it will be a grinding fight, but he thinks it could very well be Fight of the Night. Along with that, if he gets his hand raised, he believes he should get a top-15 opponent next.
“I think me and him have Fight of the Night and bonus money written all over it. I think it will be a great fight for me to show I should be in the top-15,” Dawson said. “If I can beat him, his only losses are incredibly good guys, so if I can get a dominant performance over him like I plan to do, top-15 would be next for sure.”
Do you think Grant Dawson will beat Jared Gordon at UFC Vegas 53?