UFC Fight Night 244's Grant Dawson won't 'give up being dominant to be a bit more exciting'

10/04/2024 09:00 PM

Grant Dawson takes umbrage with people labelling him as boring.

Dawson (21-2-1 MMA, 9-1-1 UFC) takes on Rafa Garcia (15-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) in a lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night 244 Oct. 12 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Outside from a 33-second upset knockout loss to King Green in the UFC Fight Night 229 headliner last October, Dawson is unbeaten in the UFC. Not only is he unbeaten, but he’s been able to use his wrestling to dominate plenty of his opposition – most recently Joe Solecki at UFC 302 in June.

Despite his prowess on the ground, Dawson hasn’t gained the popularity as a surging lightweight like he would have wished.

“I’m trying to be more exciting, I really am,” Dawson told MMA Junkie Radio. “It’s just I’m so dominant on the ground, it’s so easy for me to take people down, ride them out, get the choke, land lots of punches, make my percentage of top time even farther away from everybody else in the division than it already is.

“It’s so easy for me to do that. It’s hard for me to be, like, in a fight: Somebody’s throwing leather at my face, and me be like, ‘Nah, I’m not going to take them down, the fans want to see me knock him out.’ I’m fighting for my life in there. I’m fighting for my wife to not have to go back to work. It’s hard for me not to take somebody down when I know I can do it.”

Dawson says if UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev can become a fan favorite with an elite wrestling style, then why can’t he get some love as well.

“The thing that upsets me the most about it is probably, they’re so picky on who they like and who they don’t, and what kind of style they are,” Dawson continued. “Everybody thinks that Islam Makhachev is the coolest thing since sliced bread, but he’s doing the same stuff I’m doing.

“But then when I go ride somebody out – literally in my last fight I had 13:45 of control time in a 15-minute fight. That’s insanity. Where, exactly, do you have to give up being dominant to be a bit more exciting? I don’t really know what these guys want to see. I’m just going to keep winning.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie's event hub for UFC Fight Night 244.