Athletes
Davey Grant: 'I Always Put It On The Line'
UFC Bantamweight Davey Grant Continues To Build A Legacy Of Exciting Fights And Thrilling Performances.
Davey Grant was about to become a cautionary tale. Sure, he was a heck of a fighter, but his body just wasn’t playing nice.
There was the two-year layoff from 2013 to 2016, then another one from 2016 to 2018, all from injuries. But if you ask newer fans of the sport about Bishop Auckland’s Grant, all they’ll know is that in a stacked bantamweight division, he is a player at 135 pounds and must-see TV. Sometimes, that makes all the struggles of the past worth it.
“In all honesty, it’s everything I've ever wanted out of my career,” Grant said. “I want to be known as the guy who comes in and has exciting fights and that's how I want to be remembered. I always put it on the line, it’s how I fight, and it's nice to get the recognition Look, I don't claim to be the best fighter in the world by a long shot, I'm definitely not. But I know I'm exciting and I do go and try my best and put it on the line every single time.”
If you’re new to the Davey Grant Experience, take this down: since 2020, the Brit has fought six times, winning four, all by knockout or submission. Three of those victories over Martin Day, Jonathan Martinez and Raphael Assuncao earned him Performance of the Night bonuses, and his lone two defeats in that stretch to Marlon Vera and Adrian Yanez were in Fight of the Night-winning scraps.
That run should have him knocking on the door of a Top 15 ranking, yet many were surprised when his opponent for this Saturday’s UFC London event was unbeaten Daniel Marcos, a talented Peruvian prospect coming off a knockout win over Saimon Oliveira in his Octagon debut, but not a name like Vera, Yanez or Assuncao.
Davey Grant Gets Inverted Triangle Choke | UFC Fight Night: Yan vs Dvalishvili
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Davey Grant Gets Inverted Triangle Choke | UFC Fight Night: Yan vs Dvalishvili
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“No disrespect to him at all, he's obviously paying his dues,” said Grant of his foe. “He's got a fantastic little win streak going and I'm really looking forward to the fight. I was expecting someone, maybe Top 15; that was what I was thinking. But I've never, ever said ‘no’ to a fight and I never will. As soon as (matchmaker) Sean (Shelby) texts me and says, ‘You're fighting him,’ I'm like, ‘Right, okay, no problem.’ I'm not one for the logistics of everything and trying to only take the big fights or only take fights what’s good for me. Literally, I'm more honestly bothered about activity than opponents. I just want to fight as much as I can and whoever they put in front of me, I'll turn up and I'll fight.”
Put another check mark in the “Why everyone loves Davey” column, and while pinning a “1” on Marcos’ 14-0 record wouldn’t normally make the noise a victory over a ranked opponent would, it just might, literally, since he’s fighting at home in England for the first time since October of 2016.
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“Obviously I've had a really massive rollercoaster ride in the UFC and a lot of my best work came when lockdown started and I've never managed to fight in front of an English crowd since then,” said Grant. “I've been watching the London cards and they’ve been so electric. I've been down live for a couple of them and just thinking, ‘God, it'd be nice to go and fight on one of these just to have the hometown support. So I'm ecstatic. I can't wait. It's going to be fantastic.”
Add in the fact that his wife and two of their three kids will be in attendance at the O2 Arena, his boys seeing him fight live for the first time, and the opponent really doesn’t matter for the 37-year-old, who gets to have a full circle moment and enjoy it even before the Octagon door shuts, because unlike some of his younger peers, Grant was doing this before it was cool in his home country.
“We were the generation that started to get to the higher sort of promotions and, God, the training back then,” he laughs. “I remember sometimes we used to have to sweep ice off the mats just to train. My gym itself, it's got air conditioning, it's got heating and it's lovely and clean to walk in. But I've been in some terrible gyms and I've definitely paid my dues over the years. I've been to some gyms that didn't have a toilet and we had to sweep rat s**t off the mat. (Laughs) It was f**king brutal when you think about it. But yeah, sometimes I don't think these guys nowadays know that they've got some fantastic MMA gyms, some fantastic coaches all under one roof, ten minutes from the house, most of them.”
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Yes, it’s nice to be in a clean gym with a toilet and no need to sweep up rat droppings before practice, but maybe, just maybe, in the third round of a tough fight, guys like Grant have an extra reserve to dig into to make that final push and win, all owed to those days when it was brutally hot in the summer and worse in the winter. It’s in those situations where fighters are made, and DaveyGrant is most certainly a fighter.
“I know everyone knows what the fight game's like and we're all pushing ourselves to the limit,” he said. “And you do need to be able to go that extra mile if you want to go fighting, and especially get to the UFC. But I'm very old school and the way that everyone trains now has changed a lot. I've put myself through the depths of Hell in training camps and back again, and the same in fights, and I feel like I'm prepared to go places that other people aren’t. So I'm just going to take him into deep water and then take away his life jacket, to be honest.”
UFC Fight Night: Aspinall vs Tybura took place live from the O2 Arena in London, England on July 22, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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