Grant Dawson: Great performance over Leonardo Santos puts my name on the map

Grant Dawson is aiming to go from prospect to contender when he faces what looks to be his sternest test to date.

After spending the majority of his UFC run at 145 pounds, Dawson (16-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) will make his lightweight debut against undefeated Leonardo Santos at a UFC Fight Night event on March 20, where he’ll look to move one step closer to the rankings.

The 26-year-old Glory MMA & Fitness fighter is 4-0 in the UFC since graduating from Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017 and has only gone the distance twice in his 16 pro wins.

In Santos (18-3-1 MMA, 7-0-1 UFC), Dawson faces an experienced lightweight who holds notable wins over the likes of former interim lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee, and that’s exactly the kind of challenge he seeks at this point in his career.

“Moving up, they didn’t give me an easy one, and that’s what I wanted,” Dawson told MMA Junkie. “I wanted somebody that was going to put my name out there and put me in line to then get a ranked guy, and Leonardo Santos is the guy. He’s 18-3, he’s got a lot of great wins – and not just that, he was a really, really good jiu-jitsu guy.

“He’s a seven-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, and they take their jiu-jitsu pretty seriously, so he’s legit, and I just think that having a great performance over him is really going to put my name out there and is really going to shove me to the top-15 guys, and that’s what I want. I want to fight good guys, I want to dominate good guys, and I want to show that I’m one of the best in the world, if not the best.”

Despite his solid run at 145 pounds, Dawson sees lightweight as his home for the foreseeable future. He hasn’t hit the featherweight mark in his past two bouts, missing weight in his submission of Darrick Minner and competing at a 150-pound catchweight bout in his win over Nad Narimani.

“For right now, it’s going to be lightweight,” Dawson said. “I just can’t handle the cut to featherweight too many more times, and if it wasn’t going to be now, it was just going to be in a year or so, so might as well save myself the embarrassment of possibly missing weight again or the pain of making weight again.

“We’re going to move up, and I think I stack up fine with these guys. I feel like I’ve put on quite a bit of size just since the last time you guys saw me fight. It’s been about seven or eight months since my fight with Nad, and I think you guys are going see a sizable difference when I fight in March.”