Grant Dawson says move to American Top Team ultimately will make him a champion

LAS VEGAS – Grant Dawson had a kiss-your-sister moment this past October, and he didn’t like it.

Dawson settled for a majority draw against Ricky Glenn. Despite looking good early in the first two rounds of the fight, Glenn put together a 10-8 in the third round to force the draw.

Dawson is trying to think of the upside: He learned some lessons without having to take a loss. And now that he’s training at American Top Team in South Florida after years at Glory MMA near Kansas City, he thinks the lessons are coming even quicker.

Dawson (17-1-1 MMA, 5-1-1 UFC) fights Jared Gordon (18-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) on the UFC on ESPN 35 main card Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN2/ESPN+.

“I knew I needed to make a change – not so much from the training, but because of my mental state,” Dawson said at Wednesday’s media day.

Check out Dawson’s full media day interview in the video above.