Rising UFC lightweight Grant Dawson says Rafael dos Anjos is his dream fight

Grant Dawson would love the opportunity to fight Rafael dos Anjos.

Dawson (19-1-1 MMA, 7-0-1 UFC) is on the rise at 155 pounds and will look to continue his ascent up the ladder when he meets Damir Ismagulov on July 1 at UFC on ESPN 48. He hopes a win can propel him to a name like Justin Gaethje.

After submitting Mark Madsen in his past outing, Dawson called out Tony Ferguson. He didn’t end up getting the fight but said names like Ferguson or former UFC lightweight champion and current welterweight dos Anjos (33-14 MMA, 21-12 UFC) are what he’d love to have on his resume.

“The goal for me is to be a world champion and then there’s a bunch of little side goals there,” Dawson told MMA Junkie. “I would love to fight with RDA. He was one of my favorite fighters growing up. That one is purely for myself to be like, ‘Wow, this is really cool. We’ve made it. I’m playing catch with Brett Favre’ type of situation. But he went up to 170, so it’s kind of like, ‘Eh, maybe I can get Tony (Ferguson),’ and then it was like no.”

Dos Anjos is not a fight Dawson will immediately chase, but he’s open to entertain a future move up to welterweight just to get that fight.

“Down the line when maybe title implications aren’t on the line so much, I’d like to go to 170 and maybe test myself against him,” Dawson said. “But that’s me lying awake at night thinking about what ifs.”

Dos Anjos, who’s coming off a submission of Bryan Barberena at UFC on ESPN 42 in December, meets Vicente Luque on Aug. 12.