LAS VEGAS – UFC lightweight veteran Bobby Green always shows up to put on a show, but believes his main event opponent will make that a tough task to accomplish.
While grasping the microphone with both hands at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 229 media day, Green (30-14-1 MMA, 11-9-1 UFC), with his fingers and wrists covered in icy jewelry, conceded that he previously didn’t know anything about his headlining opposition Grant Dawson.
After doing some research, Green discovered he was in for a matchup against a “boring” fighter in Dawson (20-1-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC), who he believes hasn’t felt the pressure of a real crowd providing realtime feedback on his style, much less everything that comes along with being on a main event stage.
“I didn’t even know who that guy was,” Green told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “I never even heard of him. And that goes to his body of work. I think the issue is that like, he’s been kind of boring, you know? And he’s been in the Apex fighting. But had he been around these crowds, he’d already feel the pressure from the crowd. They would let him know we don’t really like to see what you’re doing.
“Even though sometimes he got some finishes, so it’s like, ‘Cool, yeah.’ But it’s a snorefest. So it’s going to be a real test for me is to moreso make a boring guy exciting. That’s the real fight.”
In his last five bouts, Dawson has competed at the UFC Apex. This weekend’s event, where Dawson is set to make his first main event appearance after 12 fights without a loss.
For Green, his first shot in a marquee slot was a short-notice bout against now-champion Islam Makhachev last February. Things didn’t go well for Green that night, as he was finished quickly in the first round. For his second main event bout, he firmly believes a different outcome awaits on Saturday.
“I just feel like I didn’t have the proper time to prep for Islam,” Green said. “I was sitting on the couch, my girl was supposed to have surgery, I’m smoking a blunt, and they’re like, ‘Hey, get up and fight again.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, great. F*ck it, let’s do it.’ I think that this one’s going to be a lot different now that I had the time to prepare.”
Green enters on the heels of handing former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson his sixth consecutive loss at UFC 291 in July. The result marked a return to the win column following a loss to Drew Dober after the Makhachev fight, and a clash of heads led to a no contest against Jared Gordon.
While a fighter like Ferguson fits the description of what Green prefers to face in terms of excitement, “King” has been here before with fighters who he deems “boring.” Green believes beyond going out to get his hand raised, Dawson doesn’t offer much beyond that to the UFC or the fans.
“I feel this way about a few fighters I’ve had to fight,” Green explained. “When I fought Pat Healy, he was similar. When I fought Jacob Volkmann, (he was) boring to me, but I got Fight of the Night. So I took a boring fighter and I made it exciting. Clay Guida, I would say is more of an exciting fighter, but he had a little bit of that. … Those guys, they just want to win. They’re not interested in doing anything bigger than that.
“… All he can do is do his job and be him. He’s done that so far, and it’s not been working. Like I said, a story. I don’t know how many win streak he’s on, you would think they would promote him, but the powers that be are like, ‘Uhh, he’s missing something. He hasn’t got there yet.’ He’s still missing something to put yourself on that limelight.”
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Bobby Green out to ‘make a boring guy exciting’ in UFC Fight Night 229 main event vs. Grant Dawson