Grant Dawson reveals six fighters turned him down before taking short notice bout against Mark Madsen, vows to finish him and get ranked

Grant Dawson has had a hard time getting a fight.

Dawson hasn’t fought since April when he submitted Jared Gordon. Since then, he revealed he was offered six opponents with some of the names being Dan Hooker, Rafael dos Anjos, Damir Ismagulov, and Gregor Gillespie, but all six turned him down. Although some got different fights, Dawson says it is frustrating waiting on the sidelines.

“Man, it all worked out. I’ve been through six different opponents not including Mark, and they all didn’t pan out,” Dawson said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I said yes to all of them and they are all booked against different people. The date that I was supposed to fight has stayed the same. So, I’ve been in camp for eight weeks, my weight is good, and my conditioning is good. I’m ready to rock and roll. I’m very happy with the opponent, very tough opponent. I definitely think a winner of this fight gets ranked so I’m very happy with that.”

Why Dawson thinks people turned him down is due to the fact he believes he’s high risk-low reward. He knows beating him doesn’t do a lot because he’s not ranked while a loss sets them back quite a bit.

“I think there is a lot of risk in fighting me and not a lot of reward because I’m not ranked yet which is kind of ridiculous if you ask me,” Dawson explained. “If you beat me you don’t get a whole lot because I don’t have a number next to my name. If you lose to me, you are just another guy on the list. I think 2023 will be a lot easier to find me fights because I will have a number next to my name.”

Dawson Eyes Stoppage Win

With Grant Dawson having a hard time getting fights, he ended up taking a shot-notice scrap against Mark Madsen at UFC Vegas 64. However, Dawson says it wasn’t short notice at all as he was preparing to face Gregor Gillespie on this date, so he was preparing for a wrestler anyway.

Even though Madsen is a silver medalist in Greco wrestling, Dawson believes he will be the better wrestler on Saturday. He expects to turn this into a wrestling match and see if Madsen can hang for 15 minutes.

“I’m not worried about his wrestling. If we were wrestling in a Greco match he would tech-fall me. If we were wrestling in a folkstyle match I would pin him and/or tech-fall him,” Dawson said. “I’m not underestimating my wrestling skills in this fight; I’m going to see if he can hang with me in the wrestling department. If he can then we will fall back on the striking and the cardio and the jiu-jitsu. We will figure out who the better wrestler is probably in the first round. If this is a striking match, it’s because he stuffed every one of my takedowns.”

Should Grant Dawson turn this into a wrestling match up for the entire fight, he expects Mark Madsen will get tired. Once he gets tired, Dawson is confident he will get a stoppage win and enter the lightweight ranks.

“I have got 18 wins and 16 are by finish. I’m coming here to finish anyway I can. If I can grab a neck, I’ll grab a neck. If it’s putting a knee across his face, however, I can get this finish I’m going to do it,” Dawson said. “As I said, he’s a competitor, I’m happy with a win. If I win by a unanimous decision, I’ll be happy with that, if I win by finish, I’ll be happy with that. Getting a win over Mark Madsen is the number one goal come November 5.”

If Dawson defeats Madsen on Saturday at UFC Vegas 64, he hopes a ranked opponent is next. He also has two names in mind, Tony Ferguson and Dan Hooker.

“I’m thinking Tony Ferguson, Dan Hooker, guys like that next,” Dawson concluded.