Grant Dawson made his presence felt
Raimondi: Lightweight is the right weight for Dawson.
After beating Leonardo Santos at the last second on Saturday, Grant Dawson stated in his post-fight conversation that he weighed nearly 180 pounds in the cage. Dawson weighed in at 156 pounds last Friday morning.
This was Dawson’s first bout in the lightweight ranks for moving up from featherweight, and it was the right decision. Dawson looked superb, not tired at all, in the third round, where he began to take command against Santos. There were no heart problems. Dawson looked more powerful in the third round than he did in the first. It’s a scary situation, considering he was already considered one of the top prospects at featherweight.
The UFC’s lightweight division is a minefield. But Dawson has all the makings of a great career. He’s only 27 years old, and yet people familiar with James Krause’s Glory MMA in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, have apparently been talking about him for the better part of a decade. And let’s face it – Dawson was surely cutting a lot of weight to get to 145 pounds. When he fought in RFA, he had to pull out of a fight in 2015 because he had suffered a 1st level burn from spending excessive time in the hot tub at a Nebraska gym.
Extensive time in hot water should no longer be necessary for Dawson. And a fully rehabilitated Dawson is an extremely dangerous Dawson. Santos found that out the hard way, when he was looking for a loose leg lock as time expired in Saturday’s third round. Dawson still had enough power to pound him with hammer fists and end the fight by technical KO with a second to go.
The most exciting result of all came from Grant Dawson, who just in time managed to make the favorite mantra of MMA fighters everywhere come true: don’t leave it to the judges. As the final seconds of his hard-fought lightweight bout with Leonardo Santos ticked away, with the fighters on the canvas and Dawson in Silva’s full guard, it looked like the scorecards were going to come into play. But then Dawson connected with a punch that rocked Silva, then another that stunned him, then another that blew Silva’s mouthguard. That prompted the referee to step in, at 4:59 of the third round.
