Grant Dawson hopes to avoid ‘Belal Muhammad route’ to title

Grant Dawson has no issues earning his way to the top of the lightweight division, but if he can avoid the longest possible path to UFC gold, he would certainly take it.

Dawson (22-2-1 MMA, 10-1-1 UFC) looks to continue his assent through the division when he takes on Diego Ferreira (19-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) at UFC 311 (pay-perpview, ESPNews, ESPN+) on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.

There have been times throughout Dawson’s UFC career when he felt like his growth has been stunted by a lack of activity. The fight with Ferreira will be his third contest since June, however, and if Dawson can continue that pace through 2025, he said it would be big for his career.

“I’ve wanted to stay active, I’ve begged to stay active and I’ve never not been active because of something with me,” Dawson told MMA Junkie Radio. “And it’s not the UFC’s fault. (Matchmaker) Sean Shelby’s doing a great job, but I’m a guy that not a lot of people want to fight. I’m a guy that there’s a high risk, low reward of fighting me. I feel like that’s why I’ve been on the bench before for a long time. But this is great. I’m going to start 2025 fighting in the first month. I feel really, really hopeful that I’m going to be able to get three fights in 2025.”

With just one loss through a dozen octagon appearances, Dawson, 30, has been an effective winner on the sport’s biggest stage. His lone blemish was a 33-second knockout defeat to Bobby Green in his lone promotional headliner in October 2023, but Dawson has bounced back with consecutive wins.

There’s been some criticism towards Dawson’s style at times, as well, but he said working on his excitement level has been a priority. He wants to follow in the footsteps of some of the sport’s all-time greats as he evolves, and if he does that, Dawson thinks it won’t be much longer until he’s in the biggest fights with the biggest stakes.

“Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov, when they both started their careers and were killing it, they kind of got overlooked because they’re not as exciting, they’re taking people down and doing that,” Dawson said. “But at the end of their careers everybody thought that they were just the greatest fighters to ever live, and rightfully so. That’s kind of where my mindset is. I want to stay true to myself, but I am trying to get more finishes on the ground. I’m trying to be more exciting on the ground so that I can progress a little bit faster and not take that Belal Muhammad route.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.