Grant Dawson finally has a shot at getting into the UFC rankings this October.
MMA Junkie was first to report the news that No. 12 ranked lightweight Diego Ferreira will put his ranking on the line against Dawson on October 2 at a yet-to-be-announced UFC event. Dawson would confirm the news on his Instagram.
Ferreira (17-4) had his six-fight win streak snapped earlier this year and now is on the second two-fight skid of his career. Beneil Dariush defeated the Brazilian via split decision in February and then was finished by a returning Gregor Gillespie three months later. An interesting note is that after Ferreira’s last losing streak, he rattled off those six wins.
Dawson (17-1) has been asking for a ranked opponent for a few years, and he got it. “KGD” is on an eight-fight win streak, with five of those coming inside the octagon. In his most recent win, he became the first man in 11 years to defeat Leonardo Santos, and he did some in an exciting fashion. With one second left in the fight, Dawson knocked Santos out cold. The fight with Santos was his lightweight debut.
The October 2 UFC event is expected to be headlined by Johnny Walker and Thiago Santos, but nothing is official.
The fight card so far looks like this:
- Johnny Walker vs. Thiago Santos
- Joe Solecki vs. Jared Gordon
- Bethe Correia vs. Karol Rosa
- Diego Ferreira vs. Grant Dawson
