Tampa — Had things gone a little differently health-wise, there’s a chance Davey Grant might not even be fighting right now.
Paired up with Ramon Taveras in an exciting bantamweight match-up at UFC Tampa on Saturday, Grant (16-7) came away a little banged up, but ultimately victorious care of a unanimous decision win.
Those bumps and bruises, clearly written across Grant’s face, are likely nothing compared to the decade’s worth of neck pain he’s endured. Speaking with media outlets backstage at the Amalie Arena in Tampa following his latest win, Grant revealed just how serious that neck injury was, and the threat it had posed to his career.
“I’ve been struggling with it for around 10 years now. I keep getting injections in it to just mask the pain. I think it just took its toll, and one of the discs had jammed into the spinal cord. I had to get the disc removed, and two of the vertebrae fused together.”
It could have been much worse. “The doctor said if it was anyone else, the discs in my neck are that bad, he would just fuse three together, but then I would never fight again. He said that’s what he wanted to do. I said ‘look, that’s not an option. Can you not just do less?'”
The doctor agreed to do a single level of fusion, even though Grant needed three. But according to the veteran fighter, things felt “brilliant” once the procedure was done.
“Honest, as soon as I woke up from the operation, the pain had gone, that I had been struggling with for maybe 10 years. Up and down, but yeah it was, it was absolutely brilliant as soon as I got it done to be fair.”
Grant and Taveras might have been in the running for a Fight of the Night bonuses at UFC Tampa, until Cub Swanson vs. Billy Quarantillo came along. Still, Grant is no stranger to post-fight bonuses, and outlined their importance to a fighter who isn’t headlining, or cashing in on Pay-Per-View points.
“It’s definitely life-changing. It’s nice to be able to go and treat my family and stuff like that. That’s why I’ve managed to bring them all over to Florida and go to Disneyland and things like that,” said Grant. “Because that’s why I do it, I do it for them. Fighting, it’s not my most important job. My most important job is being a good father, and being a good husband, and then fighting’s third. But the money I make off fighting sort of helps me do a lot of things with my family, and that’s why I do it.”
Watch the full UFC Tampa post-fight press conference with Davey Grant above.
