UFC Vegas 80 Preview
The UFC is heading back to Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, October 7th for UFC Vegas 80. The main event will be in the lightweight division between rising contender #10 Grant Dawson vs. battle-tested veteran Bobby Green.
Dawson has won three straight fights and is 9-0-1 in the UFC. He most recently defeated Damir Ismagulov by unanimous decision in July. The 29-year-old believes a matchup with Green is better for him now than worrying about fighting another fighter in the rankings.
“Matchups don’t make any sense to me anyway,” Dawson said. “I’m not a really big, anything outside the champion is just suggestion. The rankings change very single day. If he beats me on Saturday night, then the matchup wasn’t that weird.”
Is Green a threat? “I’m taking Bobby Green very seriously. I know how good he is, and I’m going to be honest with you, I think a win over Bobby Green does more for my career than a couple of wins over some other guys in the top 15. I just think he’s got that much of star power, he’s that big of a veteran, and I’m expecting the best Bobby Green on Saturday night.”
Dawson is excited to be fighting in his first main event. “I wanted to be a UFC world champion from day one, and if I want to be a UFC world champion, I have to know that these kind of moments are going to happen,” Dawson said. “They’re great, and I’m so happy that they’re finally starting to get here, but this was supposed to happen. I’m supposed to be in a main event. I’m supposed to be doing this kind of thing. Now I get to show the UFC you can put me in a main event and I can perform, and I can go all five rounds if need be. This is everything I’ve ever worked for.”
Green is coming off the biggest win of his long UFC career with a third-round submission over fan-favorite Tony Ferguson at UFC 291 in July. The win was a big rebound after two straight losses and a no contest in his previous three fights. The 37-year-old made his UFC debut in 2013 and is fighting in his second main event.
Ahead of UFC Vegas 80 Green did not know who Dawson was, but has now formed opinions after familiarizing himself with his opponent. “Man, I didn’t even know who that guy was. I never even heard of him, and that goes to his body of work. I think the issue is that like, he’s been kind of boring, you know? He’s been in the Apex fighting,” Bobby Green said. “But, had he been around these crowds, he’d already feel the pressure from the crowd.’
Green believes he needs to put on an exciting fight. “Even though sometimes he got some finishes, so it’s like, ‘Cool, yeah.’ But it’s a snorefest. So it’s going to be a real test for me is to moreso make a boring guy exciting. That’s the real fight,” Green said.
While his first main event did not go according to plan against now champion Islam Makhachev, Green is ready to seize the moment on Saturday. “I just feel like I didn’t have the proper time to prep for Islam,” Green said. “I was sitting on the couch, my girl was supposed to have surgery, I’m smoking a blunt, and they’re like, ‘Hey, get up and fight again.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, great. F*ck it, let’s do it.’ I think that this one’s going to be a lot different now that I had the time to prepare.”
The Rest of the Main Card:
Middleweight - Joe Pyfer vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan
Welterweight - Alex Morono vs. Joaquin Buckley
Lightweight - Drew Dober vs. Ricky Glenn
Featherweight - Alexander Hernandez vs. Bill Algeo
ESPN + Prelims:
Light Heavyweight - Philipe Lins vs. Ion Cuțelaba
Women's Strawweight - #15 Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Diana Belbiţă
Bantamweight - Aori Qileng vs. Johnny Muñoz Jr.
Women's Strawweight - Kanako Murata vs. Vanessa Demopoulos
Flyweight - Nate Maness vs. Mateus Mendonça
Women's Flyweight - Montana De La Rosa vs. JJ Aldrich
