About 40 Post 19 Members were on hand to watch Grant “The Prophet” Dawson battle for a UFC contract On August 15th, 2017. There was a free taco bar and the atmosphere was described as “electric” throughout the club. Grant was given the opportunity to compete on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was held at the UFC headquarters in “The Ultimate Fighter” gym. The event was centered around 5 fights and the winners of the five bouts were then eligible for a UFC contract based on Dana White’s observations.
Grant was invited to Las Vegas two weeks prior to the fight do media, interviews, video shoots and photo shoots. He did an outstanding job representing himself in all of the pre-fight media. He also did all of his pre-fight medicals at this time. He returned to KC after his three days in Vegas and trained hard in preparation for the fight. Grant flew back to Vegas on Saturday August 12th and did a bit more media and began his weight cut. Sunday was more of the same as he and Head Coach James Krause worked through the process and monitored progress all evening. The weight cut was executed flawlessly and he woke up on Monday morning on weight and ready for his 9:00 AM weigh ins. Once complete, the refueling process began in preparation for the fight the next evening. Tuesday morning and afternoon were more of the same as he prepared both his mind and body for the fight.
Grant was the fourth out of the five scheduled bouts and at the time of the fight was a slight favorite in the betting odds in Vegas. The atmosphere in the venue was intense, to say the least, as it was a “closed invitation” event with only the fighters’ friends, families, and select fight team members given a limited amount of passes to enter. There were many celebrities present as well, including MANY current UFC fighters and all of the cast members of the current season of The Ultimate Fighter. Grant walked out to the cage confident. Once the referee said fight, he did just that, relentlessly, until he executed the submission win via rear-naked choke about a minute and half in to the second round.
After the final fight of the evening, Dana White came out to announce the winners of UFC contracts. He said, “This is a no-brainer, Dawson is a beast, an absolute beast.” So there you have it- Post 19 now supports a fully contracted UFC featherweight! Check out the pictures and the highlight video below. Congratulations Grant and everyone is looking forward to seeing you at the Post on September 13th for the upcoming Post 19 American Legion Riders meeting!
