“KGD” was fighting for much more than a win.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Grant Dawson scored a huge third-round submission victory over Polish action fighter Mateusz Rebecki at UFC 328 this past weekend inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
But behind the performance was an unimaginable personal tragedy.
During his post-fight media scrum, Dawson revealed that he and his wife suffered
the loss of their unborn child at the beginning of fight week.
“My wife and I need a vacation, we went through a lot this week — we went through a little bit of a family crisis,” Dawson said. “My wife and I were expecting our first baby, and we found out on Monday that we lost the baby, so it’s been a rough week. My amazing wife soldiered through it, toughed it out, no emotion, got me through this, and I promised her a little vacation for us to go and do our thing.”
Despite the devastating news, Dawson still made the walk and delivered one of the biggest wins of his UFC career — though he admitted the emotions hit him afterward.
“I’m going to sound like such a dick, but it wasn’t hard for me,” Dawson said when asked about trying to bury the tragedy. “It was compartmentalized, it was put away. We told our friends and family, and I’ll deal with it later. I was a bit emotional in the cage, and that had something to do with it.”
The victory snapped Dawson back into the win column in emphatic fashion and could push him back toward the UFC Lightweight rankings again.
Dawson (24-3-1) now improves to 12-2-1 inside the Octagon.
For complete UFC 328 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.
