A longtime Glory MMA staple, Grant Dawson made a move to American Top Team and has rubbed shoulders with Nickal on numerous occasions. While he’s not a former WEC champion like Mike Brown and he’s not a nearly ten-year UFC veteran like Jorge Masvidal, he is a DWCS season one veteran with one of the most impressive records in the division.
Dawson has shared mats and cards with some of the most notable fighters in Nickal’s division, and will double and triple down on the ceiling he sees for the debuting superstar.
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“He’s so good at what he does and there’s not that many high-level wrestlers in that weight, which is great for him because he’s already got sort of one up on everybody,” Dawson said. “He can step back and focus purely on striking and purely on jiu-jitsu because he knows that he’s always got his wrestling.”
Nickal’s wrestling base is arguably one of the strongest in the history of the sport. If he wants to step away and train for two years with Freddie Roach or train for two years with Eddie Bravo, he has plenty of room to coast. Dawson feels that it may even benefit the sure-fire future star, but getting too far away from his base is asking for trouble.
“One piece of advice I would give him is to never get away from his wrestling because once you get to a higher-level wrestling in MMA, it is completely different than wrestling in wrestling,” Dawson said. “Understanding how to use his striking to better set up his wrestling and then be able to use his jiu-jitsu and control to get finishes or not get submitted, that’s going to put the rest of the division on notice, and by the time he is ready to step into the UFC, we’re going to see a complete shift in how middleweights prepare for fights.”
