Davey Grant finds himself in peak form at 39.
The Season 18 “Ultimate Fighter” finalist has won four of his past five fights, and will look to make it three-straight wins when he takes on Charles Jourdain at UFC Fight Night 262 on Oct. 18 from Rogers Arena in Vancouver (ESPN+).
As long as he continues to deliver stellar performances, Grant (15-7 MMA, 8-6 UFC) has no intentions of slowing down.
“In all honesty, I’m not thinking of any age, I’m just thinking of performances,” Grant told MMA Junkie Radio. “I feel like I’m just going to keep fighting while I feel like I’m getting better and while I still feel like I can hang with the best guys in the world. That’s the plan, and I’m getting better, and I still feel like you can put me in a fight with anyone in the division and I’m going to have an exciting fight. I don’t care who it is – I’ll perform. If it gets to the point where maybe I feel like I’m getting worse, I don’t feel like it’s going to be like that (downward spiral).
“I know some fighters, you watch them fight and you think, ‘Wow, he’s looking old this time.’ I’m sure it doesn’t go like that. It’s going to slowly start to drop off, and even when I’m starting to drop off, I’m sure I can still go hang with the best guys in the world, and I’ll sort of use that as a marker. I wouldn’t want to just keep turning up and getting beat, and feeling I wasn’t myself because it’s not me. I’m way too competitive for that. So rather than a number, it’s going to be how I feel.”
With two performance bonuses in his past four fight, Jourdain (16-8-1 MMA, 7-7-1 UFC) is known not to back down from a fight himself. If Grant gets that version of the Canadian fighter, he says fans will be in for a treat.
“Hopefully, he’s going to want to come to scrap,” Grant said. “And this is no disrespect to any of the people I’ve fought – it’s a good thing that people are sort of respecting the power. But when people are shelling up, it’s a little bit harder to get the knockouts and things like that. So if you’ve got someone in there to scrap, that’s going to be a good fight, and that’s exactly what I think he brings. He’s a fantastic striker, and he’s had loads of fights in the UFC himself. He’s going to be nice and comfortable in there, and I’m looking forward just to having a real good tear-up, and I think that’s what he brings.”
