Davey Grant has revealed that he suffered a gruesome set of injuries that almost saw him lose a digit before winning at UFC Tampa.
The veteran British bantamweight had been out of the octagon for over a year when he began training for a fight with Ramon Taveras on the final UFC event of the year. He had been due out in March against Cody Gibson but was forced to withdraw.
And he rolled back the years on Saturday night at the Amalie Arena. The 38-year-old showed impressive cardio and ability to come through adversity against Taveras to hand him his first loss since joining from Contender Series last year.
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Davey Grant defeated Ramon Taveras at UFC Tampa on Saturday night
There will have been a feeling of urgency heading into Saturday’s prelim bout for Davey Grant. Just days out from his 39th birthday, a second loss in a row after a year of inactivity would have put his promotional record into the losing bracket at 6-7.
However, he overcame the challenge and looked impressive throughout his meeting with Taveras, who was competing for the second time since being signed from Contender Series. Almost a decade his opponent’s senior, Grant was able to outwork a really difficult challenger and scrape through each round.
Ultimately, he only lost one round on one judges’ scorecard as Derek Cleary gave the second to Taveras. And it now seems that he will move on to further opportunities in the stacked bantamweight division as he pushes towards his fortieth next year, once he has recovered from a litany of injuries.
Davey Grant almost had toe amputated before Ramon Taveras fight
What makes Grant’s victory all the more impressive is news that he had suffered a gruesome injury to one of his toes, and broken another one during camp. There were even fears that he might lose one altogether as he seeked out medical attention.
It comes after he underwent neck surgery that had his doctor pushing for him to end his career altogether. “Kicking was a huge part of the gameplan as always,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a series of gruesome photos.
“Trouble is I broke my second toe on my right foot 6 weeks out and then damn nearly severed my left little toe 3 weeks out needing 5 stitches underneath so deep that the risk of losing it or infection were a definite possibility. Both injuries sustained in cage sparring rounds.
This made training real tricky wearing lots of extra protection and taking lots of different precautions but with the support and treatment I had at @ufcpi was fantastic as well as the due care and consideration of the coaches and training partners at @syndicatemma we got there healthy and firing on all cylinders.”
Davey Grant insists most important job isn’t fighting
After undergoing that neck surgery, Grant has been able to put his fighting career into perspective. He has children and a wife, and brought them all out to Florida with him for the fight, with plans to visit Disneyland after the fact.
“It’s nice to be able to go and treat my family and stuff like that,” he told the media after the fight. “That’s why I’ve managed to bring them all over to Florida and go to Disneyland and things like that, because that’s why I do it, I do it for them.
“Fighting, it’s not my most important job. My most important job is being a good father, and being a good husband, and then fighting’s third. But the money I make off fighting sort of helps me do a lot of things with my family, and that’s why I do it.”
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