The Rookies: UFC Fight Night 239

undercard this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Grigoriou enters the cage having rattled off four consecutive victories, all of them finishes. Oddsmakers have already installed the former Combat FC champion as a 2-to-1 favorite.with punches in the first round of their Week 2 pairing on Aug. 15. The end came a mere 60 seconds into Round 1. Smotherman operated behind his jab and a few multi-punch bursts but never had a true opportunity to get in gear.

“I’m very focused, and I believe in myself,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “I know I have skills, and I know I’m going to be a problem in the UFC and the bantamweight division.” The 31-year-old Grigoriou points to his training at the revered Serra-Longo camp as the primary catalyst in his rise to prominence. There, he trains under former UFC welterweight champion“We have the best gym in the world, the best coaches in the world and the best teammates in the world,” he said. “Because of them, I’m here now. I’m training with them. I’m learning with them. We are family.

Grigoriou hails from Cyprus, a small island nation in the Mediterranean Sea perhaps best known in MMA circles as the birthplace of onetime UFC middleweight champion “Anything is possible,” Grigoriou said. “Seven years ago, I was fighting in basements in Cyprus. Now I’m here in the UFC. When I think about the old times, this is what motivates me. I don’t want to go back. I had my ups and downs. I struggled a lot to be here.”with punches a little more than two minutes into their LFA 173 confrontation. He suffered his only pro defeat on DWCS, as he was victimized byat the UFC Gym in Costa Mesa, California.

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