Photo via Grayson Wells' Facebook page
Grayson Wells on heavyweight title bid vs Christian Larsen at Unified MMA 41
Grayson Wells challenges Christian Larsen for the heavyweight championship at Unified MMA 41 on September 24th. This goes down at River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton, Alberta, and broadcasts on UFC Fight Pass.
I spoke with Wells ahead of this championship campaign. Excerpts from our chat is below.
Grayson Wells
This Larsen fight falling out on a few occasions including in March 2020 from the pandemic
“Oh yeah 100% I mean, Christian and I were slated to fight. A few times other than last year. So it’s been kind of a long time coming, but it worked out. It worked out for me. I guess I could say you know it did get canceled the weekend before. But that gave me some time to put on a little bit of size. Because I know that that was one of my downfalls that he had against me. Would be the size difference right. I mean the guy’s huge, he’s a monster. One of the biggest guys I’ve ever seen in real life.”
Grayson Wells continued, “I was a relatively small heavyweight, you know. Just under 230, 235 I fought a couple times. So I spent that whole year and a half I guess, in the gym. I knew that we were going to fight again one day. And so, I tried my hardest just to close the gap there. Wasn’t any fight training going on. So I had my own personal gym. So I just focused on putting on weight. And I got up to 260. So I closed the gap quite a bit. But now down about 10 pounds. So I definitely feel the disadvantage that I was at previously. I’ve kind of made up for it.”
Unified MMA 41
These fighters having a 100% finishing rate all via strikes across a combined 15 bouts
“They slate the title fights for five rounds but I mean, the odds of that happening are pretty low. I do feel however that the longer the fight goes on, the more advantageous it is for myself. I mean the guy around 300 pounds can’t have the best cardio. That hasn’t been tested. None of the fights that I’ve seen on his record…An exciting fight you know. That’s kind of how I like to fight too. And I think it’ll be a good show for the fans. And like you said, not one to sleep on for sure.”
The former Havoc FC champion on the redemptive element from a possible Unified MMA title win
“To come back from losing a title and like you said I had some personal things going on. I lost some other things in my life. Lost people, lost relationships, lost houses. Just kind of like a losing streak, all around. To come back and climb back out of the gutter and get back to the top. It really means a lot to me to do that. And it’s something I’ve been focusing on for a long time. I believe that regaining a championship will carry over to the rest of my life. So it’s extremely important to me.”
Unified MMA
Parting thoughts for Grayson Wells
“Yeah, of course, that was awesome. I appreciate the time talking to me. I appreciate having the chance to fight for the title and appreciate Christian giving me a chance to. One thing that I will say about Christian is that out of our back and forth over the years. He’s always been a respectful guy. Which you don’t really see a lot of in MMA anymore.”
“It’s kind of like the old kind of tough guys. The OG’s of the sport where you’re not out there trash talking and shit. I respect anybody I’ve ever fought. I don’t need to trash talk to fucking put eyes on me because my fight does it for itself. So I’m really looking forward to it and I hope I put on a good show for everyone.”
