Dreams, Goals and Dedication: A Fighter on His Way to the UFC
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by Oh No Romo
From the Iowa MMA Report
A fighter strives to be the best he can every time he steps into a cage and is willing to put forth the work everyday in practice in order to achieve that mark. Chuck Grigsby is certainly no exception.
Grigsby, a fighter from Des Moines, is one of the best MMA fighters that Iowa has to offer. He has a professional record of 14 wins and three losses, 11 by knockout. He holds titles in two different promotions. The 35-year-old lives by one saying, 'Dreams, Goals and Dedication'. His dedication keeps his dreams and goals alive.
Recently, Grigsby defeated two fighters in the same night to win the Victory Fighting Championship (VFC) Light Heavyweight belt. He defeated both Scott Hough and Heath Johnson by knockouts to win the title. VFC is an Omaha-based production.
Grigsby also holds the Midwest Cage Championship (MCC) Light Heavyweight title, which he won in July at MCC IX: Heatwave against Josh Christenson.
It now appears that all of Grigsby’s hard work is starting to pay off. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has received DVDs that feature Grigsby’s fights and are now considering bringing him into the UFC. For Grigsby, a chance to fight in the UFC is an opportunity for him to support his family.
“To be real honest, I want to support my family, I’m not going to be happy to just be there, I want to be there to compete and to contend,” Grigsby said. “I’m not here to just be happy in general, I want to be there to compete for a while.”
The UFC without a doubt is the major leagues for all of MMA. If you can make it there, you can certainly make it anywhere. The idea of walking into a giant cage with 20,000 fans screaming at the top of their lungs would certainly intimidate anybody.
The former Grand View College (Des Moines) basketball player is more than ready to make it to the big leagues.
“I want to put on a good performance, win or lose and take care of business,” Grigsby said.
Grigsby is confident that he will be in the UFC within the next year. In fact, he’s willing to fight anywhere.
“As long as I keep winning, that solves all the questions for me,” Grigsby said. “UFC, IFL, Bodog, WEC, whoever realizes that they want me in the show, I’ll be happy with the opportunity.”
No matter where Grigsby goes, he’ll definitely be grateful to whoever gives him the opportunity to flourish.
“I’m a loyal guy and with the nature of how my professional careers went, I think that maybe I have been overlooked in some cases and some other people got an opportunity that I feel like I deserved,” Grigsby said. “So whoever gives me that opportunity, I’m going to be really thankful and be loyal to that situation.”
Grigsby has certainly done everything he can to reach this point. He is quick to point out all the hard work it takes to be a fighter in this rising sport.
“I feel like I earned it, I busted my ass every single day and when you have a fight that goes 90 seconds, people think it’s easy for you and that you can knock people out but they don’t realize all the sacrifices,” Grigsby said. “It’s 5:30 in the morning and I get home at 9:30 at night and my wife deals with the adversity and people don’t see that a lot of the time.”
He goes by the nickname of ‘The Reverend.’ Not to intimidate other fighters, but more so to inspire those who watch him. He’s had that nickname ever since high school and continues to hold it to this day.
Grigsby trains with his own team, Team Revolution, in Des Moines. His teammates include TJ O’Brien, Razak Al-Hassan and newcomer TJ Weston.
His toughest opponent has been his business. He runs his own sports performance business. He helps high school students train and helps out fighters with their strength and conditioning.
“I have my own business, which is really hard to run,” Grigsby said.
Grigsby has worked his hardest in the cage and out of it. Nothing would be more important to him than to be fighting in the big leagues, whether that’s the UFC, the IFL, BodogFight or the WEC.
He’s taking a break for now and according to him, could be fighting for the Light Heavyweight title in Mainstream MMA. The fight could happen sometime in February. That would leave his mark at three titles for three different promotions, truly unprecedented in this sport.
Look out world, the 'Reverend’ is coming your way.
Check out the Grigsby video on the Nos Blog.
