WEC 35 Preview: Josh Grispi

The buzz behind this kid is tremendous and his WEC debut against Mark Hominick was impressive. I've still got some suspicions about him, but it's worth sharing with you folks how highly touted this kid has become. To wit:

Since Grispi’s mind-set changed, he has moved up the MMA ranks. The Boston native made his debut in the WEC -- an MMA organization owned by Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC -- in February, submitting former UFC lightweight Mark Hominick in the first round.

Grispi will look to continue his win streak when he faces Micah Miller (9-1) Sunday in his second WEC fight. The event will be televised nationally on the Versus network.

"It’s huge. Any fight in the WEC is big," Grispi said. "They’re all top level competitors and I’m just happy to be in there fighting them and testing myself."

The fact that the 19-year-old is already fighting in an organization of the WEC’s caliber has led some to describe Grispi as a phenom, but he doesn’t put much stock into that talk. The main problem with the phenom label is that it tends to discount the six years Grispi has worked to hone his talent.

"He’s fanatical about getting better," Joe Lauzon, an established UFC fighter and occasional training partner, said of Grispi. "He was the kid that always said he wanted to get his standup better or his grappling better. I’d tell him if he wanted to get his standup better to go work the heavy bag for 45 minutes every night. And he did that. Most people brush it off but he actually went and hit that bag every night and killed it. The kid has a ridiculous work ethic."

Micah Miller is very durable, hard to put away and will provide an excellent test on the floor for Grispi. If Grispi can stop the talented Miller, then we may very well have the real deal on our hands.

And, by the way, yet another example of the WEC's amazing product.