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The UFC will travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on October 4. The promotion has not announced a single fight for the card at this time, but one fighter in particular is hoping that he hears his name when the promotion does begin to announced fights for the upcoming event. That fighter is No. 3 ranked lightweight, and Halifax native, T.J. Grant.
Grant (21-5) has not fought since May 25, 2013. On that night, Grant looked like he had punched his ticket to a title fight when he earned Knockout of the Night honors with a first round TKO victory over Gray Maynard.
After that victory, Grant was booked to face then champion Benson Henderson at UFC 164. That fight never came to be. Grant was forced from the fight after suffering a concussion while training.
Grant's replacement in that fight, Anthony Pettis, would go on to unseat Henderson at UFC 164. Grant was then expected to face Pettis for the title in December, but Grant was unable to sign on to that fight because of lingering concussion symptoms.
Since then Grant has been mostly silent. That silence was broken last week when he appeared at the UFC press conference to discuss the promotion's plans for Canada for the coming year.
With the announcement of the Halifax date Grant took the stage and offered, "Halifax is truly home, and for me there's no crowd like it, and it's just going to be an honor to have them come here, and hopefully I'm a part of it. I'm glad that I'm still in the prime of my career, and I'm not a dinosaur, so the UFC has finally made it (to Halifax), and it's going to be awesome."
Grant's win over Maynard gave him a five fight winning streak, dating back to October 1, 2011. Grant fought twice in 2012, earning decisions over Carlo Prater and Evan Dunham. Grant opened 2013 with a first round knockout of Matt Wiman and followed that with the TKO of Maynard.
Grant spoke about last year, saying, "2013 was just an amazing year for me. I got married. We had a baby girl. It was an incredible year. I had some success in my fights. I got injured, but that's in the past now. I'm just looking at building off last year and recovering and moving on to the next step, and I want to get back in there and get at that title."
The Halifax event will take place at the Halifax Metro Centre, and if Grant is healthy, odds are high that he will be competing on that October 4 fight card.
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