Green had one of the most impressive performances of his long career on Saturday, when he knocked out Grant Dawson, a top-10 lightweight, in only 33 seconds in the main event of UFC Vegas 80. It was his second knockout win of 2023 and it might get him a place in the UFC’s rankings, but more importantly, the win might finally give Green the respect he thinks he deserves.
“I feel like a lot of people really underestimate me, a lot of people really trash [me],” Green said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I feel like I’m a guy on the side of the road that, if you just ignore this guy, you don’t know that maybe one day he won a million dollar ticket. I’m trying to inspire people like, hey, you should treat everybody with love and kindness.
“Every time I touch that floor, I’m getting closer to my goal. My goal, I told my coach this year, I’m going to make you $100,000. He gets 10 percent of my check. So if he makes $100,000, that means I made a milly. We’re real close. I’m going to make $1 million this year. That’s been my goal, and so I need to do this last one which accomplishes that. That’s why I’m saying I’m going to do December. If they open it up, I’m doing it.”
Green has been a professional since 2008 and he became famous in the Strikeforce organization before joining the UFC in 2013, where he has been a regular in the lightweight division, with a 12-9-1 record and one no-contest — a résumé that includes four Fight of the Night bonuses and four Performance bonuses. But even with his long résumé, Green may be having his best year in his UFC career at 37 years old.
He has had three fights in 2023 (two wins and one no-contest) and he has already earned two bonuses. “King” says he’s almost at his goal of making $1 million this year, and so he really wants to get a spot on one of the UFC’s December cards."
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