Mike Grundy targets spot in UFC featherweight rankings within the next year

Mike Grundy wants to reach the top 10 in the UFC's featherweight division – and will start that ascent with a fight against Lando Vannata tomorrow night.

Grundy, from Wigan, is 12-2 as a professional, and 1-1 since joining the top promotion in MMA. He competes on the ESPN prelims of Saturday's lightweight title fight between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira.

And Grundy told Mirror Fighting : "I never just want to be a person who's in the UFC just making up the numbers.

"Every single fight you have is the biggest fight you've had, this guy is a good fighter with good experience – he fought Tony Ferguson – but I'm going out to make a statement.

"I think I can be in the top 10 by next year, Lando Vanatta is a great name to have on my record, if I keep active this year I could fight a top 15 in my next fight and then on to the top 10 by next year.

"Anything can happen when you're in the top 10, big fights could have a pull-out, anything is possible so I just want to be in there as soon as I can."

Grundy, who trains with middleweight star Darren Till, was signed to the promotion in 2019 but has been victim to a number of fight cancellations, most recently losing out on bouts with Makwan Amirkhani and Nik Lentz.

But he plans to fight three times this year, starting with a dominant performance tomorrow night.

"It's going to be domination, you know me." Grundy added. "I'm going to dominate and I will take the finish as soon as it comes, it could be a choke or a knockout, we don't know.

"I'm just going to let me body do the work, I've done all the hard training, I've practiced everything and I'm ready for whatever he brings to the table."

The 34-year-old was a decorated wrestler prior to making the switch to MMA in 2014, winning a bronze medal for England at the Commonwealth games.

And he revealed one match-up he would like to make in the division is with famed striker Edson Barboza, who fights Shane Burgos on the same card.

"I'd like to fight Edson Barboza one day. He's got great striking and a good name and one that in the future I would like to fight."

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