Grimshaw, Young Confident Entering Contenders
Ambitious Pancrase London featherweight Ashleigh Grimshaw
(Pictures) has been training with UFC
veteran Jess Liaudin
(Pictures) for five years and has
become known as one of the finest 145-pound grapplers in the United
Kingdom.
Although he has been dogged by numerous pullouts that kept him out of competition, Grimshaw has a chance to break into the big time Saturday in East London at Cage Rage Contenders.
He's known primarily as a grappler, but he shocked fans in his last outing by knocking down tough striker Phil Harris (Pictures) with a perfect right hand before swiftly finishing him on the canvas in less than a minute.
For all the vicious intent Grimshaw showed on that occasion, the high-spirited Pancrase fighter gave a refreshingly cheerful reply when asked to describe himself as a fighter.
"At the end of the day, fighting is not my job. I fight because I love it," he said. "I don't get paid well for doing it. I do it because I enjoy the training. I enjoy the fight. That's me in a nutshell: I just do it for fun."
While Grimshaw holds the exhilaration of the sport as his primary motivating factor, he still has the determination to raise his game and eventually make his way into the big leagues.
"My ambition is to be the best," he told Sherdog.com. "Don't get me wrong, it's not my living, but I'd love it to be. I train six days a week, once a day and I'm here for three hours. If it was my job, I'd be in the gym twice a day, six days a week. I'd be a completely different animal. That's what I'm looking for."
On Saturday he faces experienced jiu-jitsu fighter Christian Binda -- a tough grappler known for routinely surging forward with punches. Grimshaw seems confident of having the edge on his foe, however, having recently watched Binda from cage side as he took on Pancrase London teammate Dean Jones (Pictures).
"Dean kimura'd him in the third round. So I know he's not as submission savvy as he may think he is, and I've got quite a bit of height on him, so I might just bang him out!" Grimshaw said with a laugh.
Despite oozing confidence, Grimshaw still seems acutely aware that his opponent will be swinging for the fences come fight time.
"The guy is tough, so I'm taking him very seriously," he said. "Just because Dean beat him, doesn't mean I'm going to. The guy's a serious opponent. He throws leather, so I'm not going to take any chances with him."
The shallow domestic featherweight division has led to some genuine difficulty for the Londoner in securing opponents. Grimshaw has been repeatedly frustrated while numerous recent chances to prove his worth have slipped through his fingers. Yet the 26-year-old remains certain that he has the necessary skills to compete at a high level.
"Oh I know I'm underrated," Grimshaw said. "Not to sound egotistical, come and train with me and find out if you want; that's the way Brad did it. He says he could have fought me before that and he would have taken me for a scrub and thought I was a nobody. It wasn't until he trained with me that he realized Ash has got skills."
What can the London crowd expect from the "Ash Cream Man" come fight time?
"Honestly? Fake a shot, overhand right, take him down, sub him out -- that's exactly what I'm going to do," Grimshaw predicted. "I was going to do a flying knee, but my knee is really sore, so I'm not going to do it anymore. I stopped training it."
Another fighter preparing for the Contenders show at the Pancrase London gym is Team Titan representative Jason Young (Pictures), an up-and-coming fighter who has moved from gym to gym in search of increasingly capable sparring partners.
"At one point I was just on a level where I thought I wasn't really going anywhere," Young said. "I'd been to Elite. That got me into it, and I thought, ‘Right. I've got to go somewhere else because I'm not learning nothing more here.'"
After making the move to Team Titan and seeing vast improvements to his game, Young still was not satisfied to leave it at that.
"So I come down here," he explained. "I keep getting tapped out, beaten up and everything. I'm the sort of person who, if I get beaten up, I [keep] going back until they stop beating me up and that's what I'm doing. Ash used to tap me out every second, and I don't think he finds it so easy anymore."
After an extraordinarily dominating performance against Michael King (Michael King' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures) at Cage Rage Contenders 7, Young returns Saturday to take on rugged but limited late-replacement Jody Cottham (Pictures).
"I've got to thank him for stepping in, but it should be a win. Unless I get knocked out, unless I get caught silly," Young assessed. "But other than that, I've got no f---ing worries at all. Training with Ashleigh, Jess [Liaudin] and Andrew [Burnett], I should walk all over him. I'll try and knock him out with a flying knee."
Although he has been dogged by numerous pullouts that kept him out of competition, Grimshaw has a chance to break into the big time Saturday in East London at Cage Rage Contenders.
He's known primarily as a grappler, but he shocked fans in his last outing by knocking down tough striker Phil Harris (Pictures) with a perfect right hand before swiftly finishing him on the canvas in less than a minute.
For all the vicious intent Grimshaw showed on that occasion, the high-spirited Pancrase fighter gave a refreshingly cheerful reply when asked to describe himself as a fighter.
"At the end of the day, fighting is not my job. I fight because I love it," he said. "I don't get paid well for doing it. I do it because I enjoy the training. I enjoy the fight. That's me in a nutshell: I just do it for fun."
While Grimshaw holds the exhilaration of the sport as his primary motivating factor, he still has the determination to raise his game and eventually make his way into the big leagues.
"My ambition is to be the best," he told Sherdog.com. "Don't get me wrong, it's not my living, but I'd love it to be. I train six days a week, once a day and I'm here for three hours. If it was my job, I'd be in the gym twice a day, six days a week. I'd be a completely different animal. That's what I'm looking for."
On Saturday he faces experienced jiu-jitsu fighter Christian Binda -- a tough grappler known for routinely surging forward with punches. Grimshaw seems confident of having the edge on his foe, however, having recently watched Binda from cage side as he took on Pancrase London teammate Dean Jones (Pictures).
"Dean kimura'd him in the third round. So I know he's not as submission savvy as he may think he is, and I've got quite a bit of height on him, so I might just bang him out!" Grimshaw said with a laugh.
Despite oozing confidence, Grimshaw still seems acutely aware that his opponent will be swinging for the fences come fight time.
"The guy is tough, so I'm taking him very seriously," he said. "Just because Dean beat him, doesn't mean I'm going to. The guy's a serious opponent. He throws leather, so I'm not going to take any chances with him."
The shallow domestic featherweight division has led to some genuine difficulty for the Londoner in securing opponents. Grimshaw has been repeatedly frustrated while numerous recent chances to prove his worth have slipped through his fingers. Yet the 26-year-old remains certain that he has the necessary skills to compete at a high level.
"Oh I know I'm underrated," Grimshaw said. "Not to sound egotistical, come and train with me and find out if you want; that's the way Brad did it. He says he could have fought me before that and he would have taken me for a scrub and thought I was a nobody. It wasn't until he trained with me that he realized Ash has got skills."
What can the London crowd expect from the "Ash Cream Man" come fight time?
"Honestly? Fake a shot, overhand right, take him down, sub him out -- that's exactly what I'm going to do," Grimshaw predicted. "I was going to do a flying knee, but my knee is really sore, so I'm not going to do it anymore. I stopped training it."
Another fighter preparing for the Contenders show at the Pancrase London gym is Team Titan representative Jason Young (Pictures), an up-and-coming fighter who has moved from gym to gym in search of increasingly capable sparring partners.
"At one point I was just on a level where I thought I wasn't really going anywhere," Young said. "I'd been to Elite. That got me into it, and I thought, ‘Right. I've got to go somewhere else because I'm not learning nothing more here.'"
After making the move to Team Titan and seeing vast improvements to his game, Young still was not satisfied to leave it at that.
"So I come down here," he explained. "I keep getting tapped out, beaten up and everything. I'm the sort of person who, if I get beaten up, I [keep] going back until they stop beating me up and that's what I'm doing. Ash used to tap me out every second, and I don't think he finds it so easy anymore."
After an extraordinarily dominating performance against Michael King (Michael King' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures) at Cage Rage Contenders 7, Young returns Saturday to take on rugged but limited late-replacement Jody Cottham (Pictures).
"I've got to thank him for stepping in, but it should be a win. Unless I get knocked out, unless I get caught silly," Young assessed. "But other than that, I've got no f---ing worries at all. Training with Ashleigh, Jess [Liaudin] and Andrew [Burnett], I should walk all over him. I'll try and knock him out with a flying knee."
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