Davey Grant has spoken publicly for the first time since Elijah Smith knocked him out Saturday night at UFC Vegas 124. The veteran bantamweight posted a statement on Instagram saying he’s home safe and taking “no excuses” from a loss that ended in about a minute.
It was the first knockout loss of Grant’s career. Smith caught him with an early shot at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas and closed it from there, all inside 60 seconds of Round 1. MiddleEasy also reported Grant’s update about getting home safely.
The statement has an edge to it, because Grant says the camp went close to perfectly. According to MMA Junkie’s report, he described a near-flawless preparation and said he walked in physically and mentally confident. Then Smith landed first and the night was over. Grant didn’t blame the stoppage, the weight cut or anything else. He took the result and said he plans to get back to work.
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Where both men stand
Grant drops to 17-9 overall and 9-8 in the UFC. He’s 40 now, and he’s gone 3-3 across his last six fights going back to July 2022. That’s a man trading wins and losses at the top end of a stacked division instead of falling off a cliff, but a first career KO at 40 changes how matchmakers look at you.
Smith moves to 11-1 and stays unbeaten in the UFC at 4-0. MMA Junkie called him a top bantamweight prospect, and the UFC’s own account posted “HE’S FOR REAL” and called it a “THUNDEROUS RD1 knockout” within minutes of the finish. Fight Twitter agreed loudly. Championship Rounds wrote that Smith “JUST DESTROYED DAVEY GRANT IN THE FIRST ROUND,” and Spinnin Backfist summed it up as “Brutal man.”
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Neither camp has announced a next fight. Grant’s statement points to a return at some point, but he gave no timeline.
Quick take
I’ve watched Grant eat bombs for years and keep walking forward, so watching him go out like that felt strange, the way it does when a fighter you trust to survive anything just doesn’t. Credit to him for owning it. No excuses after a 60-second loss is a lot harder to post than a long list of what went wrong. The bigger story is Smith. Four UFC fights, four wins, and now he’s the guy who turned off a durable veteran faster than anyone ever has. Put a ranked name across from him next. He’s earned the step up, and I want to see what happens when somebody makes him wait past the first minute.
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