LAS VEGAS – Chad Anheliger beat Charalampos Grigoriou with a unanimous decision Saturday to open the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 239 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Anheliger, who got back in the win column after back-to-back losses.
Chad Anheliger def. Charalampos Grigoriou
Result: Chad Anheliger def. Charalampos Grigoriou via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Updated records: Anheliger (13-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC), Grigoriou (8-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC)
Key stats: Anheliger outstruck Grigoriou 144-26, which did more for the judges than Grigoriou’s four takedowns.
Anheliger on the fight's key moment
“I’m feeling pretty banged up. It was tough. I had to use a lot of my body to get the win. I hit him with everything I have. I took a lot of his shots, but I wanted it more. I trained hard and I’ve got the toughness to get that win. He’s skilled, I’m skilled – that’s a thing that everybody has in the UFC. But I wanted it, so I got it.”
Anheliger on Grigoriou's toughness
“I’d rather have easy fights for the rest of my career, if that’s possible. Scary dudes are tough and scary, so yeah, it’s tough. It’s not ideal, but it’s part of it. It gets you the nervous energy you need to push hard, to train hard. You’ve got to find a motivation in each fight. The motivation changes through your life, through your career, and each one needs new motivation. A lot of the times at this level, it’s just the fact that they’re bad men and you’ve got to be really ready for it. So it helped me push hard, train hard. I didn’t get tired in there because I knew how tough he was and I was training hard for it.”
Anheliger on what he wants next
“That’s the beauty of the UFC: There’s so many great fights, there’s so many great opponents, the matchups – every time I watch a card, I’m just picturing myself matching myself up with these guys. So it’s an open book in the UFC. Every name in there, there’s a reason to get excited about. That was the last fight on my contract, so I really hope I did enough to remind them why they signed me and why people want to see me fight. And don’t put me as the first fight anymore. I don’t like it. So hopefully I did enough to get a new contract, and with that, everything that comes with it – more exciting fights.”
To hear more from Anheliger, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 239.
