Lewis McGrillen on winning one of MMA's wildest ever fights: 'I thrive in that chaos'
Lewis McGrillen is making his name after winning PFL Europe's bantamweight title and coming through one of the wildest fights MMA has seen, an astonishing clash featuring 14 knockdowns, with McGrillen escaping a chokehold before ultimately knocking Dean Garnett out with a one-punch finish
Saturday 10 May 2025 15:45, UK
"I could see the canvas slowly getting dark. Because I was slowly losing consciousness."
Lewis McGrillen came through one the greatest fights MMA's ever seen when he beat Dean Garnett last year.
In an astonishing clash the two traded 14 knockdowns in all, with McGrillen escaping a chokehold before ultimately knocking Garnett out with a one-punch finish.
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"If you watch my fighting style I'm very chaotic, in a way, and I just feel like I'm a very chaotic person. So when it comes to that sort of chaos, I thrive underneath that," McGrillen told Sky Sports.
He returns to action on Saturday against Alan Philpott. "The world's going to get to see me more," he said. "This is the perfect fight to showcase what I'm capable of."
McGrillen made his name by winning the PFL Europe bantamweight title last year after coming through that extraordinary battle with Garnett.
"I knew it would be task [against Garnett] but I didn't know it would be that much of a task, how it escalated into a war. He has a seasoned veteran style, it kept him durable in the fight," McGrillen said.
"I'm fighting a crafty veteran, I felt I excelled in that moment. Because when it comes to that moment, when the time gets tough, your true character comes out and I feel like my true character came out in that fight. Where I'm bleeding I'm not bothered, I'll keep coming forward. I thrive underneath that."
He'd had to fight his way back from the brink of defeat.
"I dropped him a handful of times. As it was looking all good for me, he clips me. I go down, I come back up, he grabs hold of me, gets hold of my neck, wraps himself round me and nearly chokes me out unconscious," McGrillen recalled.
"I just remember being in that moment when I was kicking trying to get out, I was like this is your moment here. Either you go to sleep or you fight through it.
"I was kicking for dear life," he continued. "I wasn't giving in, as soon as I came up and I got that gasp of air, I knew I'm in for a war here. In a way I accepted what will be will be."
The knockout blow, for him, was the perfect conclusion.
"That was one of my signature moves. Not just the one punch KO but I let people chase and when they chase me I will catch them," he said.
"It's so chaotic. It's like a life and death situation in a way. It's a full-on primitive thing… that's the mode you get to. You go into a completely different body experience."
