Charalampos Grigoriou bio, highlights ahead of UFC debut

The UFC keeps the momentum going after UFC 299 in Miami with a fight night back in Las Vegas, Nevada. UFC Vegas 88 will be headlined by Tai Tuivasa and Marcin Tybura but the arrival of Charalampos Grigoriou could be the talk of the event.

Born in March 1992, the 31-year-old Grigoriou was born in Paphos, Cyprus. Fighting out of New York, Grigoriou trains at the Longo and Weidman MMA gym under the tutelage of head coach Ray Longo and head instructor Pete Sell.

Nicknamed 'The Ferocious', Grigoriou has dominated the bantamweight divisions of a few promotions since his professional debut in 2014. Having a career spanning over a decade, Grigoriou has built up a name for himself over the years, and finally steps into the UFC Octagon at UFC Vegas 88.

With an 8-fight, 3-loss record, Grigoriou has proven himself to be a fighter well-versed in striking. Six of his eight wins have come by way of knockout, with the remaining two seeing the judges award him the victory.

Who is Charalampos Grigoriou?

Grigoriou takes pride in being the only Cypriot within the promotion at present. He follows the lead of former Greek-Cypriot middleweight contender Costas Philippou.

Grigoriou was awarded a UFC contract following his first-round knockout of Cameron Smotherman on season seven of Dana White's Contender Series. With that, he has been awaiting the moment he can make his first official walk to the fabled Octagon, making his promotional debut.

At UFC Vegas 88, Grigoriou faces Chad Anheliger, who looks to put himself back into the winning column. Anheliger has proven to be a versatile athlete, and the two will now be on a collision course to get into the highly contentious bantamweight division.

Grigoriou is currently on a four-fight winning streak, and he will be hoping to keep it going on the prelim card curtain-raiser of the UFC Vegas 88.

Charalampos Grigoriou highlights

This is Grigoriou's latest match, and it happened inside the UFC Octagon. Dana White's Contender Series began on August 8, with all five winners of that week receiving contract.

The second week started off with Grigoriou securing a TKO victory just a minute into the bout. This was a thunderous way to kick off the show, and it certainly got him a UFC contract.

Before his DWCS opportunity, Grigoriou found himself in the main event of Combat FC 3, with the vacant bantamweight title on the line. The two had a back-and-forth four rounds before the crucial decider round.

Four minutes into the fifth and final round, Grigoriou delivered a leg kick that sent his opponent crashing to the canvas. This made Grigoriou the inaugural CFC bantamweight champion, and he soon leveraged that into an opportunity to get into the UFC.