BY JAMES BRYDON
sportsnet.ca

INDIANAPOLIS -- Cole Harbour’s T.J. Grant is one of two Canadians competing on Saturday’s UFC 119 card in Indianapolis, along with Winnipeg’s Joe Doersken, but he’ll be the one feeling the most heat.

Grant, who faces New Jersey native Julio Paulino on the undercard, is looking to avoid a second straight UFC defeat after dropping a majority decision in May to Johny Hendricks at UFC 113 in Montreal.

Grant (15-4) said he made some mistakes in that fight—he was also penalized a point for multiple low blows—but that didn’t affect the outcome.

"If I used my head a little bit more in the fight and the footwork I could have gotten a different result," Grant said. "Every fight you learn from and the losses you obviously learn more from."

And it’s not like he hasn’t been in this position before, having lost four times in his career, including his second fight in the Octagon against Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 100 in July 2009.

But the 26-year-old has yet to lose two in a row in his career, something he shares in common with his opponent (17-3), who is also coming off a loss.

In addition, neither fighter has ever been knocked out. All three of Paulino’s career defeats have come by decision, while Grant has only been finished once -- he was submitted by fellow Canadian Jesse Bongfeldt in 2008 in a title bout in the Montreal-based TKO Championship Fighting promotion.

But one area in which Grant has a leg up is that he has already proven he can win on the big stage.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai practitioner defeated Ryo Chonan by split decision in his first UFC fight in April 2009 and also stopped Kevin Burns at UFC 107 last December, earning Knockout of the Night honours. Paulino, on the other hand, lost all three rounds to Mike Pierce in his UFC debut in March.

So it’s no surprise Grant is feeling very confident heading into their fight, where both will certainly be feeling some urgency knowing a second straight loss could leave their place in the UFC in peril.

"It’s a huge fight for me," Grant admitted. "Obviously I feel the pressure because of the situation, being in the big show. But I’ve always bounced back and even in every fight I’ve lost, I’ve never been totally disappointed with my performance."

The key for the Canadian could be the fact that Paulino, like Hendricks, is primarily a wrestler, and Grant had difficulty handling Kim’s ground game in his other UFC loss.

With that in mind he took extra care in this camp to make sure he was prepared for that element, which he considers critical.

"You’d be crazy if you didn’t work on wrestling with any opponent," Grant said. "It’s one of the most important, if not the most important aspect of the fight game. You’ve got to be able to take the fight to the ground or get it to the feet. It’s huge to be able to wrestle to control where the fight takes place."

Grant also dismissed the recent notion that guys are fighting safe by taking things to the ground and trying to ride out decisions.

"If you’re in there fighting, you should be constantly trying to finish and I see a lot of guys getting criticized, even though they are still trying to finish the fight," Grant said. "It just so happens they’re fighting in the UFC and everyone’s tough. Everybody has an answer for what you’ve got."

Grant hopes he has an answer for what Paulino’s got Saturday so that he can keep his record intact of never losing consecutive fights.