After a couple of wins since his first career loss, Ryan (The Real Deal) Ford (8-1) gets his chance to prove that one blip on his record was a fluke, when he faces Pat (Bam Bam) Healy in a rematch in the main event of MFC 20: Destined for Greatness Friday in Enoch, Alta.

Ford was cruising along in his first chance at Maximum Fighting Championship's vacant welterweight title at MFC 17 last July when he got caught in an arm bar in the third round while trying to slam the veteran Healy. The pro-Ford crowd was disappointed to see the local fighter fall for the first time. But it was a good learning experience for the 27-year-old, one that's forced him to become a better fighter.

"I’ve been working with some great jiu-jitsu guys," Ford said. "I just don’t see anybody being able to submit me for a long time."

Since that loss, Ford came back to submit LaVerne Clark by guillotine choke at the following MFC event in September and beat Nabil Khatib the very next month at a Raw Combat event in Calgary.

While his aggressiveness likely led to the mistake that cost him the welterweight belt the first time, he insists that won't change him from the exciting fighter Edmonton fans have gotten used to.

"I’m going to come out (with energy) and push the pace and make him fight my fight just like I have in every one of my fights. Now I just have a little more experience."

And what will be different this time around?

"I’m going to be wearing the belt at the end of the fight."

HEALY HAPPY TO BE BUSY: After Healy became the MFC's first 170-pound champion, it surprised a few people. But certainly not him.

A veteran of over 30 fights, Healy (19-13) holds victories over fighters with more experience than Ford, including WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit. While it was clear a rematch with Ford was going to happen, you'd think he would have wanted to defend his new belt against some other competition first. But he's not complaining.

"I’m just happy to be fighting again," Healy said. "Last year I had a real hard time with contractual stuff. First with the IFL, so I only fought twice last year.

"Training (for this fight) went excellent. I just had a real good camp, we had a couple of guys like Chael Sonnen preparing for (UFC 95 on Saturday in England). So it was a good time to be in the gym working hard."

Like Ford, Healy also expects this fight to go differently than their first meeting.

"I wasn’t in very good shape for the first fight, on account of that fact I took it on 10-days notice, and I was still able to put him away in the third round. And I’ve trained really hard for this fight. I expect to control top position a lot more and do a lot more damage myself.

"I think I can put him away in the second round. Sure, he's learned a few things, but I expect the same result, just a little different on the way to get there."

A NOBLE CAUSE: Having fought in many mixed martial arts promotions, including the UFC and BodogFight, Derrick (The Eraser) Noble of Cuba, Ill., sees a great opportunity in traveling to Edmonton and facing Antonio (Mandingo) McKee for the MFC’s first ever lightweight championship.

“It’s a really big deal. That’s why I’m doing it,” Noble said ahead of co-main event bout Friday. “I wouldn’t be fighting for the title here if I didn’t think it was good for me, or for my career.

“Everyone wants to win a belt. The MFC is a recognizable organization, so a belt in their organization means a lot.”

Noble (23-11-1), who considers himself to have more of a standup base, trains with the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy and believes he'll have to work hard to earn that 155-pound title.

“I’m expecting a tough fight. He’s a really good wrestler and I think he’s going to try to take me down a lot and it’s going to be a matter of me stopping the take-down,” said the 30-year-old.

STORM TO HIT THE RIVER CREE: McKee has a similar assessment of how his fight, at the River Cree Resort and Casino near Edmonton, with Noble is going to go.

"He’s got knockout power and I haven’t been knocked out in the past eight years," McKee said. "It’s going to be a cat-and-mouse game, things are going to open up a little bit. I’m going to slam him around and he’s going to try to knock me out."

While McKee (21-3-2) is known as Mandingo, he has a message involving a different nickname for him.

"Did you hear about the storm? A storm came ripping up from the South and into Canada three times the size of El Nino. It’s "El Negro." That's what you can call me. And you write that. Those are my words, not your words. El Negro."

He'll be even happier if he has another "nickname" come Friday night: "New MFC lightweight champion!"