Jason MacDonald

Jason 'The Athlete' MacDonald is a Canadian mixed martial artist. He lives in Red Deer, Alta., with his wife Kelly and four children, boys Tristin and Keel, and girls Jett and True. He blogs regularly for Sportsnet.ca.

Jason MacDonald.

I’m back home from Las Vegas and as much as the weather wasn’t great down there, it was supposed to be minus-28 Wednesday night in Red Deer, so it was truly tropical in Sin City by comparison.

I did some pad work with my boxing coach on Monday, and then on Tuesday a little MMA training and that was pretty much the last bit of preparation for my MFC Friday against Solomon Hutcherson.

I did two seven-minutes rounds (with just a 30-second break) of pure MMA with George Belanger, one of my fighters. I made the rounds a little longer and cut the break in half, just to push myself. He was weighing about 197 yesterday and he’s a pretty strong guy. I don’t expect Solomon to be much bigger than that on Friday night.

If he took this fight thinking he’s going to use me as a stepping stone, that’s going to turn out to be a bad idea. I really want to go out and make a statement. I just want to show that even though I’ve lost a couple fights, I’m still at the top of my game, and still a contender in the middleweight division, at least in the top half.

I still find it hard to believe that just because you lost a couple of fights, people write you off. At the press conference Wednesday I was sitting between two other fighters the UFC cut recently, Dean Lister and Thales Leites, who prove that. I mean, two fights ago Leites faced Anderson Silva. Clearly they’re still top-notch fighters.

My weight is pretty good. I woke up Wednesday morning at about 193 pounds, I came into the gym later in the day at 198 pounds and afterward spent half an hour in the sauna where I expected to cut about four pounds. I’ll probably cut four more as I sleep and then have another four to cut during the day. The weigh-ins aren’t until 6 p.m. so I should be able to have a pretty relaxing day.

Sometimes it’s good to be in your own element when you’re feeling like crap cutting weight. I’m at home here I know I have a sauna at my gym, whereas if I’m in another city I’m staying at a hotel and maybe fighting for the sauna with other guys.

I don’t know much about Hutcherson and how he fights. But I have seen the calibre of guys he’s faced and I think I’ve faced the much tougher competition. He comes from Duke Roufus’s camp and they’ve got Eric Schaefer there to help with the jiu-jitsu, so he’s got good people to train with. But in MMA, you always have to have a way to win a fight.

For example, against Anderson Silva, Thales Leites couldn’t stand with him but he had the ability to submit him. Similarly, when I fought Rich Franklin, one of the way I had to win was to submit him. But I look at this fight against Solomon, and I don’t see any way he can win against me. I don’t see him knocking me out, I don’t see him submitting me or outwrestling me.

I’m looking to go in there and return to form. I hope to put him away fast and I don’t think he has the tools in any area to match up against mine. Short of him landing that one big wild punch that every fighter has in their back pocket I don’t see any way that can beat me.