Notes and quotes from fighters from the Great White North. In this end of November edition: Jabouin, Lewis and Clements.
Featured this week are three Canadians from across the country who won on non-UFC events in a three-day span this month. None of whom has yet to fight in the UFC but maybe soon. Well, for one of them, it’s not a maybe, just a matter of when.
Jabouin earns "promotion"
Montreal’s Yves Jabouin got his ticket to the UFC by default, winning his last fight in the WEC and staying with the organization which has now been merged into the bigger parent company.
Not that he didn’t deserve the promotion.
Jabouin dominated Brandon Visher for three rounds en route to a unanimous decision at WEC 52 on Thursday, Nov. 11 in Las Vegas and the Canadian said the fight went exactly how he planned.
"We prepared just to be careful because he had a big right hand and a big overhand right,” Jabouin said. “We were going to keep him away with the jab and circle around and if he gets over-committed, take him down, and it went exactly how I thought. It couldn’t have gone better."
On second thought, maybe it could have.
"I know for a fact that I could have finished the fight,” Jabouin said upon further reflection. “I could have done a little bit more, but that’s the kind of fighter that I am. I always want to do more."
At any rate, he said the result definitely helped erase the sting of losing at home to Mark Hominick in his previous fight, when he was stopped by the fellow Canadian in June at WEC 49 in Edmonton, the organization’s first and only show north of the border.
The 31-year-old said the good thing about the loss was that it encouraged him to train harder. But he still wants another crack at The Machine.
"I would definitely love (a rematch with Hominick),” Jabouin said. “It’s not something that’s been talked about but I think everybody would love to see that."
While that possibility may be on the horizon, right now he’s just excited to be entering the UFC. At the same time, he’s aware there will be less room for error as a fighter with the merged rosters, not to mention some new challenges.
"I feel that (the move to the UFC is) a good move because it’s going to be a bigger show, and more exposure, but I’m a little bit concerned about how often we’re going to be able to fight,” Jabouin admitted. “It’s just like working in a bigger company; hopefully, you don’t become a number, you know?"
With his first opponent in the UFC yet to be named, Jabouin will just have to be patient, both with when, and against whom, he fights next.
Lewis wins fight, but loses title shot
Dwayne Lewis, originally from Newfoundland, has been making a big name for himself in Alberta. He lives and trains in Fort McMurray, Alta., but does his damage in the ring with the MFC in Edmonton, earning knockouts in six of his past eight fights.
Unfortunately that finishing blow didn’t come in his last fight, against former UFC fighter Razak Al-Hassan at MFC 27 on Friday, Nov. 12. Even though the fight did end with his hand raised, it was a controversial split decision and disappointed many, including himself.
"After watching (Al-Hassan’s) fights, and knowing his style, I kind of expected to finish him off pretty early," Lewis said. "But it was just one of those nights where things just didn’t go my way. I couldn’t get off or I couldn’t pull the trigger, my timing was off, my range was off. I was lucky to pull of the W."
The fight was supposed to set him up for a title shot, but according to another MFC writer, that’s no longer the case. Lewis, however, feels he still deserves the opportunity.
"I know it was a poor performance and stuff like that, but if you look at the stats, I’ve won nine of my last 10 fights and six of my last seven in the MFC, so I kind of think they would still give me a title shot," Lewis said. "But that’s not the most important thing to me right now, I just want to keep building my name up and keep getting better."
If the MFC has designs on moving the light-heavyweight into title contention, they had better not wait too long, because with a couple more wins, the talented striker could be headed for "greener pastures." Lewis said a mutual friend has been in talks with the UFC on his behalf and its VP of talent relations Joe Silva, and with a couple more wins the 35-year-old could find himself in the Octagon. In fact, the one blemish on Lewis’ record since July 2008 -- a unanimous decision loss to Emanuel Newton at MFC 25 in May -- is likely the only thing that has kept him from being in the UFC fold already.
"He said if it wasn’t for the (Newton) loss, (Silva) probably would have given me a break,” Lewis said. “But it’s the way it goes, I guess."
In the meantime, Lewis has plenty to work on -- "my ground game still needs a ton of work,” he admitted -- and he’s planning to change up his usual training camp by moving it out of the province, maybe even out of the country for the first time
“We’re pretty isolated here in Fort McMurray when it comes to training camps; we don’t have any high-profile guys here. My manager is pretty good at bringing guys up but that’s not always feasible.”
The three places he was considering were Montreal, Las Vegas, and the Miletich Fighting Systems gym in Bettendorf, Iowa, run by the well-renowned Pat Miletich, the UFC’s first welterweight champion.
Clements makes a splash in Montreal
Chatham, Ont.’s Chris Clements finds himself in a “tricky” contract situation. Tricky for other promoters, that is.
Under contract with the Ontario-based organization Warrior-One, Clements got an opportunity to fight UFC veteran Jonathan (The Road Warrior) Goulet for the Ringside MMA welterweight championship earlier this month in Montreal, and it was one he couldn’t pass up.
And, in the main event of Ringside 9: Payback on Saturday, Nov. 13, he promptly knocked out the Victoriaville, Que., native in what turned out to be the French fighting legend’s final professional fight.
Clements said going into the fight he had a pretty good idea of how it was going to play out, especially after watching Goulet’s last UFC appearance in May, in which he was knocked out by Marcus Davis, also in Montreal.
“He pretty much fought me the same way he fought (Davis) because (Davis and I are) pretty much both strikers around the same height,” Clements said. “I expected him to come out and just try to take me down. My whole plan was just to weather the storm ... (and not) be too aggressive in the first round because I knew as soon as he slowed down, I’d be able to catch him.”
That he did, putting Goulet to sleep with strikes early in the second round. Clements, who used to fight regularly in the local TKO Championship Fighting promotion, said the crowd was stunned, but he didn’t get the negative reaction he might have expected in dispatching the hometown favourite.
“I don’t remember much of the crowd booing. I think they were more silent,” Clements said. “I’ve put on a lot of fights in Montreal, and always give the Montreal fans a good show, so I think they just chose instead of cheering for me, not to do anything.”
Clements, who is an instructor at Adrenline Training Center in London, Ont., along with other Team Tompkins fighters in the UFC in Hominick, Sam Stout and Chris Horodecki, said he certainly feels a bad about sending Goulet into retirement, so to speak, especially because of the respect he has for the trailblazer of the sport who put on shows in Quebec since 2001.
"I’ve been a fan of Jonathan’s for many years now, since I started getting into MMA," Clements said. "Jonathan was at the very first event I ever went to.”
One positive for the 31-year-old, he said, was that Goulet’s announcement shortly afterward that he was calling it a career draws some of the UFC’s attention to the man who beat him. And Clements, who already holds the world record for fastest knockout in a pro MMA fight at three seconds, can use all the attention he can get.
Clements remains under contract with W-1 and has an obligation for two more fights, but there is an agreement that if a bigger organization wishes to sign him, he would be allowed to leave.
“So if the UFC come a-callin’, I’ll be answering pretty quick,” Clements said.
The other interesting situation is that he is now the title-holder with Ringside but without a deal, so the question is where will he fight next. W-1 president Jack Bateman gave him permission for the fight because it was for a title and they didn’t want to stand in his way. But W-1 now has what could be considered its competitor’s champion locked down.
“From a career perspective, I’m the champion for Ringside so I can make more money fighting for them than I could with W-1,” said Clements.
Of course, things would be much simpler if he were to get that call from the UFC.
