Patrick's chance to shine

If you were to look at the welterweight division of the UFC, Claude Patrick's name wouldn't be the first name to come to mind.

He wouldn't even be the first Canadian.

But that may be about to change.

With fellow Canadians Georges St-Pierre and Rory MacDonald sidelined indefinitely with injuries, the Toronto native has a chance to move up in the division, pending an ability to do what he's been doing for the last nine years -- winning.

Patrick, nicknamed The Prince, fights Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre against Brian (Bad Boy) Ebersole, who has a record of 48-14-1, including 2-0 in the UFC. Both fighters are 31, so whoever wins improves his stock and potentially earns a title fight down the road. The loser might not reach this status again.

Patrick has a 13-fight win streak and has displayed a penchant for putting away his opponents early. Most times he hasn't been noticed doing it, racking up wins on the preliminary card before the crowds have settled into their seats.

Last April in Toronto at the Rogers Centre, he fought in the inaugural UFC card in his hometown, and while the building of 50,000-plus had almost filled out by the time he exited the cage, the emotion hadn't been anything close to what it was for fellow Canadian, Mark Hominick. He had a greater publicity buildup fighting in a featherweight title fight against champion Jose Aldo. The fight happened in the second-last match of the evening, and actually upstaged the final event, which featured St-Pierre winning in a workmanlike, albeit boring, defence of his title against Jake Shields. Now Hominick fights before Patrick on Saturday, looking to rebound and get an opportunity somewhere down the line for another title shot.

Maybe Patrick will face St-Pierre or MacDonald somewhere down the line. So much can happen, not the least of which injuries.

"They're both friends of mine, both quality guys, so I don't wish any bad on them -- not trying to tear down their house to build up mine in any way, shape or form," Patrick told sportsnet.ca. "Hopefully they both come back healthy and do their thing."

While Patrick is aware of his streak, he doesn't focus on it too much because every fight has its own entity and circumstance, none more so than his latest which came as a substitute for MacDonald, proving one man's pain is another man's gain. He's honest enough to admit he is not quite among the top guys in his weight class. By his own admission, he might not even be in the Top 10.

"I'm like the black bird," he said of flying under the radar. "What's that the Stealth plane that the U.S. has? That's me. I fly right below the radar. I just keep doing it, keep pecking away, and eventually they take notice. They say, ‘that guy's all right. Give him a fight.'

"The matchmakers are going to do what they do. I don't think it's a set ranking per se. Brock Lesnar came and got a title fight in his first fight in the UFC. Cung Le fought Wanderlei Silva in his first fight in the UFC. It doesn't go by No. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Everything is step by step.

"I've been working away so you want to see the results of your work, kind of the fruits of your labour, turn into something. Getting paid is great, a lot (of) exposure, but moving up the ladder is always nice. I know I'm a quality fighter, I've put in a lot of work, been doing it for some time, too, so I figured with no speed bumps or nothing coming up on the road I should be doing quite well. I'm starting to see the results now."

Patrick owns the martial arts academy in Mississauga called Elite Training Centre, but has spent the last six weeks training in Florida because of guaranteed access to fighters who have fought in the UFC and Strikeforce.

"It wasn't cheap, but I had great management and they supplied a lot of the things I needed," he said. "Last time (I fought in Toronto) my management was one guy and I didn't have a set training camp per se. I hopped around to Vegas and went to California for the last two weeks before the fight. This time it's a lot different. The results are showing. I'm in the best shape I've been in and I'm healthy, which is a pretty big change for me.

"It's an ideal culmination of circumstances. I couldn't have planned it with that management company, Authentic Sports Management (with Glenn Robinson in Florida), because it didn't exist a year ago, or even the gym I'm at wasn't there a year ago. Everything happened at the right time and I was able to take advantage of it."

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.