At 32 years of age and 30 fights deep into his MMA career, it’s now make or break time for Francis Carmont.
The French-born, Montreal-based fighter takes on Brazilian star Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 36 card. With Carmont currently riding an 11-fight win streak, a 12th-straight win over a stud fighter such as Souza would push “Limitless” into the elite of the UFC middleweight division, and potentially within inches of a 185-pound title shot.
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If you take a look back at Carmont’s entire MMA career, it’s pretty surprising that he’s made it so far. After all, he started his career 3-3 – including a cut stoppage loss to TUF 3’s Ross Pointon — and before his latest winning streak started, his record was 11-7 with a bunch of losses to guys that don’t even have Wikipedia profiles.
The biggest difference for Carmont has undoubtedly been moving from Europe to TriStar Gym in Montreal. Under the tutelage of head coach Firas Zahabi and under the mentorship of former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Carmont has reeled off seven-straight victories over Jason Day, Chris Camozzi, Magnus Cedenblad, Karlos Vemola, Tom Lawlor, Lorenz Larkin, and, in his last outing at UFC 165, the biggest win of his career thus far over Costas Philippou.
At 6’3” tall and blessed with a long reach and other athletic gifts, Carmont could be a star in the sport. The problem is, since coming to the UFC he hasn’t really been finishing guys, instead relying on his size to smother opponents up against the fence and then dump them to the ground.
This hasn’t made him a fan favorite by any means, and Carmont’s been given the benefit of the doubt a few times by the judges, namely in the fights with Lawlor and Larkin. Yes, he’s fighting the top guys in the world in his weight class, but if Carmont wants to ever become someone the fans can get behind, then he needs to start finishing fights and quit eeking out close decisions. Because, right now, I’d say Camont has a bit of “Ben Henderson syndrome,” in that, even though he’s getting his hand raised, much of the time he is just squeaking by in those wins, and it’s something the fans don’t appreciate.
Now 32 years of age, Carmont can’t afford to mess around any longer. At this point, it’s doubtful Carmont is going to improve much more, and so what we see is what we’re going to get. Unless he’s been holding back in the cage, then maybe he really doesn’t have what it takes to finish the top-level UFC middleweights, and it might be something that ultimately holds him back from getting his shot at the title.
At the same time, though, if Carmont keeps winning the UFC won’t be able to deny him his crack at the title. Already ranked in the top 10, a win over Souza – even if it’s by decision — would boost the Frenchman into the top five of the world at 185 pounds, and he’d only be behind a few other fighters in the division as far as the title shot queue goes.
Carmont is a 4-to-1 underdog this weekend against Souza, and while the odds are indeed stacked against him and while I’d be surprised if he did earn the upset, he does have several key advantages in this fight, and in MMA we all know that anything is possible. So don’t sleep on “Limitless” this weekend, even if his fighting style might make you want to go to bed, because this Saturday night in Brazil could be his coming-out party.
