THE CANADIAN PRESS
Nick (The Quiet Assassin) Penner’s left hand was broken. The second metacarpal on his right hand was dislocated. And he needed a victory to get into the UFC.
It hurt like hell. And Penner, at least for a little bit, froze in the cage.
But he gutted it out and won. And five months later, on the eve of his UFC debut, the Canadian light-heavyweight sees the positives from that painful night.
"I’m glad it happened," Penner said. "Because that’s more stress now that I know I’m capable of handling."
For those wondering, the dislocation hurt the most.
"And that really sucked, because I’m southpaw and that’s my lead jab hand," he said.
Still, a banged-up Penner defeated Tim Chemelli by unanimous decision in that Sept. 16 AMMA 8 fight in Edmonton, keeping his UFC option open.
The 31-year-old fighter from Blumenort, Man., who now calls Edmonton home, will make his UFC debut on Friday in Sydney, Australia, against local favourite Anthony (The Hippo) Perosh.
Thiago (Pitbull) Alves (24-7) takes on Martin (The Hitman) Kampmann (18-5) in the welterweight main event of the televised card, which takes place Saturday local time at the Allphones Arena.
Penner was cutting weight for Chemelli last September when the UFC told him they might need him for an upcoming show.
While a dream come true, the timing didn’t exactly help his focus.
"My head was a little bit of a mess," Penner acknowledged.
"I had already stopped eating and drinking and I had just started my weight) cut. So I was already cranky to begin with," he added.
His mood went from bad to worse in the fight as the injuries mounted. Especially since Penner had been told there would be no UFC contract if he lost.
"The pain really started kicking in halfway through that (second) round," he recalled. "I remember being in the ring, being like ‘What the heck am I supposed to do?’ And I just froze. I was like a tree, like a punching bag almost."
Apart from the immediate need of a win over Chemelli, Penner was thinking ahead to the UFC. Keep throwing and he might damage his hands even more. Stop throwing and he could lose.
His cornermen were yelling at him and he ignored them, trying to figure out what to do.
He didn’t throw many punches in the second round. In the third, he started throwing more but mainly to keep his opponent at bay.
"I tried to slow the fight right down, to save myself a little bit."
It’s proof of Penner’s toughness that he didn’t bother going to the doctor right away. "I had family in town," he explained.
They popped the dislocated joint back in place the night of the fight. He saw a doctor two days later about the other hand but they didn’t pick up on the break.
So Penner, who was sidelined all of 2010 after knee surgery, went back to the gym.
"I tried to hit pads and every time it touched the pad, my hand hurt. I remember being like ‘Well, they X-rayed it. It’s supposed to be fine, even though there’s a huge weird lump in the middle of my hand. I may as well just suck it up and try and punch through.’
"Then one of my coaches said ‘You’ve got go back and check that out."’
It turned out that X-rays sometimes don’t catch small breaks in the hand. A scan is needed.
Penner (12-1) has prepared for Perosh at the renowned American Top Team camp in Florida.
"The people are awesome, the training is awesome. It’s been a really, really good experience," he said.
Penner has never been to Australia and is looking forward to the experience. He only sees positives in fighting Down Under.
"I’m actually really stoked that the fight’s there," he said. "You know it’d be nice for the fight to be in Canada, but you can’t pick and choose your fights. And in a way, I think it’s nice too because there’s a lot more pressure fighting at home than there is away.
"I mean there’s no pressure on me down there at all. I’m supposed to lose the fight anyways, so who cares? I’m going out there and I’m going to go have some fun."
Penner has plenty of respect for Perosh (12-6). The 39-year-old Australian is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu who has proved in his last two UFC outings that if he can get his opponent to the ground, he can finish fights.
"Without a doubt, he’s a tough individual,"Penner said. "He’s been doing this a lot longer than I have. His ground game is phenomenal."
Despite that, Penner says his training at ATT, which is known for its quality of black belts, has more than prepared for whatever submissions he will face in Sydney.
"When I say this I’m definitely not trying to put Perosh down at all, but I am training with better black belts than he is. I think that is going to give me a little bit of an edge."
"That being said. I understand that what he’s going to be bringing is going to pose a lot of problems," he added.
Still Penner says he sees "some holes" in Penner’s game.
Away from ATT, Penner works under trainer Kyle Cardinal in Edmonton. He works his striking with Frank Lee and does strength and conditioning work with Shara Vigeant. He also works out at the Hayabusa Training Centre.
The six-foot Penner made Edmonton his home after being posted there with the military. He spent three years in the forces, starting his pro MMA career in 2007 after leaving the infantry.
Penner has put some of his military training to good effect since then, although he’s not saying much about it.
"I’ve had other jobs but those are kind of confidential," he said. "I’ll get in a lot of trouble if I start talking about them.
"I’ll say this, I got hooked up with a pretty cool job with a couple of ex-military guys when I got out. Pretty fun job."
Like security, he was asked?
"Kind of," he replied.
NOTES — Penner’s fight resume includes an early win over the super-sized Eric (Butterbean) Esch. Penner submitted him in the second round. … Penner’s nickname comes from his habit of not saying much in post-fight interviews.
