THE CANADIAN PRESS
Chris (The Menace) Clements captured two big developments in his life in one photo a few weeks ago.
He tweeted a photo of a tiny, adorable Averie Belle Clements, born March 9, as she curled contentedly around a pair of UFC gloves.
"Motivating Daddy for #ufc145," the veteran welterweight tweeted.
Life has changed forever on the family front, with his first child.
And the 36-year-old from London, Ont., has a chance to finally step into the Octagon on Saturday night when he makes his UFC debut against Keith Wisniewski (28-12-1).
Clements (10-4) may be one of the few fighters who did not mind that UFC 145, originally slated for March 24 in Montreal, was pushed back to April 21 in Atlanta.
The Montreal date was too close for comfort to the baby’s due date. But while the postponement took care of that, Clements wasn’t sure what it meant for him.
"I’d been trying to get into the UFC for so long, I wasn’t sure if they were just filling a spot for the Canadian card," he said.
"Once I found out that my fight was being moved to Atlanta with the card, then I was pretty happy — that would give me more time to spend with my daughter before the fight."
Clements credits wife Karissa for helping look after the baby while he was off training.
He would take his shift with the baby while she napped. But with Clements having to get up early in the morning, he moved to the spare bedroom in the basement while she took over the night shift.
Clements may not have lost much sleep, but he admits to having a few more things to think about as a new father.
"At the same time, it gives you a little more motivation to train harder when you have this little person depending on you," he said.
And she’s pretty nice to come home to.
"Almost instantly relaxing when you just hold her," Clements said with a laugh.
Clements, who made his pro MMA debut in June 2005, has bided his time for the UFC.
He figured if he kept fighting tough guys and winning, the call would come.
That finally happened in January after he registered his fourth straight win, a streak that included victories over former UFC veterans Rich (No Love) Clementi and Jonathan (The Road Warrior) Goulet.
"My theory was if you want to know if you can swim, jump in the water," Clements said. "I wanted to fight in the UFC and some of these guys had. I figured if I couldn’t beat them them I didn’t deserve to be there anyway."
Clements, whose only previous UFC experience has been watching from the stands, admits to past discontent at being bypassed.
"It’s really frustrating when you’re seeing other guys, especially guys that I thought I could beat, make it to the UFC."
But he also understands the factors working against him.
Ankle, elbow and knee injuries delayed his progress. Fourteen fights in seven years is not a lot.
But he argues it was difficult to get fights when you are based in a province that didn’t sanction the sport until early 2011.
Plus Clements’ record didn’t make him very attractive to other fighters either. He has finished his opponents in all 10 of his wins.
"A lot of guys didn’t want to fight me and a lot of promoters didn’t want to pay to have me come there," he said.
Clements knows firsthand. He has managed fighters.
A three-second knockout of middleweight Lautaro Tucas in May 2006 probably scared off more than a few possible opponents. The bell rang and Tucas ran at Clements, only to be knocked off his feet by one punch.
Clements, who has worked his way down from light-heavyweight (205 pounds) to welterweight (170), says it was like playing a game of Whac-a-Mole.
"His face just kind of popped out in front of me. … It was just a complete reaction and I hit him. And it was over."
The lone blemishes on Clements’ record are all fighters with UFC experience: fellow Canadians John Alessio and Jesse Bongfeldt and Rory Markham.
The December win over Clementi, on a Score Fighting Series card, eventually sealed the UFC deal.
"There was a lot of pressure going into that fight, because I knew if I lost that my shot to get into the UFC was pretty much over. At my age, I wasn’t going to be able to put on another four- or five-fight win streak before my prime was over."
Clements bloodied and beat up the American before his home-town crowd in Sarnia, a fact that also upped the ante.
"Nobody wants to get beat up in front of their mom and their wife at the same time," he said dryly. "It puts a lot of stress on you."
A talented striker, Clements left the cage with confidence in his grappling having survived on the ground game with the crafty Clementi.
"I learned a lot from that fight," he said.
Clements got into MMA 10 years ago and started martial arts (taekwondo) 20 years ago when he was 16.
The fighting aspect of martial arts always appealed to him. And he was good at it.
But growing up in Dresden, Ont., his training options were limited. "There was just nowhere to expand," he recalled.
So he largely trained on his own until finally, in his mid-20s, a gym called Supreme Martial Arts opened in Sarnia where he was living with friend (and now fellow fighter) John Fraser.
The two started training at the gym. Clements then met coach Shawn Tompkins at a Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell seminar and ended up moving to London, Ont., to become part of Team Tompkins.
To make ends meet, Clements worked in a string of pizza places or factories. For a while, he was a process operator at a chemical plant. He also built transport trucks.
Now, he is a full-time fighter and a trainer at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, home to UFC veterans Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout and Mark (The Machine) Hominick and former WEC fighter Chris (The Polish Hammer) Horodecki.
It was also the Canadian training base for Tompkins, who passed away last August.
Clements joins fellow Canadians Hominick, Alessio, Rory (Ares) MacDonald, Mark Bocek and John (The Bull) Makdessi on the Atlanta card.
No one has waited longer to climb into the cage for the UFC.
"The harder the mountain is to climb, the more rewarding it is when you make it to the top," said Clements.
"My whole career my goal was just to fight in the UFC so I haven’t even had a chance to set a new goal since. … A lot of people ask me if I’m nervous about it. I’m just more excited."
Clements says he may use as his entrance music the same song he had seven years ago when he made his pro debut in Winnipeg — Bobby Day’s "Rockin’ Robin."
"Real old-school, but it was a song that I grew up with," he explained. "I used to dance around the house with my little sister as a kid to it and it just always made me energetic and happy.
"And going to the UFC for the first time, people get nervous going in there. It’s just one of the songs that takes all the nerves away."
