By Dwight Wakabayashi
The Score Fighting Series 7 is set to go down this Friday in Hamilton, Ont., and will be headlined by a great match-up between top Canadian welterweight Jordan (Young Gun) Mein against tough UFC and SFS veteran Forrest Petz. It is youth and smarts against experience and toughness at its best and both are coming off good wins and looking to make a statement to boost their stock heading into 2013.
Mein is 1-1 this year with a tough loss to top Strikeforce contender Tyron Woodley and a decision win over Tyler Stinson in his last fight in July. The 23-year-old out of Lethbridge, Alta., is okay with how his year has gone so far.
“So far it’s been alright, obviously in the past obviously I had a lot more fights in a year — I’ve gotten up to six — so it’s been a lot slower this year,” Mein said in an exclusive interview Tuesday. “But it’s been a good change. I’m getting a lot of good training in, I’m getting a lot of good travelling in and going to train at different places.
“There’s advantages and disadvantages to taking more time off between fights.”
Mein was a headline fighter on the very first SFS show when he defeated Marius Zaromskis by unanimous decision in Mississauga, Ont., in June 2011. He’s looking forward to fighting in the province again.
“It’s a blast fighting in Ontario,” Mein said. “They have great fans now, well they’ve always had great fans but in the last year here they’ve actually been allowed to put on shows and to be a headliner there. It’s been awesome. It’s been great and the Score treats me so well that it’s just a great experience going out there.”
He will have his hands full against Petz.
“He’s such an experienced guy I think he brings that against anyone he fights and you can tell when he fights he makes them work really hard. I think that’s what I’ll be taking out of this fight is fighting another grizzled guy that’s in there to take your head off and you know he’s a really dangerous guy so I just got to be careful with that and pick my shots.”
Asked if he was planning to get in a brawl or want to make a statement in the fight, Mein said, “Oh definitely I always want to make a statement when I fight and I always want it to go as well as it can for me, but I also know how tough he is and how hard it looks like he hits, so you have to be careful with those things; you just can’t be reckless all the time. There are certain points when you gotta explode.”
There’s no question what he feels a win here would do for his career.
“It would definitely get me to the UFC. Fight in the UFC and the big leagues,” Mein said.
That’s certainly where he belongs. He is one of the best welterweight fighters in the country so it was imperative to get his take on the St-Pierre vs. Condit fight over the weekend at UFC 154.
“Oh, that was such an awesome fight. There was so much entertainment and they just fought so hard for five rounds. It was awesome to watch.”
Mein-Petz this Friday should be awesome too.
NOTES: Mein will have two tough guys travelling with him when he comes to Ontario: Brandt Dewsbery and his dad Lee.
Lee Mein needs no introduction to Canadian MMA fans in the know, while Dewsbery will be on the main card against Ontario beast Ryan Dickson in what should be a very intriguing tilt.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report UFC and regular contributor to Sportsnet.ca’s UFC section. Follow him on Twitter @wakafightermma.
