By James Brydon, Sportsnet.ca
Canadian Joe Doerksen is the latest casualty as the UFC continues to trim its roster of fighters. The UFC released the Winnipeg middleweight from his contract following a second-round loss to Red Deer, Alta.’s Jason MacDonald on April 19 in Montreal.
The UFC has been in cutdown mode the past couple of weeks as it reportedly tries to bring its estimated stable of 200 fighters down to about 150. This is in part to keep its salaries manageable and also to get fighters more frequent appearances.
Two other middleweight fighters who also lost their UFC 83 bouts are Travis Lutter, who fell to Rich Franklin, and Surrey, B.C.’s Kalib Starnes — though Starnes claims he first asked to be released from his contract.
After falling to MacDonald at the Bell Centre, the writing was on the wall for Doerksen, whose loss was his third in a row in the Octagon (the first was with the WEC, also owned by Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company). But he wasn’t disappointed.
“(The UFC officials) made it very clear they’re very happy with the way I fight and they want me to come back,” Doerksen said. “But they need me to go put a couple of wins together (first).”
Doerksen (39-12) has had experience in this area before. Two times before he has lost a UFC fight and had to win a couple elsewhere before getting back to the big show. In 2004, he fell to Joe Riggs in his UFC debut only to come back eight months later after two wins outside the organization to beat Quebec’s Patrick Cote at UFC 52.
And after a March 2006, unanimous decision-loss to Nate Marquardt at UFC 58: USA vs. Canada, he recorded seven consecutive wins that earned him his most-recent contract with Zuffa. But after three straight defeats, he was cut with a fight remaining on his contract. Doerksen understands it’s the nature of the business.
“It’s always a possibility whenever you lose,” Doerksen said. “I’ve come and gone several times over my career and I’m sure I’ll be back again. It’s not really devastating news. It’s just the cycle I have to go through.”
In the meantime, the 30-year-old plans on resting and healing after a competitive fight that ended with him unconscious from a barrage of MacDonald elbows.
He said the stitches are out of his head and it will just take a couple of weeks before everything is healed. Within a month, he hopes to start training again.
In June, he plans to go to Salt Lake City to help Jeremy Horn, who cornered for him in Montreal, prepare for his bout against Dean Lister in the undercard of The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale on June 21 in Las Vegas.
While Doerksen expects to have his own fight scheduled by then, he’s leaving that in the hands of his manager.
“I talked to my manager and he said take a vacation for a couple of weeks and don’t even think about fighting until June,” Doerksen said. “He said fighters like me are always in high demand. People find my fights entertaining and he’s not going to have any trouble finding me fights. So I’m not really worried about it.”
Even though Doerksen has been knocked out in each of his three recent losses, they were competitive fights. In Montreal, he came close to submitting MacDonald midway through the first round after applying a tight kimura. But MacDonald, a veteran and middleweight contender, managed to escape and in the second round was able to overwhelm a tired Doerksen with strikes.
Originally dubbed a grudge match after a war of words between the two fighters, the bout ended up being one of the most entertaining of the undercard, with the crowd split on which Canadian to cheer for.
While disappointed with the result, Doerksen took some positives from the experience and looks to use his time away from the UFC to help him come back stronger
“I’m just going to go out and do what I always do, put five or 10 wins together and come back and try again. At the end of the day, I know the fight was very well received by the fans and that’s the most important thing to me personally.”
