The UFC juggernaut rolls into Sydney on Saturday 8th November at Allphones Arena in Sydney Olympic Park. This years main event is a middleweight show down between American Luke Rockhold (14-12-2) and Englishman Michael Bisping (31-25-6).
Fighting on the Preliminary card on the night is young Australian fighter Jake ‘The Celtic Kid’ Matthews. With a record of 8-0 many MMA pundits believe he has the potential to be a future champion. At 20 years of age he certainly has his head on his shoulders and exudes confidence without being cocky or brash.
Jake hailing from Epping, Victoria will be taking on the experienced Brazilian Vagner Rocha who has an 11-3 record. Rocha began his MMA career in 2009 and as an experienced Brazilian Jui-Jitsu exponent he will certainly pose a major threat to Matthews in moving forward with is career ambitions.
We caught up with Jake this week to check on his training and discuss the fight to see what he plans to do in the octagon next month.
As we get closer to your upcoming bout against Vagner Rocha how have you stepped up your training? Are there any key areas you have been focussing on?
All the specific training and game planning was early in the camp, now it is just about getting my conditioning going, getting the hard sparing rounds in and making sure everything is on point and putting the finishing touches on everything. Most of it is getting the conditioning and cardio up so I know I have the confidence in my endurance.
Rocha has won 11 fights, of which 8 have been by submission. Is this an area you have been working on and studying his style and technique?
There is no secret what he likes to do in his fights. He is a Jui-Jitsu guy and that is what he is best at so we have been working on a game plan to defend that and any sneaky submissions he tries so we have been studying what he does on the ground and what he likes to do. Being a Jui-Jitsu guy he wants to get it to the ground and he is also not scared to strike at the same time so we are not expecting him to come in and shoot straight away. We are expecting him to stand and bang. We are working on our defence. I am seeking out a lot better training partners to mimic his style.
While Rocha is coming off 4 straight wins this will be his 1st UFC fight in 2 ½ years where he has had 2 losses from 3 fights. It must give you great confidence knowing you are coming off a UFC win at your last fight in June against a 9-0 fighter in Dashon Johnson?
Every win and even every training session getting other guys who should be better than me gives you confidence everytime. I don’t think Vagner has fought for over a year so again there could be a bit of ring rust and he hasn’t fought in the UFC for a while. I am preparing as if he is coming in at 100% like I am fighting a world champ. I expect him to be a bit overwhelmed by it and have a bit of ring rust but I will be fighting like he is 100% ready.
Vagner is 32 while you are 20. Do you see your age as an advantage in this fight? Perhaps using your speed, youthful enthusiasm and agility against an older opponent?
Absolutely, I feel like I will be faster, I know I am stronger, I know I am bigger and I am going to use that against him and try and bully him a bit and use my fitness. My cardio and endurance are some of my best attributes and I am going to use that. It showed in my last fight against Dashon where I was going as hard in the last round as I was in the first round. It is not going to be any different. Weather it goes one round or three rounds I am going to push the pace and like you said use my age.
You both come from a Brazilian Jui-Jitsu background, how difficult is it fighting someone who comes from the same discipline?
No I believe that I am more well rounded. I sort of started everything at the same time so even though I like to wrestle and I like to play my Jui-Jitsu game I can adapt in any fight because I started everything. It’s not as if its instinct for me to take someone down to the ground. If I fight a Jui-Jitsu guy I am going to stand up to them. If I fighter a bigger guy I am going to take them down. I adapt during a fight.
It must give you great pride to be fighting in the UFC in your own country. How does it make you feel knowing the whole stadium will be on your side?
It is going to be awesome. Hopefully the crowd is going to be nice and loud. It is estimated to be something like 20,000 people. I fought in New Zealand and that was loud so hopefully at home in can be twice as much. A lot of people who are going to be there are from Melbourne so I expect them to be loud and have really good home town support.
How did you get involved in MMA?
I was playing high level Australian Rules Football and was playing representative squad and my Dad who is my head coach said to me seeing as I was getting serious with it you might want to look into staying fit during the offseason. I had a mate who was doing kick boxing and they had Jui-Jitsu and all that there so I went and joined and after my first Jui-Jitsu class I was hooked. I year later I had my first amateur fight and won that and after that I gave up football and knew that was what I wanted to do.
What are your short and long term goals?
Short term goal is the fight that is in front of me. Not only do I want to win I want to put on a good show with an early stoppage and step up with each fight and maybe even look at calling someone out next fight who is ranked a bit higher and challenge myself.
Long term will be getting into the Top 10, fight for a title and be the first Australian Champion in UFC history.
Away from MMA/UFC what do you like to do in your down time?
We have a boat and go to the lake and wakeboard. My brother and I are into archery and bow hunting. We have our own abseiling and caving equipment so we like to go out and find cliffs and abseil caves. We also ride motors bikes. Anything that gets the blood pumping.
Favourite fighter?
Greatest fighter of all time is GSP. The way he carries himself, I always try to mimic what he does especially outside the cage to be humble and clean cut and just the way he fights. To me Georges St-Pierre is the greatest of all time.
Thank you for your time Jake and good luck against Rocha. Australia is right behind you.
Perhaps in years to come Jake Matthews will be a name that is being talked about by Georges St-Pierre. It is great to see a young Aussie athlete who knows his goals and respects the sport that he represents.
Make sure you have your ticket to UFC Fight Night 55. This is going to be one fight that you will not want to miss.
