Earlier this past week, the cast for the upcoming Canada vs Australia themed version of The Ultimate Fighter was announced.
The show that pits Canadian coach Patrick Cote against Team Australia’s Kyle Noke and will premiere January 15th on Fox Sports 1.
The cast features eight welterweight and eight middleweight contestants, and I’ll be breaking down each fighter on the show in a four part preview series that starts off with a look at the Canadian welterweights.
Kajan Johnson (19-10-1)
No member of the TUF: Nations cast has more professional victories, much less experience than “Ragin” Kajan Johnson. After an up and down start to his career in 2002, Johnson started having consistent success in late 2004 – his record since October of 2004 is 13-2-1. Johnson trains at the Tristar Gym with his close friend Rory MacDonald and usually fights at lightweight, although size shouldn’t be an issue for Johnson who is a fairly big 155 pounder.
In his second run in Maximum Fighting Championship, Johnson impressed with two quality and dominant victories over tough lightweights in Richie Whitson and Ryan Healy. The victories dramatically raised his stock as a prospect, but talks of him joining the UFC have waned because of his recent inactivity. Constant injuries have hampered Johnson’s career, as he hasn’t fought since the Whitson bout in October of 2011.
When you roll the tape on Johnson, it becomes evident that he is cut from the same cloth as Matt Brown. The word lethargic isn’t in Johnson’s vocabulary. Whether it be feigning strikes to keep his opponent reacting and thinking or initiating a grinding body clinch, Johnson is always working.
While a frenetic space tends to open up holes defensively on the feet, Johnson has closed those openings with great head movement and footwork in his more recent outings. His bread and butter is the body clinch, especially from behind. Once his opponent gives up his back standing, it’s only a matter of time before Johnson displays his strength by suplexing him to the mat. On the ground, Johnson continues his pace by passing positions to get to his opponent’s back where he thrives by locking up rear-naked chokes and armbars.
Based on the resume of Team Canada’s fighters, Johnson is clearly one of the better members of Cote’s squad. He’s a multi-dimensional fighter that can hang with every member of the cast wherever the fight goes, and whether he wins or loses, I expect Johnson will get a shot in the UFC.
Chad Laprise (7-0)
Bellator will be well represented on this season of The Ultimate Fighter as three of Team Canada’s members have had experience with the promotion. One of those fighters is 27 year-old lightweight prospect Chad Laprise. Laprise, who splits time training at the Adrenaline Training Center and the Tristar gym, looked promising in his 2-0 Bellator tenure.
In his promotional debut against Josh Taveirne at Bellator 64, Laprise struggled early on when he was unable to defend a pair of takedowns from his opponents, but he was able to slip on a triangle choke to win the fight in the first frame. His second Bellator outing was much more impressive. At Bellator 76, Laprise completely out-struck Ainsley Robinson for three rounds and punctuated his dominance with a takedown in the closing moments of the bout.
The strong point of Laprise’s game is his striking. He’s a smart stand-up artist that has a stiff and effective jab that he uses to sets up his right uppercut and hook combinations. He keeps his wits about him on the feet and isn’t the type of fighter to get sucked into a risky brawl.
Laprise has so-so takedown defense, although his grappling ability helps erase the problems a fighter with similar takedown defense would have against a wrestler. His submissions are nice, but what he does really well on the ground is obtaining a dominant position and unloading a barrage of ground and pound strikes.
There is no doubt that Chad Laprise is one of the more formidable members of this season’s welterweight cast, and despite the fact that I wouldn’t consider him the favorite to win the show, Laprise still has a real chance of winning that six figure contract.
Olivier Aubin-Mercier (4-0)
Fans of judo will be delighted to see that Olivier Aubin-Mercier, who spent time on the Canadian national judo team, has made the TUF: Nations cast. Even though Mercier has only had four professional fights, the 24 year-old has a strong martial arts foundation in judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and taekwondo.
The trend to the start of Aubin-Mercier’s career mirrors Ronda Rousey’s as he has submitted all four of his opponents in the first round with the same submission – the lone difference is that the submission of choice for the Canadian is a rear-naked choke and not an armbar. He’s honed his craft by spending the majority of his time training with Richard Ho at H20 MMA and the rest of it at the Tristar Gym.
For a fighter known for his grappling game, Aubin-Mercier hasn’t been too shabby on the feet in the early stages of his career. He’s a southpaw striker that works a lot of feigns to open up his opponent’s guard, so that he can unleash his powerful left cross. Aubin-Mercier uses his stand-up to lock on a thai clinch where he is able to throw punishing knees at a rapid pace.
From the thai clinch, Aubin-Mercier takes his opponent down to the ground, his domain. His grappling experience has shined in his previous fights because you can tell that even when he is throwing heavy leather or working for a submission, Aubin-Mercier is always mindful of his positioning. In the fights that I’ve seen, he’s consistently maintained his dominant position and has been able to pass even with the slightest of openings.
For a fighter as young as Aubin-Mercier (in MMA years) to possess as many tools as he does is really impressive, and win or lose, he will undoubtedly end up with some UFC experience before his career is over. Once the show is over, Aubin-Mercier will likely return to the lightweight division, his usual weight class.
Matt Desroches (4-0)
Matt Desroches is one of the big unknowns about Patrick Cote’s team. Having just started his MMA career last year, the 21 year-old Canadian has limited information and fight tape available, but with that being said, there is still enough to identify some of the strong and weak points of his developing game.
Like his teammate Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Desroches has finished all four of his opponents within in the first round, although three of his victories came by way of TKO. He trains out of Wulfrun MMA and will end up being one of the bigger welterweights on the show. In a 2012 amateur bout, Desroches actually competed at a 200 pound catchweight fight
Desroches’s size advantage has positively translated to his fights. His explosive power more than makes up for the deficiency he has from a technical standpoint on the feet. Fighters who have looked to go tit for tat against Desroches on the feet have just been overwhelmed by his power. Also, his striking defense leaves more to be desired. He allows himself to be hit too frequently, but his granite chin has saved him from his defensive woes.
When the fight goes to the ground, Desroches isn’t exactly an albatross either. In his last fight, he locked on a slick fight-ending armbar against Jonathan Lemke. Prior to the fight’s conclusion, Desroches was taken down easily by Lemke, and from what I’ve seen, that’s largely due to the straight and somewhat stiff base he has when he strikes.
Sure, Desroches may be one of the more unpolished fighters on this season’s cast, but what I love about him is that he’s an entertaining fighter. He’s the kind of fighter that has enough power and instinct to pull off an upset or two.