UFC 149: Clements Jumps at the Chance for a Tough Fight in Calgary

With fighters dropping like flies off the UFC 149 card, Canadian welterweight Chris "The Menace" Clements jumped quickly for a fight after Thiago Alves was forced out of his bout with Siyar Bahadurzada.

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"I called and asked for it", Clements said over the phone this week. "My agent was over in Singapore and I emailed him and phoned him and when he got the information from me, he checked his messages and Joe Silva had already called asking. I was asking for it and Joe Silva was asking for it so it just worked out well."

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Many fans and experts are already calling dead meat in this one for the Ontario-born and Adrenaline Training Center fighter who was crafty and effective in a close decision win over Keith Wisniewski in his UFC debut in April. Bahadurzada himself burst on the UFC scene with a stunning 42 second knockout over Paulo Thiago earlier in the same month.

Clements is a very experienced fighter, and he sees this as a great stylistic match up for him.

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"I actually think it's a better fight for me than Wisniewski. With him, I couldn't really let go because he's a really experienced guy so I had to fight him kinda crazy. I had to do a lot of weird stuff and keep moving.

I couldn't really set down on anything because all he wanted to do was hold me down and lay on me. He's a grinder.

Siyar, he's a stand up fighter, he's more up my alley so, yeah he's a higher ranked guy in the world and stuff like that and he's got a lot of hype behind him but as far as matchup wise I don't see him as a big step up in competition or any more difficult.

It's a win-win right, I get to stay on the main card and so I get some nice exposure and if I lose I lose. I'm supposed to lose. If I win, you know I jump way up. At my age, I'm looking for the fastest possible way to get up there so to be on the Pay-Per-View in my second UFC fight it's huge for me."

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Both of these fighters certainly like to stand and trade, and it will be an entertaining fight no matter how long it lasts. I asked him if he is going to hype it up to make sure it is a battle.

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"He's gonna get mad, he's gonna get frustrated by me. I'm gonna do some things he's not going to like." He laughed.

"I just have a way of messing with people when I fight so I think I'll frustrate him by doing things. I'm not much of a hype guy, I like to just do my thing in the cage."

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Clements has taken this fight on slightly short notice, and he started his camp right away after securing the fight on Monday.

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"It's gonna be tough but I just have to be really disciplined. I'm a little out of shape right now. Training for my last fight was basically the first few weeks of with my daughter so I have been catching up on the time with her and the family more than training. I wasn't really thinking about or prepared to fight but this is a great opportunity so I just wanted to jump on it."

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Prior to signing with the UFC earlier this year, Clements rose through the Canadian ranks and made his name as a dangerous knockout fighter, mostly in the province of Quebec. He may tap in to his roots a bit leading up to this key match up with Bahadurzada.

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"I'm thinking about heading to Tristar to train for about a week or so. I've known Firaz for many years from TKO and stuff like that but I haven't talked to him about it yet or anything. They have a great camp there for welterweights with Sean Pierson, Ryan Ford, Rory MacDonald, George St-Pierre, Alex Garcia you know there's so many top ten welterweight's in the country."

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With it being the first ever UFC event in Alberta, he will have a boisterous following of fans hoping and screaming for him on July 21st in Calgary.

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"I'm the only Canadian on the main card"

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The doubters are out there. There are many who think this is a mis-match from the get go, but I am not one of them.

Clements is a tough, dangerous and experienced gamer, and this one will be closer than people may think.

 

Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report MMA, MMA editor at CKSN.ca and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca.

 Catch him on Facebook and Twitter @wakafightermma.