Ultimate Challenge 20 sees Jamaine Facey looking to unseat John Maguire as the promotion’s welterweight champion. Facey for one is looking forward to the challenge, believing he’s already got the psychological edge on the champion. “He’s worried. If he had the choice he wouldn’t have fought me”.
To Facey, while Maguire is “a good fighter” he’s not the well-rounded fighter that many believe the champion to be. “He’s more of a wrestler. His standup isn’t too fantastic”. Where Facey does think Maguire does pose a threat is with his ground and pound should he be able to get Facey down to the ground.
And that may well happen, given the problems Facey faced against Dean Amasinger who took a close decision victory after out-wrestling him. Facey believes that his poor preparation for the fight was what let him down; telling Pro MMA Now that “by not training I cheated myself”.
The reason for Facey’s unusual lack of focus was that so much of his time was taken up by him and others working to open their gym, Bandogs. “When I fought Dean I was in the middle of moving gym, so setting up the gym was eating into my training time. Now the gym is up and running, I’ve just been training and know what I missed in my previous fight”.
More than the opening of Bandogs as a dedicated MMA gym has greatly improved Facey’s camp. “It’s our own gym. We were renting an area from a boxing gym but they could dictate what we could and couldn’t do. Now we’ve got our place its fantastic. We can bring in our own trainers and train at whatever time we want”.
Facey is bullish about the prospects for the gym and it’s potential for growth. “Anyone can come down to train. Everyday we’re getting new fighters. We do our own semi-professional shows to test out our fighters before we move them to the big shows”.
Facey believes that his “fantastic” preparations will ensure that he’s ready for whatever Maguire brings on Saturday; “it’s important to adapt everything to what’s best in the fight”. Facey argues that his unorthodox style will cause the champion problems. “My style does not fit into what people think it should be. He’s never fought anyone who fights like me”.
Facey is encouraged by the state of British mixed martial arts, believing it to “be healthier than it was last year”. In particular he feels that Dave O’Donnell deserves credit for his deal with Sky Sports, with the premium sports network airing UCMMA shows and the weekly ‘Cagefighter’ magazine show. “Hat’s off to him, he’s got a mixed martial arts show onto one of the biggest sports channels in the world”.
Facey does however worry that the fragmentation of the UK scene may eventually lead to fights not getting made and the resources of the sport not being properly marshaled. “They’re too many individual promotions trying to run like they’re big dogs. If the promotions could just work together to get a proper structure organized it would be brilliant”.
Whatever the future holds, Jamaine Facey is confident he’s going to leave London’s The Troxy on Saturday 14th May with the UCMMA Welterweight Title around his waist. And what’s more he’s going to win it in style. “I can’t stand boring fights and everyone knows I like to stand and bang. I don’t want to leave it to the judges. It’s going to be fast and explosive”.
Ultimate Challenge 20: Fists of Fury takes place in London at The Troxy on Saturday 14th May. For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit their website. The event will be broadcast by Sky Sports 3 at 10.30pm on Wednesday 18th May. For more information on Bandogs MMA visit their Facebook page.