Chris Clements finally gets a chance to test his skills against a veteran UFC name this weekend when he fights Rich Clementi in The Meltdown, presented by The Score Fighting Series. The event goes down from Sarnia, Ontario and is a packed card filled with local MMA stars.
Clements is coming off a spinning back kick win in July, and I took the time to visit him at his home gym, the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario this week to get his vibe heading into Saturday’s fight.
Find out who “The Menace” picks in UFC 140 fights Jones vs Machida and Hominick vs Jung in the full interview video attached.
Here are some interview highlights:
What has he been up to since his last fight:
“I have a baby on the way.”
“I didn’t get too out of shape after the Briere fight. I was supposed to fight right away in October for The Score against Marcus Davis, but it kinda interfered with the wedding and I didn’t want to take a fight like that lightly. Then Shawn’s passing set us back again, so it just wasn’t a good time for me.”
On if he is back ready to face Clementi:
“I’m happy with the opponent. I just wanted a UFC vet, and Rich Clementi is a very well known UFC vet so that’s what I was looking for. I wanted to test my skills against a world-level opponent, so I’m happy that they found me someone like that.”
“The big difference is I was preparing for Forrest Petz, who is a striker and right handed, to one week’s notice now I gotta prepare for a left handed grappler pretty much, so it’s a big change up in the game plan. But all in all, I’m prepared for anyone, any time.”
On whether we will see a confident ground game:
“Yeah, I have a really good ground game, close to 70 percent of my training is on the ground. I don’t spend a lot of time on my striking, I was just kinda naturally good at it.”
“When I’m in a fight situation, I just see a chin and I want to hit it.”
On his fighter Jess Ronson and his match up with UFC veteran Tony Hervey:
“Tony Hervey is a very tricky guy, I’ve seen a lot of video on him. I’m also Jesse Ronson’s manager, so I had to accept the fight.”
“He’s a little bit more wild than Ronson, he may have a little bit more natural athleticism than Ronson, but Ronson’s so technically sound, his boxing and his kickboxing and he angles and stuff like that is just…technically sound will beat athleticism every time.”
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA and correspondent for MMACanada.net.
Catch him on Facebook and Twitter at wakafightermma.
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