Over the past year and a half, Edmonton's Tim Hague has been steadily making a name for himself as one of Canada's most promising heavyweight mixed martial artists. This weekend he'll put his undefeated 5-0 record on the line against Miodrag Petkovic at Hardcore Championship Fighting's "Destiny" event at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.
After less than a year of training, Hague had his first fight and win against Eric Macdonald (Pictures). Subsequent wins against Jessie Jones, Jared Kilkenny (Pictures), Ruben Villareal (Pictures) and Adriano Bernardo followed. With his victory over Bernardo, Hague also became the King of the Cage Canadian heavyweight champion.
Currently Hague is under contract to KOTC, but in a spirit of openness rarely seen in Canadian MMA, KOTC owner Ken Kupsch made a deal with HCF's Keith Crawford that will allow Hague to appear on the Feb. 1 HCF card. Hague told Sherdog.com that he's thankful for that deal and is looking forward to this weekend.
"I'm feeling great," he said. "I'm in shape, injury free, and ready to rock and roll."
Every fight is important for Hague at this point, as the 6-foot-4, 265-pound substitute teacher hopes to continue to raise his stock and transition to being a full-time fighter soon. With a pregnant fiancé at home, he hopes that he'll be able to stay active in 2008.
"I just want to keep on fighting and hopefully keep on winning," the 24 year old said.
For that next win, he'll have to go through Petkovic. Hague knows that probably won't be an easy task. "He has a big left hand, and in Bodog he showed he had some good leg kicks," Hague said.
In addition to striking, Petkovic should have some good ground skills, considering he has been a competitor in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission grappling tournament. Hague is respectful of his opponent's skills, but he isn't discounting his own advantages.
"Yeah, he's very experienced, but he has looked a little slower in his past few fights," Hague said. "I'm going to have a 30-pound advantage, so hopefully that will help. I'll have to be the stronger-willed fighter and try to push the pace."
Asked how he sees the fight ending, Hague chuckled and said, "Hopefully I'll have that win bonus and can eat steak and lobster after the fight and not canned tuna."
HCF "Destiny" complete card:
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Pictures) vs. Todd Gouwenberg (Pictures)
David Loiseau (Pictures) vs. Jason Day
Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) vs. Evangelista Santos (Pictures)
Thomas Schulte (Pictures) vs. Garett Davis (Pictures)
John Alessio (Pictures) vs. Derrick Noble (Pictures)
Damir Mirenic vs. Mike Pyle (Pictures)
Andrew Buckland vs. Dan Chambers (Pictures)
Solomon Hutcherson vs. Amir Rahnavardi (Pictures)
Myles Merola vs. Ariel Sexton
Tim Hague vs. Miodrag Petkovic
Nabil Khatib (Pictures) vs. Lucas Rota
Babian Cortez vs. Juan Barrantes
Randy Couture (Pictures) will be in Calgary to corner John Alessio (Pictures) and Mike Pyle (Pictures).
Suggested Fighters for UFC Canada
With the UFC's inaugural card in Canada less than three months away, I thought I'd throw a few Canadian names out there for the UFC to consider adding to its card. I'm going to limit my suggestions to fighters who have not yet had an opportunity in the big show, with the feeling that the UFC is already aware of guys like David Loiseau (Pictures), Victor Valimaki (Pictures), Jeff Joslin (Pictures) and Ivan Salaverry (Pictures), and may already be considering adding them to the card.
Those I'll name here are all extremely good fighters who I think have the skills necessary to perform well against high-level international competition, and it would be great to see them get a shot in the UFC. I encourage everyone to send me an e-mail and tell me your thoughts: if you agree or disagree or if you think I missed someone.
At lightweight, Pictou County, Nova Scotia's Jason MacKay (Pictures) is undefeated at 7-0 and looked utterly devastating in his most recent fight against the highly-regarded John Stutzman. The ECC lightweight titleholder, MacKay is incredibly aggressive, a killer on the ground and has crazy cardio. His next scheduled fight is a rematch with Shaun Krysa (Pictures) at ECC 7 in Halifax on March 15.
Don't let Garett Davis (Pictures)' 7-7 record fool you: He's a terror. He started his career at welterweight and went 0-6, but after deciding a few years ago to take the fighting thing seriously, he has won seven of his last eight fights. His sole loss was to Mark Bocek (Pictures), and unknown to anyone, Davis went into that fight heavily injured. He is fighting this weekend in Calgary against Thomas Schulte (Pictures) for the HCF lightweight title.
There is a bit of a surplus at welterweight, with three names to put forward. TJ Grant (Pictures) and Jesse Bongfeldt are two of Canada's most exciting young welterweights, and on Feb. 28 they'll square off in Montreal for the TKO championship.
Bongfeldt, the current TKO champ, is extremely strong and uses his wrestling to dominate opponents. His only loss in the past three years was against current UFC athlete Jonathan Goulet (Pictures).
Grant is a complete threat. He's a BJJ purple belt currently in Thailand honing his Muay Thai skills. Although many fighters claim to be well rounded, in Grant's case, it's true. Eight of his nine wins have come via submission, and during his fight with Stephane Dube (Pictures), he looked almost flawless on his feet, displaying exceptional footwork.
Out of all the names mentioned here, Corey MacDonald is arguably the most ready to step into the Octagon tomorrow. When MacDonald steps onto the scale at 170 pounds, his size is truly staggering. Already he has faced UFC-caliber opposition in Jonathan Goulet (Pictures) and Edwin Dewees (Pictures).
He convincingly won the first round versus Goulet before a freak eye injury prevented him from starting the second, and he jumped at the chance to step up in weight to 185 to take on and beat Dewees. The Kingston, Ontario-based MacDonald's bout against BJJ wizard Rowan Cunningham (Pictures) was a thing of beauty.
With 14 fights in the past two years, hard-hitting middleweight Jason Day has been as busy as a fighter can be. Day gives the aura of being just a tough son of a witch, and his skills have improved dramatically in the past year. He looked very good in his loss to Patrick Cote (Pictures), going more than twice as long as Andrew McFedries in the most recent UFC Fight Night. In his most high-profile win, Day submitted Jonathan Goulet (Pictures) last summer via armbar.
Light heavyweight Travis Galbraith (Pictures) has been around for what seems like ages, starting his pro MMA career in 2001. So far his highlight was an appearance in PRIDE's 2006 show in Las Vegas against Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures).
Galbraith has always been on the verge of making it big and is often said to have potential. He has many supporters in the Canadian MMA community, and a UFC appearance should tell if he deserves that support.
Nanaimo, BC's Nick Hinchliffe has made a habit of ending his fights quickly. His most recent win was a first-round stoppage of Galbraith in November, bringing his record to 8-0. Along with Galbraith and the injured Roger Hollett (Pictures), Hinchliffe is one of a handful of Canada's top light heavyweights.
A transplanted Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro now living in Winnipeg, Rodrigo Munduruca is a former Rio State BJJ Champion and a very dangerous man. Although he has only four pro fights to his credit, Munduruca is spoken about in hushed whispers by other heavyweights, many of whom hope that they won't have to stare at him across a cage. Think a Canadian Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures).