Issue 138
February 2016
Octagon thrills and spills are paying the bills but there’s so much more to come from up and coming Aussie lightweight Jake Matthews
Jake Matthews
UFC Lightweight
Alias: The Celtic Kid
Age: 21
Team: XLR8 Training centre
Record: 9-1
On paper, Jake Matthews isn’t your typical MMA prodigy. His skills weren’t honed in one of the sport’s most renowned gyms: he trained for his UFC debut in a small shed in his back yard. The 21-year-old also doesn’t have a glossy, undefeated record either. In fact, including his TUF Nations exhibition bout, he’s already lost twice in the Octagon. He even dropped the opening round of his fight at UFC 193 in November. But as he showed when he turned that battle in his favor, ‘The Celtic Kid’ has got something a bit special.
Fighting out of Melbourne, Australia, the lightweight joined the UFC in the summer of 2014 and has gone 3-1 under the brightest lights in the sport. He’s a natural finisher, both on the ground and standing, with only one of his 10 fights so far requiring the attention of the judges.
His sole loss, to James Vick in Adelaide back in May, was something of a shock. And not because the underrated and unbeaten Texan tapped him out. It was more due to Matthews’ dominance and control of the action for four and a half minutes, before he walked into a guillotine choke.
And it’s perhaps the Aussie’s fragility as much as his ability that makes him such an exciting and intriguing prospect. He’s willing to take chances to make things happen in the cage. To him, an exciting fight means much more than simply winning. And the loss changed him for the better, he believes.
“It was always going to suck and it’s always going to hurt, losing a fight,” Matthews tells FO, “but I learnt a lot, most of it outside the Octagon. I was on the main card for the first time, I had cameras and documentary teams following me around and, yes, it all started going to my head. I felt like I had him won, like I was the star, and I got cocky.
“Looking back now, it was a good thing. I actually thank Vick for it. It set me straight again. If I’d have won that fight I would’ve arrived in Melbourne with the same mindset: that I was just too good. I may have lost on the biggest stage in history – and in my home state too. That would have definitely left a deeper scar. But I got to reset after the loss and I got the win in the biggest fight of my life so far.”
Heading to UFC 193, a humbled Matthews refocused. “I don’t like to take anything from a previous fight into a new fight. After all, it’s a completely new time, new opponent and new training camp, but that loss was my motivation in camp. I was more focused than ever.
“I’d also done a full training camp: four weeks in the US and then four weeks back in Australia. I’d also had to pull out of a fight in Glasgow during the time out too, due to injury, so it was all extra motivation to get back in there and set the record straight with a win.”
Veteran Akbarh Arreola, like all four of Matthews’ previous UFC foes, was no pushover. The Mexican caught him off guard in the opening round and dropped him with a head kick. He had the lead on the judges’ cards after five minutes, but he had to be mercifully saved by the doctor five minutes later at the end of the second frame due to a badly injured right eye, brought on by Matthews’ bludgeoning ground ’n’ pound.
Matthews recalls the action: “In all his other fights he’s come balling forward, throwing a lot of combos, and that’s what we were training for. I expected that fighter to run out in Melbourne and to really push forward with his striking. But he came out and was waiting for me to make a move and waiting to counter.
“That threw me off a little. It made me start slower than I usually like to as he wasn’t doing what I thought he was going to do. And that’s something I took away from the fight: to not plan too much for a certain opponent. The game plan has to be able to change. But once I got going it was better.
“He almost got that choke in a couple of times too. At that point I was thinking about my gym, my career and the loss in Adelaide. And I just thought, ‘No way am I losing again.’ And that really got me going. At the end of the opening round my corner were clear, ‘Take him down and finish him,’ and that’s exactly what I did.”
The win showed fight fans the true potential of the youngster, who turned his back on a potential Australian rules football career Down Under to chase his dreams of MMA glory. He’s the southern hemisphere’s version of Sage Northcutt, and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“It’s very exciting,” he says. “Being dubbed the ‘new generation’ means people are recognizing that the first real group of fighters who have trained all manner of martial arts throughout their lives are now impacting on the sport at the highest level. And that’s got to be good for mixed martial arts and for UFC.
“When you get really well-rounded athletes fighting one another, that’s when you get the very best fights. So far in the UFC I’ve fought Dashon Johnson, who was a high level boxer, and I stood and traded with him. Vagner Rocha is a world-class jiu-jitsu fighter, and I wasn’t afraid to go to the ground with him. So I’m proving I can go anywhere and that’s what this entire new generation can do.
“I just hope fans can stay a little patient, because once we build up our experience levels – like I’m doing right now – that’s when you’ll see us all really push on and, hopefully, start contesting titles. My plan is to be a pioneer for this new generation.”
Jake Matthews has the tools to stand out at the forefront of this new wave of fighting talent. And he might be Australia’s best chance of seeing its first UFC world champion.
The Celtic Kid
Scottish roots revealed
Matthews says: “After my first amateur fight I was asked if I had a nickname and some of the guys in the gym were suggesting things like ‘Pit Bull’ and ‘The Spider’ but I really wanted something unique.
“At the time, my great grandma had just passed away and the family had put together an ancestry book. We traced the family roots all the way back to some of the first settlers who arrived in Australia from Scotland.
“So that, and with being just a teenager at the time, The Celtic Kid just made sense. It really means something to me, and when I fight, the name helps me remember I’m fighting for my entire family.”
Footy vs. MMA
Leaving Aussie rules behind
“I started playing Aussie rules when I was like seven years old,” Matthews says. “I played for about nine years with local clubs, representative sides and state teams.
“Because I was playing at such a high level my dad suggested I do something else to ensure I stayed fit in the off-season and I just happened to have a few mates that were kickboxing in a local gym. So I went along, joined in, and not long after started to take wrestling and jiu-jitsu classes.
“Then, after just eight months’ training, one of the coaches asked, ‘Do you want to have an MMA fight in four days’ time?’ Though I was still adamant I wanted to be a footy player, I said yes, more for the experience than anything else.
“The guy I was fighting was a lot older at 24, I was just 16, so I didn’t expect to win or anything, especially as he was pretty good.
“But I went from having no expectations about MMA to winning that fight and getting completely hooked. It was actually that night I made the decision to give away my football and focus on MMA full-time. A lot of people weren’t happy with my decision, but I think my career now is proof I made the right choice.”
...
