Issue 123
December 2014
Olivier Aubin-Mercier had a point to prove after freezing on his UFC debut in the TUF Nations finale. He did it and secured a $50,000 bonus
Olivier Aubin-Mercier revealed he dreamed about the $50,000 bonus-check-winning submission he produced in Halifax, Nova Scotia at UFC Fight Night 54.
The TUF Nations: Canada vs. Australia 170lb runner-up defeated Jake Lindsey via an inverted triangle shoulder lock submission at 3:22 of the second round on the Rory MacDonald vs. Tarec Saffiedine undercard to secure a ‘Performance of the Night’ reward.
A member of the Canadian national judo team, the Boucherville, Quebec City native bounced back from his TUF setback to steal the show in Halifax with the rare shoulder lock. He says he perfected it though years on the judo mat and was synonymous with it in Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition.
“Without sounding a bit cheesy, I actually dreamed about that submission. I had the kimura going there but I thought to myself, ‘Why not try something a bit special. Something that people don’t get to see a lot.’ And especially not like this. So I went for sankaku (triangle) and I was just squeezing it and squeezing it.
“At one point I was going to let go and go back to the kimura. But I saw he was starting to panic and so I squeezed it some more. I could see in his face he was panicking and you can see on the replay my own face, I start smiling. That’s because I was thinking, ‘Oh yes, $50,000 is coming to me.’”
He adds: “This is one of my favourite techniques from judo, and when I was competing in jiu-jitsu tournaments in Montreal I was known for this submission. This technique was my calling card in BJJ, but I’ve never done it in MMA before so it was great to pull it off in the UFC.”
Aubin-Mercier began strongly, showing flashes of an improved striking game. He worked good leg kicks in round one and based his grappling off precise boxing.
Heading into round two he opened up even more. He landed a couple of combinations on Lindsey and parlayed that into a takedown. Working from side control, the 25-year-old wrapped his legs around Lindsey’s head and stepped over to secure the inverted triangle while going for the lock, which forced Lindsey to tap.
“I felt great in there. The was much less pressure. I truly had fun this time. I was really, really nervous on my UFC debut, but I was back to my old self here and there’s so much more to come.”
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