Issue 090

July 2012

Tristar gym’s 19-10-1 songwriting Canadian lightweight on why he gets no love from the major promotions.

You fought UFC welterweight and teammate Rory MacDonald earlier on in your career, losing by third-round TKO. How weird is that you’re training partners now?

“It’s not that weird. He was the guy who changed me from being an aggressive idiot to who I am today. He beat the crap out of me in the third round, but to be honest we’ve been friends for a while. I knew him when we fought each other. We were friends. I helped him train for his first fight in the UFC. I’ve fought a few people who I’m friends with and we’re still friends afterwards.

“The first time I came out to Tristar to train, I actually stayed at Rory’s house for two weeks. Even though we fought, he’s a really good friend of mine.”

How did you get into MMA?

“I started training when I was in high school. My friend got me into it when he asked me if I wanted to do this thing called ‘no holds barred.’ I was a skateboarder around that time and really into extreme sports and it sounded fun, so I started training. I didn’t think I was going to be fighting or anything, but I really liked it and I thought I was pretty good at it. Two months later, the coaches were like, ‘So, do you want to fight?’ I thought guys just fought and that was it. I didn’t know they had three or four years’ worth of training, but I decided to fight anyway. I knocked the guy out in my first fight and was addicted straight away.”

After watching a few of your fights, you seem like an incredibly aggressive fighter. How do you flip the switch to go from calm Kajan to aggressive Kajan?

“I started so young in this sport that I’ve pretty much grown up in it. A lot of the fights people see now are from earlier on in my career. There’s a fight that’s pretty well-known where me and another fighter were having an intense staredown and he put his forehead on my head, so I pushed him away with my head (laughs). It kind of looks like a headbutt, but it wasn’t. I don’t fight with anger anymore. I go in there happy because I get to fight.”

You started in the Canadian scene back in 2002, which is arguably one of the best scenes outside of the US for bringing out talent. What do you think of the Canadian scene now considering you were there from the beginning?

“Back in the day, the Canadian MMA scene was like a new frontier. There wasn’t anything like the Unified Rules that we have now, as different promotions allowed or didn’t allow certain things. People weren’t nearly as skilled, so if you were just a tough guy with decent cardio, you could do OK. The scene now is insane. We have some of the best up-and-coming fighters in the world. I think a lot of our top guys would beat a lot of the top American fighters. I’d like to see an event like that happen soon.”

You seem to be a pretty creative person, as it’s well-known that you have other creative outputs that you want to explore. What else do you want to do besides from MMA?

“I guess I can thank my parents for that (laughs). Both of my parents were dancers and both of them taught dance. My mom was a gymnast as well. My sister is a professional artist, who lives in South Africa right now, painting giant murals. I have a lot of different avenues that I would like to look at one day. Sometimes, it’s difficult because it’s hard for me to stay focused. I can’t think about MMA all the time, so when I get home I’ll be writing music or working on stunt scenes because I want to be a stunt actor. It’s a detriment. I’m too talented (laughs).”

What are your plans for this year?

“I just want to get into a promotion that pays me good money. Some people say that I’m jaded when I say this, but I’ve been in this sport for a long time. I’ve been fighting professionally for 10 years now and I make average money for fights, but it’s not enough for me to sustain a decent living without having 10 side jobs. I want to be able to get into the UFC, because I see a lot of guys there that I know I could beat the crap out of in a round, but I don’t really get any love because of my losses earlier in my career.”