Joe Doerksen is calling it his biggest win and he's certainly not wrong. Doerksen's 45th career MMA victory coming last week when he choked out Tom Lawlor in the 2nd round at UFC 113 in Montreal. As a Canadian on the card he had the entire Bell Centre cheering him on but Doerksen told me he tried to ignore the noise and pretend like it was just any other fight. No easy feat with almost everyone in the building in your corner. Doerksen who originally hails from New Bothwell, Manitoba took a couple big shots in the early portions of the fight and at one point got dropped and appeared to be in big trouble. But Doerksen the warrior that he is battled thru it and by the end of the opening round he had all the momentum. It was one of the most exciting 1st rounds I've seen in quite sometime and the UFC had no choice but to show the undercard fight on the pay-per-view. Doerksen found his range again to start the 2nd round. Lawlor then caught a kick and looked for the takedown, but in a scramble against the fence Lawlor made the mistake of exposing his neck. A big no-no against a jiu-jitsu expert like Doerksen. Suddenly Doerksen took his back pouncing like a back ally cat latching on a rear-naked choke and moments later Lawlor was tapping to give Doerksen his first UFC victory in more than 5 years. Speaking to Doerksen this week he said he knew Lawlor was going to come out aggressive. That he did but Lawlor gassed out quick. Doerksen believes he's getting more and more comfortable with every match despite the fact he's now 32. And you can't argue after watching his most recent performance. After the referee stopped the fight Doerksen said he just suddenlty realized what a huge win it really was. Not just for him but for everybody else thats helped him get this far. You could just see the excitement in his eyes in the post fight interview even giving a shout out to Winnipeggers. Unfortuneately he was the only Canadian to win on this night.
And lucky for us Doerksen came out of the fight healthy and will now fight right here at home at CFC 5 on June the 4th at the Convention Centre. This fight was already lined up prior to signing with the UFC so Dana White and company agreed to let Doerksen keep this fight. He has a few bumps and bruises and a small cut from his UFC bout but its all minor stuff. Doerksen is taking on Ontario's Shawn Marchand. The "Machine Gun" has a modest 8-5 record and shouldn't pose much of a threat for "El Dirte". But after this win Doerksen will have a target on his back with Marchand looking to make a name for himself. Doerksen is a tireless worker in the gym and while most fighters take a nice break after a big win Doerksen is already back in the gym doing "light stuff" He says he'll go hard again beginning on Monday. Regardless of what happens at the CFC event Doerksen will get at least one more fight in the UFC and probably more if he keeps putting on a show like he did on Saturday night.
Get breaking National news
Enjoy this weekend's Strikeforce event with UFC 114 just 2 weeks away. I'm liking Brett Rogers chances to upset the champ Allistair Overeem in his first title defence. But one punch is all it takes. Check back closer to fight night for my UFC 114 picks.
Russ Hobson
Global Winnipeg
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.