Mike Geib had to do the best he could with the time he had.
An hour and a half before weigh-ins on Friday, the Estevan fighter was offered a bout on Saturday's Hard Knocks 33 card at Spectra Place.
Although Geib lost to Winnipeg's Thomas Richardson late in the first round, he was satisfied with his performance given the time he had to prepare.
"Obviously I'm disappointed in my outcome, but I think on short notice I did all right. I would've liked to have kept it standing, but that's OK. I hear this kid's a tough kid and he might be going for a title fight," he said. "I was just glad to get to be part of the show there, it was kind of last minute."
Richardson (4-0) slammed Geib on the ground twice before ending the fight with a couple of blows to the head.
"When he first took me down, I had a guillotine, but I didn't want to pull guard on him because of where we were in the ring. If I pulled guard on him and he slipped out of the guillotine, he would've had me right up against the fence," Geib said.
"At the point where he was slamming me down on the mat, I was actually waiting for him to slam me so there was an arm bar there, but he was a smart kid. As soon as he slammed me down, he picked me up so I couldn't swing my legs over."
Although Geib's record now stands at 1-4, he said the more time in the ring, the better.
"I know it's another loss on my record, but it's more experience. I know Estevan has got some great MMA fans now, they know what it's all about, so I'm pretty sure they knew it was a pretty good show we tried to put on.
"I fight out of my garage with a couple of buddies. I'm (just) hoping that I'm even in the same category as some of these guys with the bigger clubs."
He added that he's looking for training partners, asking anyone interested to contact him at 306-461-6877.
The other local fighter on the card was Craig Gaudry (2-3), who lost to Jordan O'Connor of Kenora, Ont.
Gaudry landed a couple of strikes to the head early, but soon found himself in a choke he couldn't get out of, ending the fight.
Estevan's Felix Jimenez had also been scheduled to fight on the card, but he had to withdraw with a broken foot.
The program was smaller than usual, with only 10 fights taking place.
One of them featured Hard Knocks' first women's fight in Estevan, with Victoria Chadwick of Thunder Bay going up against Lynell House of Red Deer.
After a first round fought mostly standing up, House took Chadwick down early in the second and landed some punches to the head from behind to win the fight by technical knockout.
In the final bout of the evening, Calgary's Phil Towler bested Brandon's Kevin Taylor in a 205-pound fight that went the distance.
Towler won by unanimous decision after using the ground and pound effectively throughout the fight.
Two other fights went the full three rounds. A bloodied Steven Arens (Saskatoon) defeated Ryan Proulx (Winnipeg) in a marathon tilt that saw both fighters collapse to the mat from fatigue when it was over.
Meanwhile, Bob Macumber defeated Harold Brun in a rematch from Hard Knocks 24 last June, a fight that was ruled no contest after Brun kneed Macumber in the head.
Brandon's Les Bisson ended his fight against John Wapioke of Kenora almost before it began, hammering Wapioke with his fists right off the bat and raining down blows until it was stopped.
In other action, Nic Dupasquier of Winnipeg defeated Tyrone Halkett of La Ronge, Ben Oliviero of Winnipeg defeated Landon Powell of Regina, and Nic Grandbois of Kenora defeated Jordy Correia of Thompson, Man.
The next Hard Knocks card in Estevan will be Oct. 5.
