Local mixed martial arts fighter Josh Heinz is coming close to home next month with the intention to knock someone out.
Heinz, a light-heavyweight fighter with a 2-1 pro record, is set to face Maicon da Silva Lemos, who stands at 3-0, as part of the main card event at Prestige Fight Club 1: Atonement on Oct. 24 at Crescent Point Place in Weyburn. He said the plan heading in is to put on a good show for his family, friends and fans who head up to Weyburn from his hometown of Estevan, while advancing his record to 3-1 in the process.
“I’m fighting a Brazilian which is awesome,” said Heinz, 27 and listed as 5-foot-10 and 205 pounds. “To fight a guy from out of the country and to share the cage with another culture, that’s an honour.”
Lemos may be familiar to local MMA fans thanks to his victory two years ago against Estevan local Wade Baldwin in an amateur fight. The only thing that Heinz knows about him other than that is the Brazilian likes to throw punches from an upright position.
“You can expect a stand-up fight, unless he decides he doesn’t want to get hit hard and goes to the ground,” he said. “I’m cool with that too, but I’m expecting it’s going to be a good stand-up battle.”
To prepare for his first pro event in his home province, Heinz is running two-a-day practices at his fighting base in Lethbridge, Alberta, with former UFC athlete Jordan Mein. He said they spar and work on cardio from Monday to Thursday and focus mainly on sparring on Saturdays, which is all done in an attempt to improve upon his last fight that took place on June 26 where Heinz lost by technical knockout to Anton Tokarchuk.
“I was undefeated until that last match,” said Heinz. “There were some things that happened in that last fight that were bad bounces and stuff like that. I’ll never make an excuse, but right now I’m going to just keep doing my thing.”
Cord Crowthers, CEO and Matchmaker of Prestige FC, said Heinz’ fight on the main card will be part of the second professional MMA event ever staged in the province after the recent UFC battle in Saskatoon. He said only amateur MMA fights were allowed to be sanctioned in the province until eight weeks ago and Prestige FC is excited to bring some of the world’s best fighters to Weyburn for their first event.
“We’ve got UFC veterans,” said Crowthers, noting the main event will feature four-time UFC fighter Mike Rhodes against Ryan Machan, who is the world’s top 170 pound fighter outside of the UFC. “We’ve got World Series of Fighting veterans. We’ve got up and comers from across Canada, the U.S. and Brazil. This is a step up from the amateur shows that have been running in the province, including our show, in the past 10 years. The calibre of athletes is just second to none in the world.”
Heinz said MMA is not that big in Estevan and area and the hope is more professional fighting events being staged in Saskatchewan will change that. He said taking up mixed martial arts in venues such as the Estevan Combat Sports and Fitness centre helped him change his life for the better and more kids coming out to see these great fighters at Prestige FC 1: Atonement in Weyburn next month may go a long ways in helping them better themselves as well.
“For anybody that hasn’t watched MMA, it’s definitely a fun night out,” he said. “It’s something different. I encourage people to check it out. It’s life changing to a lot of people.”
