Surrey fighter’s star is on the rise
JEREMY KENNEDY: After scoring biggest win of career in Brazil, featherweight says he knows he can contend
Jeremy Kennedy feels like a UFC fighter now.
Ten days ago, the Surrey-based featherweight stepped into the Octagon in Fortaleza, Brazil, and collected the biggest win of his career, a unanimous decision victory over hometown star and former Ultimate Fighter: Brazil winner Rony Jason.
While it was Kennedy’s second win under the UFC banner, his first appearance felt much more like his final regional card contests with Vancouver’s Battlefield Fight League.
He opened the show at Rogers Arena back in August and squared off against another Canadian newcomer, Alessandro Ricci. He was the local upstart signed to bring a vocal contingent of supporters to the venue early and while nothing in this sport is preordained, putting the hometown kid in a favourable position to start the show is a staple of fight card construction and Kennedy made good on the opportunity, grinding out a decision win at lightweight and getting his foot in the door in the big leagues.
After going on the road for his sophomore appearance and coming back with his unbeaten record still intact, Kennedy is no longer unsure of his position on the roster.
“I’m a legit UFC featherweight prospect now,” said the 10-0 fighter after returning from Brazil. “Winning a fight in Brazil against a guy who won The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil and he’s had eight fights in the UFC, who is a dangerous guy, in his backyard, it’s way more real now that I can contend with any of these guys.”
The matchup with Jason was a sharp step up in competition for Kennedy and forced the Revolution Fight Team member to deal with some adversity in the cage. A flying knee earl in the second round sat him down on the canvas and a couple of the hammerfists that followed crashed home and rang his bell.
He spent most of the remainder of the round on the bottom, avoiding big shots and trying to lock down the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and recover from the heavy shots he’d taken.
“I just remember looking up at the ref — and you can even see it on the film — I made eye contact with her and gave her a head nod like, ‘Don’t stop this; I’m fine,’ ” joked Kennedy, who successfully nullified Jason’s offence and survived the round before dominating the action in the third to earn a clean sweep of the scorecards.
While he doesn’t want to get into the habit of getting clipped and being forced to defend for long stretches of time, weathering the storm and dealing with that adversity is a positive learning experience and one that only helps bolster Kennedy’s confidence going forward.
“I’ve never been hurt like that in a fight before, so I gained new experience there and I feel even more comfortable. I feel comfortable now. It’s another thing that I’ve had to deal with, another test that I’ve passed.”
Backstage after each contest, victorious fighters get brought out to speak with the assembled media, who cycle through a collection of standard questions about the fight itself and the week leading up to the bout.
At some point, every fighter is asked when he or she would like to fight next and if they have anyone in particular they would like to fight and the smart ones — the prepared ones — come ready with a name and maybe even a date. Kennedy had both, telling reporters that he’d like to return during International Fight Week in early July and mentioning Team Alpha Male fighters Darren Elkins and Andre Fili as possible opponents.
When word that Kennedy had suggested a fight between the two hit social media, Fili took exception and went on the offensive, taking 140-character shots at the Canadian talent, who had spent a few weeks training with the Sacramento-based fight team a couple years ago.
“I never trained with Fili — he was around and I think he was a little bit injured when I was there — so it’s not like I got some rounds with him and I’m like, ‘I think I can beat this guy.’ I look at the division and it makes sense to me,” said Kennedy, explaining his rationale for suggesting a bout with the irascible Team Alpga Male featherweight. “He’s a good fight that I believe I can win and it will do good for me in the rankings.
“He’s looking at the same things I’m looking at,” he added. “I’m looking just a little step ahead of me and he’s looking at somebody who has cracked the top 15, so I see his point there, but at the same time, he’s not in a position to turn away fights. He’s not that much farther ahead of me where that fight doesn’t make sense.
“I guess he can take it personally since I said his name, but I mean, it kind of caught me off guard when he came at me like that. But if you’re going to make it that way, you’re just going to make the fight happen sooner. I’m not (UFC matchmaker) Sean Shelby or anything, but I would think that’s the fight to make.”
Regardless of when his next fight comes together and whom it’s against, Kennedy now knows he belongs amid the talented collection of fighters assembled in the featherweight division.
Perhaps even more importantly, he knows he can win.
“I’m not looking at them as a step up,” he said of his contemporaries in the 145-pound ranks. “Now they’re my peers, my co-workers and I’m trying to get ahead. I expect to win when I get matched up with them, so now it’s just getting the opportunities within the UFC.”