UFC has new Maine event
Native son Powell set for UFC debut
Devin Powell had planned to take a break from training. The Maine product had just come off a successful debut in the World Series of Fighting cage, his back was beat up, and his foot was probably fractured.
So he took a trip with his fiancee, did some jiu-jitsu teaching, played a concert with his band, drank, caroused. Then he got a message — a fighter had fallen off an upcoming card in Bangor. Was he up for it?
Saying yes set in motion a heady series of events that led to what will be his UFC debut tonight in Phoenix.
The Bangor card wasn’t just any local show. It was the backdrop for a taping of UFC boss Dana White’s “Lookin’ for a Fight” reality show, in which White — a former resident of the state — tours different regions of the country looking for prospects.
Right after accepting the August fight, Powell, 28, took the plunge.
“I woke up the next morning at 181 (pounds), and then I (had) three weeks to be at 160,” Powell told the Herald.
But the soft-spoken, tattooed guitarist from South Berwick, Maine, came through in a big way, fighting through a horribly broken nose and injured knee to land a stiff right uppercut that dropped his foe, opening up the fight-ending choke in the first round.
White, positioned cage side, came out of his seat as the bombs flew. Afterward in the locker room, with cameras rolling, White shook Powell’s hand and told him he was interested. Powell smiled ear to ear, his friends and family cheered, and a week later he had signed a UFC contract.
“Everything kind of fell into place for me,” Powell said. “I kind of felt like it was my place, my time.”
The “Lookin’ for a Fight” episode premiered last week on YouTube, and Powell plunges into the UFC tonight in Phoenix against fellow UFC first-timer Drakkar Close. That preliminary bout, preceding the Fox Sports 1 broadcast, will air on the UFC’s Fight Pass digital subscription service.
Powell found MMA as he came of age playing in his rock band. He briefly went to college “just because I thought I was supposed to,” but dropped out after a year. He took a humdrum job at the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, N.H., where he worked for seven-and-ahalf years. He worked as a bouncer at night, taught some jiu-jitsu, and opened a small academy.
His routine was to come home from second-shift duty and flip on “WEC Wreckage,” a fight highlight show from the defunct World Extreme Cagefighting promotion, which was owned by the UFC and spotlighted lighter weight classes.
Powell saw shades of himself in welterweight Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit, a hunter known for emptying his arsenal and pursuing the finish at all times.
“I absolutely loved it,” Powell said. “I wanted to find something I was passionate about again. I fell in love with the sport.”
Powell first took up training at a gym in Portsmouth, and had his first amateur fight at a high school gym in Nashua, N.H., losing by split decision. He kept fighting, rising to the top of New England lightweight prospects.
It was a surprising ascent considering Powell’s lack of athletic background. He dabbled in lacrosse and football before high school, but didn’t play anything after that, gravitating to music.
He’s drawn to MMA more because of the crowds and the adrenaline rush, akin to the charge he gets out of music.
“You get that big rush from playing shows, playing music, and having a crowd and having a fan base,” he said. “It’s just something that I miss, and doing a boring, monotonous job, clicking a button all day long, I needed some sort of rush.”
Lauzon jumps back in
Also fighting tonight in Phoenix is local favorite Joe Lauzon, marking his 23rd UFC appearance. The East Bridgewater product faces leg-lock expert Marcin Held in the co-main event of the Fox Sports 1 portion of the card.
“I think everything this kid is good at, I think I’m better,” Lauzon, 32, told the Herald. “I kind of feel like he’s where I was when I first broke into the UFC. I had OK stand up, but I was pretty much a grappler. It’s a really good matchup.”
The leg attacks of Held have caught many opponents off guard, but Lauzon said he used to use them in much the same way in his wrestling career.
“Foot locks are really a niche part of grappling, a lot of guys stay away from them because they are kind of dangerous to try and train,” he said. “It’s really risky, it’s like a Hail Mary . . . but I’m well versed. Nothing he’s going to do is going to surprise me there.”
Lauzon embarks on a new year as one of the most tenured fighters on the UFC roster, and for the first time will compete on the same night as his idol and former coach
B.J. Penn, who headlines against Yair Rodriguez.
It’s a make-or-break fight for Penn, a vaunted MMA legend who hasn’t won a fight since 2010, and was soundly shut down by Frankie
Edgar in his last bout in 2014. Like many MMA devotees, Lauzon, who once lived and trained with Penn in his native Hawaii, wants to believe the magic is still in the former UFC two-division champion.
“He’s one of my favorites fighters ever, I think he can move mountains,” Lauzon said. “I’m excited to see him fight. I’m going to finish my fight as quick as I can and get to a TV so I can watch.”