Unified MMA champ Demarce returning home to meet fans

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This article was published 13/10/2016 (3499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To the untrained eye, a mixed martial arts fight can appear to be little more than a bar fight with a referee.

Curtis Demarce is proof that it’s much, much more.

It’s a lesson he’ll share at a meet-and-greet at Brown’s Social House today at 7 p.m.

The 28-year-old Brandonite became the first person to bring home a professional combat sports belt last month when he won Unified MMA’s featherweight title, beating Parwez Ghulam in the third round by technical knockout in Edmonton.

But before he could strap on the belt, he had to solve a vexing problem during the fight.

Demarce was facing a taller man with a boxing background. If he stayed outside, Ghulam would pick him apart with punches. Demarce, a brawler, had to find a way to get close to his opponent to work where he was most effective and the taller man was at a disadvantage.

“It was a difficult one,” he said of the fight. “There wasn’t much footage on him so we couldn’t stick to a game plan but I knew that he was the taller, rangier fighter. I knew that I had to close the distance and fight on the inside, dirty box and try and get that takedown. He wouldn’t allow me because he was running away the whole time. It was more or less a game of me chasing him and finding my right timing.”

Naturally, Demarce had another obstacle placed in his path.

Prior to the fight, he had been training at AKA in San Jose, Calif., one of the top gyms in the sport. One of his priorities was fine-tuning his leg kicks. If the bigger man’s legs were kicked over and over, Demarce would have an easier time getting inside because Ghulam wouldn’t be able to move as quickly.

The theory made sense, until Demarce threw his first kick early in the fight and caught Ghulam on the knee, breaking his own foot.

“The pain started to really take a toll,” he said. “Every movement and every time I went flat footed it was very difficult for me but the adrenalin took over.”

That took kicks out of Demarce’s arsenal.

And it didn’t help when Ghulam caught him with a head kick in the second round, breaking Demarce’s nose.

When trouble mounts, fighters invariably go back to what they know best. For Demarce, that meant unleashing something he trains in the gym.

“He was working that angle and circling to his right all the time, and I threw a fake jab up top and then threw a spinning backfist,” he said. “It really blindsides people because it comes from a different angle. He never saw it coming and it caught him clean on the chin.”

Demarce could instantly tell that his opponent was staggered by the surprise blow and he attacked.

“I got a high crotch single-leg takedown, picked him up, slammed him, he turtled up on the mat and I just machine gunned him from the back until the ref came in and stopped the fight,” he said. “The crowd went nuts. It was a difficult fight just due to the fact of being frustrating but I was very happy with the outcome.”

The end came at 4:14 in the third of the five-round fight when the referee came in to protect the dazed Ghulam, a 26-year-old from Uzbekistan who fights out of Edmonton, from further damage.

Demarce, who is 18-12, is on a three-fight winning streak. It was his second fight for Unified, one of a number of independent fight organizations across Canada.

He would love it if his belt helped lead to a growing acceptance and popularity for the sport in the city. That’s part of the reason for the event on Thursday.

“I hope it opens the door for Brandon and we can actually start building off that,” Demarce said. “I’d love to expand MMA in our community and let not only the people but the youth understand martial arts and really grow the sport in our province.”

The Brandon Academy of Mixed Martial Arts will be at Demarce’s event to talk about their club.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson