Doerksen appreciates jiu-jitsu show

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This article was published 04/04/2023 (1095 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Joe Doerksen looked back at the first-ever submission jiu-jitsu show held in Brandon, he saw nothing but positives.

The 45-year-old jiu-jitsu black belt, who had nine UFC fights between 2004 and 2010, competed twice at Brandon Bouts at Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium on Saturday alongside a lot of athletes who didn’t have nearly his experience.

“I think it’s such a good opportunity for people to get out in front of a crowd and be uncomfortable and perform under pressure,” Doerksen said. “It’s phenomenal experience, especially for young athletes who are thinking of getting into something similar, MMA or whatever. It’s a good life experience no matter what.”

Doerksen, who lived in Brandon for four years and is married to a Brandonite, played volleyball, soccer and track and field when he was in junior high in New Bothwell, a tiny community south of Winnipeg and northwest of Steinbach.

After a move to Winnipeg, he didn’t make any of the teams and searched for something new.

“I started doing martial arts,” Doerksen said. “My brother and I started taking karate lessons together. It was OK but it was no contact but it was something to do. At 18, I started training jiu-jitsu and just liked the fact that you can put your hands on people, and if you don’t do it right, you know for sure it didn’t work.

“It just felt more practical and I never stopped.”

He sure didn’t.

The famous UFC 1 card that essentially launched mixed martial arts took place in November 1993. MMA was still in its infancy when he entered the Bas Rutten Invitational in Denver, Colo., on Feb. 6, 1999. He beat Abundio Munoz (rear-naked choke in two minutes 41 seconds), Ron Lobley (rear-naked choke in 1:16) and Dennis Reed (triangle choke in 1:23), vaulting him into the final.

He lost his first professional fight in his fourth match of the day, falling to a submission by future UFC veteran Eugene Jackson. He wasn’t paid a nickel for his day’s work.

“It was a weird time,” Doerksen said. “I was good at submissions and most of those guys weren’t. Some were. You have to start somewhere I guess and I just dove in. It was one fight at a time after that.”

He fought three more times in 1999 — on different days thankfully — and faced future UFC champion Matt Hughes in just his seventh fight, which he lost by technical knockout.

“I never had plans at the start,” Doerksen said. “The first fight was just to see what happened and the second and third fight were ‘Oh, I can make a couple hundred bucks. That’s cool.’ Then all of a sudden it was ‘Maybe one day I can fight in the UFC and sure enough.”

By the time he made his promotional debut at UFC 49 on Aug. 21, 2004, Doerksen held a record of 27-5 in a variety of organizations.

“It’s a different experience for a lot of people,” Doerksen said of fighting in the UFC. “It was for me. I was a kid from a small town and all of a sudden there are a lot more cameras, a lot more lights and a lot more people. The first one — (a loss to Joe Riggs at UFC 49) — I was a little deer caught in the headlights and I don’t think I fought the way I could have.

“But that’s life. You just jump in there and do it. Right or wrong, you have to start somewhere and I kept doing it. I got more than one chance.”

Doerksen, who had three stints in the world’s biggest MMA promotion, ended up facing a who’s who of the top fighters of that era during his career, including David Loiseau, Ed Herman, Patrick Cote, Matt Lindland, Nate Marquardt, Paulo Filho, Ed Herman, Jason MacDonald, Tom Lawlor, C.B. Dollaway, Dan Miller and Hector Lombard.

“They’re all people,” Doerksen said. “We all come from different places but everyone is the same. People are people. It’s the same as any other sport or any other business. You’re going to find people you like and people you don’t like. Nothing really changes. Life doesn’t change. You still have to go home and pay your taxes, wash your dishes and do your laundry.

“But if you like doing it, then you should do it. You have to give it a try.”

Doerksen fought 67 times professionally, posting an impressive 51-16 record, with 10 knockout victories, 33 submissions and just eight decisions.

After a split-decision loss to Dan Miller at UFC 124 on Dec. 11, 2010 — Georges St-Pierre famously battered Josh Koscheck that night — Doerksen was released from the organization for the third time. He fought six more times in smaller promotions.

Doerksen beat Tony Lopez via unanimous decision at King of the Cage Madness on Sept. 14, 2014 in Winnipeg and decided to call it quits.

“It was getting harder and harder to find fights,” Doerksen said. “There were more athletes willing to fight for less money. I was working too much for too little reward. Then one day I was told I was going to be a father and I thought ‘You know what? Fifteen years is enough. I’m going to be a dad and go all in.”

“She probably saved me from horrific injuries,” Doerksen said with a smile as his seven-year-old daughter Katherine listened carefully and occasionally interjected.

Her younger brother Nash turns three in a couple of weeks.

Doerksen lived in Winnipeg for nearly two decades before meeting his wife Lindsay McConnell of Brandon, who was in the city going to school. The pair moved to Brandon for four years, headed to Vancouver Island for a year and are now back in Winnipeg for the last year and a half.

After working in his wife’s family business in Brandon, he held a variety of jobs on the Island and now works for a tree company in Winnipeg as an arborist.

“I knew for a year or two that it was getting close to that time,” Doerksen said. “I grew up in a traditional home. My parents were always home and there for you and I wanted to give my kids the same experience. I knew it was time, and I made that my priority.”

On Saturday, he fought to a draw with Donny Thivierge of Thunder Bay in the team event, and then beat Logan McDonald of Kenora with a late armbar in their 10-minute match.

“I don’t think I could have caught him early in the fight,” Doerksen said. “He was very good defensively. He did a good job position-wise but we were getting deep into the match and we were both starting to get tired. I definitely have some experience on him and I could just feel that he was maybe getting a little on the tired side and saw an opportunity.

“I knew something was going to come up and I went for it and sure enough it went my way.”

Doerksen is now at the gym once or twice a week instead of the four times he was there when he was a pro fighter. He was impressed by Brandon Bouts, which was put on by his friend Chris Kading, another jiu-jitsu black belt who runs the Wamma Brandon gym.

He’s also impressed by what Kading has done for jiu-jitsu.

“He loves the sport so much and he works so hard at it,” Doerksen said. “He’s doing it just because he loves it. Anybody who has experience in the sport knows that it’s beneficial. It’s good for you.

“It gives things to you, it gives you opportunities and you want to share that with other people and I think that’s what he’s doing.”

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