Jordan Mein (far). Photo credit: Esther Lin/Strikeforce

By Kelsey Mowatt

2013 was somewhat of a mixed bag for Jordan Mein, as although the promising welterweight took out Dan Miller in his UFC debut, he was stopped and injured in his next bout against Matt Brown one month later. After recovering from the broken orbital bone he incurred at UFC on FOX 7 in April, however, a torn MCL meant 2013 would close without Mein fighting again. It was a year that saw Mein introduce himself to the mainstream, MMA masses, but it was a shortened campaign in the end.

“You just deal with it,” Lee Mein, Jordan’s father and coach relayed on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio, while discussing his son’s year. “It’s all feedback. Positive or negative, it’s feedback. It sucked that he hurt his knee because it wasn’t just the downtime, that sucked too, but he’s not on the mat learning and rolling, working on technical stuff, which we all need to get better at…So that was the downside to the injury.”

“But mentally, he’s more geared, more focused than ever because of the time off,” added Mein, who will fight Tim Hague this Friday under the World Series of Canada banner in Edmonton. “If he fights in April, that will be a year since he fought. That’s the longest stretch he’s had since he was sixteen, when he turned pro. He’s never been off for more than three, four months before in his life. So this is a big thing and he wants to get back in there and fight.”

Lee Mein (left) and Jordan (photo via canadianmartialartscentre.com)

Not long after Lee Mein appeared on FCF Radio, the UFC announced that Jordan will battle Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC on FOX 11, which will take place in Orlando on April 19th.

“He’s mentally motivated and physically he’s in great shape,” Mein added about his 24 year-old son, who prior to facing Brown had scored wins over Miller, Forrest Petz and Tyler Stinson. “So, overall it was good. People are interested in seeing him fight again and that’s exciting, that everyone is still cheering for him and wanting to see him scrap, because he’s exciting and they know what kind of fight he brings.”

While officially, Mein incurred his first UFC loss to Brown and also broke his orbital in the bout, there were positives to draw on. Mein had Brown hurt and in trouble early on, before the latter came back to take the memorable fight in round two.

“We knew that fight was going to be super tough going into it; that’s why Jordan wanted that fight,” the 46 year-old Mein stated. “And when it was over and he lost, we were like okay, it’s tough to lose but you had a great fight…to find out he had a broken orbital bone from the first 30 seconds of the fight, anyone who’s ever trained and got poked in the eye or anything, they know what that’s like pain wise and how distracting it is.”

“To know what he experienced in that fight and to see how he tried turning it around, dropping him with a liver shot, couldn’t see out of his eye during the fight, no vision at all, everything all blurry, and keep fighting, keep hunting for the finish, keep taking the punches that he took and keep fighting, for me as a coach, showed his mental toughness,” added Mein. “His physical toughness is way beyond what I thought it was.”

UFC on FOX 11 will be hosted by Orlando’s Amway Center and will feature Travis Browne taking on fellow heavyweight contender Fabricio Werdum in the main event.