Adam Hunter (photo via J. W. Jessy Forsyth - Cinefreq.com / CreativeCommons: Attribution-ShareAlike)

By Kelsey Mowatt

After putting away UFC veteran Chris Dempsey in June, it wasn’t long before Adam Hunter received an invitation to fight Ryan Janes at UFC on FOX 21.  Although the victory was Hunter’s seventh straight, the middleweight admits he wasn’t expecting a call-up to the UFC, quite yet.

“Actually no. I thought I was going to have to get a couple more fights,” the Canadian fighter reported on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio. “I didn’t even hear about the Vancouver card until I was told that I was asked to be on it. No. I thought I was going to have to get in a couple more fights and then maybe get the call. My coaches and some people that I work and train with, they were kind of saying that maybe I’ll get the call, you’ll get the call, but it’s not something that was really on my mind.”

The 32 year-old Hunter has been steadily rising the Canadian ranks in recent years, thanks to a seven fight winning streak, which includes six stoppage wins via strikes. But, the “Warhammer” understands it was his 40 second knockout of Dempsey, which pulled the lever on a UFC offer.

“I think it did. I really think it did,” said Hunter, while referring to his win over Dempsey. “I said in another interview that it’s one thing to have quick victories, and knockout finishes and all this stuff with regional level guys. I mean up until Chris Dempsey, people probably said ‘who the hell is Adam Hunter?’ You know what I mean? Just the same as they would say it for someone else.”

“But, to go and square off with a UFC veteran, someone people know and someone who has earned his way there, you know, and someone who clearly has some skills: to go and beat someone of that level, the same way that you’re beating everyone else, I think that it shows them that I am the real deal and that I do have what it takes…” added Hunter, who trains out of the Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts.

In Janes, Hunter (7-1) will face a fellow Canadian, and a fellow UFC newcomer. The middleweight and Zugec MMA fighter has gone 8-1 to date.

“I don’t know too much about him,” said Hunter, who served in the Canadian military and was deployed in Haiti, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Obviously I know that he’s a jiu-jitsu black belt, so obviously he’s dangerous in that world. But, other than that, just things that people have said to me, or interviews, or stuff like that…I’m excited to fight him though.”

“From what I hear, we’ve definitely both earned it and I think it’s going to be a good fight. I’m just happy. I just want to get in there in bang. I love fighting and I was born for it, and that’s what I do.”

UFC on FOX 21 will be hosted by Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on August 27th.