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Thursday, Feb 06, 2014

WSOF Canada: Lee Mein Says Escaping “Comfort Zone” Key Reason Behind Fighting at 46

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

Father of UFC’s Jordan Mein Set to Fight Tim Hague

By Kelsey Mowatt

Lee Mein is well accustomed to fielding questions about his son Jordan, due to the latter’s tremendous success, but these days the renowned coach may be receiving more calls about his own fighting career. The reason being that on February 21st, the 46 year-old Mein will battle UFC veteran Tim Hague at a World Series of Fighting Canada show in Edmonton, Alberta. The bout will be the 19th of Mein’s pro career, and the latest opportunity to apply his training in the cage.

“Yeah, that’s a big thing, and it motivates me to train and be in shape too you know?” Mein said on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio, while discussing what motivates him to keep fighting. “You coach all the time and you’re repping things but you’re not pushing yourself. So it’s physically a challenge for me to stay in shape at 46.”

“And then the mental grind that comes from it; I know I have to hit the bag today, I have to spar, you do that stuff where normally you just get in your comfort zone,” added Mein, who ended a three fight losing streak in October by stopping Bobby Kalmakoff. “I like that it forces me out of my comfort zone and that’s a big part of it. That whole challenge.”

Mein’s efforts not only serve as an example to the 24 year-old Jordan, but to all of the fighters who train out of the Canadian Martial Arts Centre in Lethbridge.

“I want my guys to know to always keep learning, to keep trying and step in there,” said Mein, who has fought noted vets like Krzysztof Soszynski, Dan Severn, Rolles Gracie and Jeff Monson throughout his career. “I want to lead by example on that. There’s a time when just physically, a couple of years ago, I had a herniated disc in my neck, and I was like ‘man, I don’t think I can teach’, I was in so much pain. But now that’s all backed off and I didn’t have to have surgery yet.”

Mein

“I’m always battling injuries but I feel like this is the best I’ve felt, in a few years physically,” furthered Mein. “So, I want to take advantage of it and I want to fight while I can. If six months from now I’m feeling banged up, and I can only coach and roll a little bit, well then I’ll do that. I’ll find a way to do something.”

Hague will be competing for the first time since July, when he lost by unanimous decision to fellow UFC vet Kalib Starnes, while fighting for Aggression Fighting Championship. Prior to that, the 30 year-old stopped Jordan Tracey at a King of the Cage Canada show in June.

“Tim had gone on Facebook and kind of challenged that he wanted to fight me,” said Mein, when asked how the upcoming fight came about. “Nothing disrespectful, he just thought it would be a good fight, and I’ve always thought that. I’ve always liked watching him fight, we’ve been friends, you know, over the years…I’ve always wanted to fight him. I take a lot of fights on short notice to help the promoters, guys trained to get in fights, so I’ll get in there and scrap.”

“But for Tim, knowing how good he was, I wanted to put a solid camp in, be in shape, and give the best fight that I can give, win or lose,” Mein added. “So when World Series of Fighting came up and said ‘hey, do you want to fight Tim?’, and it worked out it was like eight weeks later, that’s about the same amount of time it takes my body to fall apart training, so that’s about right for me. So I said ‘yeah, let’s do it.”

The February 21st WSOF Canada show will be hosted by Edmonton’s Expo Centre, and will feature Ryan Ford battling Joel Powell for the promotion’s Canadian welterweight title.

 

posted by FCF Staff @ 11:59 am
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