Since turning professional in late 2017, Lethbridge’s Lucas Neufeld has had no problem finding motivation.
The early-career motivation question is the one every regional fighter has to answer — turning professional at 1-0 means the entire career is still theoretical, and what keeps a fighter going through the camps for purses that barely cover the expenses is the belief that the investment eventually pays off. Neufeld at this stage was already operating like someone who believed it.
On Feb. 10, Neufeld (1-0) will enter the cage for his second professional bout when he welcomes George Matechuck (1-1) into his backyard for a featherweight showdown at Fight Night 6.
Hometown defenses are the backbone of regional MMA — a fighter's second professional bout happening in his own city, in front of the crowd that already knows him, is exactly the kind of card-building Fight Night has always done well, and it gives a prospect the early-career advantage of performing in familiar territory while the stakes are still manageable.
Neufeld said it was an amazing feeling when he received payment for the first time as an MMA fighter, and the idea of many more pay cheques to come has him raring to go.
The first professional pay cheque is the moment fighting stops being a hobby — amateur careers run on motivation alone, but the first time a fighter gets paid for the same thing he used to do for free is when the career becomes real rather than aspirational.
“I’m so motivated by the fact that I could potentially turn this into a career,” said Neufeld in an interview.
“I’m just really excited. This could one day be my job, so I need to treat it like that now.”
Well, his job will continue Saturday night when the cage doors close on he and Matechuck.
Neufeld said he has nothing bad to say about Matechuck, but he feels out-of-town opponents might not be aware of just how supportive Lethbridge MMA fans are of their hometown fighters, which he believes will play a factor.
“I’m pumped. This is in my hometown. My whole family’s going to be there. All my friends, and all the people I love are going to be there cheering me on,” said Neufeld.
“That’s something he’s not even going to be able to prepare for.”
In addition to his friends and family, Neufeld said he will also have the support of all his sponsors (Student Works Painting, East Meets West Health Centre, Southern Chiropractic, and Lafarge Lethbridge), which he greatly appreciates.
The sponsor support at this stage of a career matters more than the money — local businesses backing a 1-0 fighter is the community literally investing in the possibility of a hometown fighter making it, and Neufeld already had that infrastructure in place before most fighters in his position do.
Leading up to the fight, Neufeld said one bump in the road he encountered was not knowing anything about Matechuck. With that being the situation, he said he’s been focusing on being well-rounded to be prepared for anything during his training camp at Progressive Fighting Academy.
The no-tape problem is one of the trickier challenges in regional MMA — when an opponent has limited footage or an unconventional style, the preparation has to cover a wider range of possibilities, and Neufeld's camp focusing on fundamentals over specific reads is exactly the right response to that uncertainty.
“It’s been all about being well-rounded and having good, strong wrestling,” said Neufeld.
“Good wresting is undeniable in MMA. You’re a fool if you think you’re going to out-strike a wrestler.”
The wrestling-first philosophy is the most reliable regional recipe — fighters who build their games around takedown defense and positional control tend to have longer careers than pure strikers at this level, and Neufeld's respect for that fundamental is part of what makes his game harder to solve than his record suggests.
Rage Fighting Series present the Fight Force MMA fight of the year between Lucas "Wild Thing" Neufeld of PFA and… https://t.co/wFq2sSxRaH
— PFA #TeamPFA (@PFAdaily) April 9, 2016
Matechuck Ready For War
Making the trip from Saskatoon, SK and training out of Alliance Training Centre, Matechuck said he knows Neufeld will bring a fast pace into the cage, so he’s been working on his movement to counteract that.
Alliance Training Centre in Saskatoon has been one of the more consistent producers of Western Canadian regional talent — a fighter coming from that room brings a certain level of technical preparation that you don't get from every gym, and Matechuck's background there explains why this fight is closer than the records suggest.
“He’s a straight shooter. He likes to push the pace,” said Matechuck in an interview.”
“That’s why my game plan has been about movement, to get around his blitz.”
Matechuck’s last bout was scheduled for June 9, 2017 against Gurjeet Bilkhu, but he was forced to withdraw due to injury. He said it was a long road to recovery, but he’s back at 100 per cent now and ready for war.
The injury-forced withdrawal and the layoff are the kind of career momentum killers that test whether a fighter actually wants this — coming back after a year-plus away, into enemy territory, against a hometown favourite, is either a sign Matechuck believes in what he's building or a gamble that the timing couldn't be worse.
His last time competing in the cage was back on March 4, 2016 where he suffered a first round submission loss to Clay Dixon.
He said heading into the fight against Dixon was similar to this bout with Neufeld in that he’d been out action for awhile. He admitted he felt a little cage rust his bout with Dixon, but said that won’t be the case this time around.
The cage-rust admission is honest self-scouting — fighters who acknowledge the psychological variable of a long layoff are usually the ones who actually address it in preparation, and Matechuck identifying aggression and movement as the fixes suggests he's thought carefully about what went wrong last time rather than just assuming it was bad luck.
“I didn’t have the animosity I did in my previous fights,” said Matechuck
“I really needed to bring that back, so that’s why I’ve been focussing on being more aggressive, and having more movement this time around.”
