Jamey-Lyn Horth Wessels has been knocking on doors, but no one is answering.
After moving to 2-0 at BFL 57 in September, Horth Wessels has been actively looking for another fight, but has not found anyone willing to step to the plate.
“I feel like with everything in life and sports there’s so much politics involved, and people are just trying to protect their record,” said Horth Wessels.
“They want to get in and do bigger and better things, which is great, but I feel it’s not on good merit. People are picking and choosing fights.”
Other than being offered a fight with TKO MMA on an unattainable five days notice, it’s been slim pickings for the 29-year-old Squamish, B.C. resident training out of The Sound Martial Arts.
While she did mention names like Jade Masson-Wong and Corinne Laframboise as opponents she’d like to share the cage with, Horth Wessels said she will fight anyone, anywhere.
“I don’t care; I want the fights. I know I have the talent and I know I have what it takes,” said Horth Wessels.
“I’ll take anything. I just want to get those extra steps and I feel like I’m so close. I feel like a couple more fights and I could be onto bigger things.”
Over the past few months, Horth Wessels said there have been several opponents agree to a fight initially, but all ended up backing out.
She said they would all make inconceivable requests, such as larger than average show-win money, in order to go through with the fight, which was just an indirect way of saying no.
“There are girls that have said yes, but they’ve asked for $2,500/$2,500, which is a ridiculous amount of money,” said Horth Wessels.
“We were told this was just another way of them saying no without saying no.”
Better Than The Numbers
One person who knows Horth Wessels as well as anyone is her coach and boyfriend, Kasey Smith.
Having gone through the same situation with his brother and other student, Cole, before he signed with the UFC earlier this month, Smith said Horth Wessels’ struggles to find fights is simply a matter of her being too good for her record.
“At 2-0, I think Jamey’s a really risky fight for a lot of people,” said Smith.
“More and more people are trying to protect their records. People don’t fight; they just don’t want to fight.”
With the majority of Horth Wessels’ career fights coming inside the BFL cage, she and Smith have been working desperately with them to line up a fight, but with no success.
They’ve even taken their search into promotions in the United States and Eastern Canada in hopes of finding a willing combatant, while making generous offers to the promotions to help their chances.
“We’ve even gone as far as telling some of these promotions we’re not looking for a lot of money,” said Smith.
“We’ll fly ourselves out. We just want the fight.”
In her two professional fights, Horth Wessels has put together two second round TKO stoppages, in addition to her three decision victories as an amateur.
Having seen what Horth Wessels is capable of, Smith said if she can get a couple more fights under her belt, she’ll be knocking on the door of the bigger promotions.
“She’s going to follow in my brother’s (Cole) footsteps. They’re both very similar; they’re both tall, long, have very good striking, and are very well-rounded,” said Smith.
“She’s going to be next, but we need to get her the fights. I think one or two more and she’ll be in the big show.”
