There’s no doubt Carlos (The Ronin) Newton will be the most recognizable name Saturday night as upstart Canadian promotion Warrior One MMA holds its debut event in Gatineau, Que. But his W1: Inception main-event opponent Nabil (The Thrill) Khatib, 39, has been around long enough to know it takes more than a name in this sport.
Khatib (8-4) got into mixed martial arts about six years ago, but he was doing martial arts a long time before that. He’s a black belt in Japanese style jiu-jitsu and an experienced kickboxer who has trained under world champion Jean-Yves Theriault.
Since transitioning into MMA, he has established his own gym, Team Bushido MMA Fitness Centre, which opened in a new Ottawa location in June. At 7,500 square feet, it’s the biggest MMA gym in the city and considered the top jiu-jitsu and kickboxing school in the Ottawa region.
All told, he’s had over four years of training in his own facility. And now he goes twice a week to train in Montreal — at GAMMA, a Brazilian Top Team gym, with well-renowned BJJ black belt Fabio Holanda, and Tristar Gym with Georges St. Pierre and his head trainer Firas Zahabi.
Not a bad resume. Of course, Khatib knows too that resumes don’t mean squat.
“I thought my jiu-jitsu was quite good until I started training with some of the guys at Brazilian Top Team in Montreal,” Khatib said. “Then I realized I needed a lot of work.”
The five-foot-11 fighter from Rockland, Ont., just outside Ottawa, has fought all over the country — his most recent bout was a unanimous decision loss to Ryan (The Real Deal) Ford at a Raw Combat event in Calgary. When W1 offered him this fight three months ago, he jumped at the opportunity.
“As soon as they said the name Carlos Newton, I got very excited,” Khatib said. “Especially when they said local, in Gatineau.”
With that comes a little extra pressure, not to mention he’s coming off consecutive losses for the first time in his career. But Khatib prefers to keep grounded. A loss is a learning experience. And a win is something to feel good about, but not get too puffed up about.
In fact, Khatib can be quite humble when assessing the challenges put before him.
“I think Newton has more natural talent than I do. That’s going to be my biggest problem,” Khatib admitted. “He’s a natural athlete and I have to work a hundred times harder than these guys to get anywhere.”
“But my biggest strength is my heart. And I’ve got a hard head, a never-quit attitude.”
He uses one example to illustrate that. In a 2007 fight against Solomon Hutcherson, he broke his arm blocking a kick, but he didn’t realize it until the second round when Hutcherson was dropping elbows on it. His arm kept splitting more and more until they had stop the fight because of the injury. But Khatib said he definitely would have continued if the fight was still standing.
“I would have kept punching because I kept hitting him in the standup,” Khatib said. “I just couldn’t block anymore.”
Khatib had to get a metal plate put in his arm and had the ulna repaired. He couldn’t train for the next four months. But he was back in the cage in Calgary six months later, winning a decision.
Names and resumes might not mean anything in the cage but Khatib, who weighed in at 168.5 Friday for his headlining welterweight tilt with Newton, believes some intangibles do.
“I think my heart and my drive for the win and listening to the crowd is going to help me get the win (Saturday night).”
NEWTON’S METHOD:
Having not fought in over a year, the Canadian veteran Newton felt the time was right to return to competition.
Well, the opportunity was.
“I met a promoter who was willing to put on a show in Canada and he asked me to be the headliner for his card,” Newton said, referring to W1 president Jack Bateman. “And I realized I haven’t fought in Canada for 14 years. I decided it was very good time, a great opportunity to fight in front of my home-town fan base.”
“I don’t know (if or when) I may return to Canada. Only if the big shows will be able to support my salaries and so forth after this. Other than the UFC, this would be the best one.”
The 32-year-old fighter from Newmarket, Ont., who was born in the British Virgin Islands, is well known to Canadian fans as well fans around the world. He’s fought in the UFC, Pride, K-1 HERO’s and the IFL, where he also did a stint as coach. And he has faced some of the top fighters in the world, including Matt Hughes, Matt Lindland, Renzo Gracie, Pat Miletich and Dan Henderson.
But Newton (13-13) is currently on a three-fight losing streak and will be looking to keep from having an overall losing record for the first time since the loss in his professional debut back in April 1996.
Newton, who employs a unique style of fighting he calls “Dragon Ball jiu-jitsu,” has continued to train since his most recent bout in October 2007 in Seoul, South Korea. He insists “ring rust” won’t be an issue.
“I feel very comfortable, I’m back at 170, which is something I haven’t done for a very long time.”
Newton, who trains and teaches out of Warrior MMA in Newmarket with chief instructor Terry Riggs, hit the scale at 169.5.
THE KULKSTER RETURNS:
Fighting on the undercard of W1 is a student of Khatib out of Team Bushido, but one who is more well-known in the world of sports outside MMA. Edmonton native Glenn (The Kulkster) Kulka is familiar to many from his time as lineman in the CFL as well as his foray into the WWF (now called WWE).
Kulka, who now lives in Ottawa and co-hosts a sports talk radio show Over The Edge on the Team 1200, debuted his MMA career with two quick wins in July and August of last year.
Quick is an understatement — the combined time of the two bouts was less than two minutes. He TKO’d Wayne Xilon in 1:13 and choked out Buddie Dixon at the 45-second mark.
Unfortunately, an injury — he suffered a broken orbital bone guest refereeing a celebrity charity event — has kept the heavyweight fighter out of commission since. Until Khatib offered him an opportunity to fight on the same card and he’ll enter the cage Saturday against Hosier Bruno.
While Kulka, 45, would like the chance to get his feet wet, so to speak, a little longer than he has in his first two bouts, he’s learned you’ve got to have a killer instinct.
“I was told very early on it’s pretty imperative, ” Kulka said. “You don’t really have the luxury of playing or toying with somebody in MMA. … Because it’s such an unpredictable sport and somebody can change the outcome so quickly that if you have an opportunity I was told to exploit it to its fullest.
“In both of my first two fights I saw opportunities and took advantage of them very early. Whether that’s going to be the same case in this third fight, I’m not sure because (Bruno) is far superior to the other two I’ve faced so far.”
Playing football for 11 years with the Edmonton Eskimos, Ottawa Rough Riders and Saskatchewan Roughriders, spending time on both the offensive and defensive lines, Kulka sees some similarities between preparing for a mixed martial arts bout and playing a position like nose tackle.
“You prepare for the individual battle,” Kulka explained. “In football, you look at film and you look at tendencies and what your opponent is going to try and do against you. And there’s that chess match that goes on of always trying to guess ahead of what’s to come.
“The same things go on in mixed martial arts combat. You’re basically reacting to a certain degree and using your athleticism, but you are looking at tendencies of the other fighter, you are looking at certain circumstances. What do they like to do? And with that you’re trying to formulate what’s going to be your best defence and/or offence in order to be successful.”
Kulka, whose time in the WWF included tag-teamming with Bret (The Hitman) Hart and who earned the nickname The Kulkster, said the comparisons are not so similar with professional wrestling.
“With wrestling you have to be aesthetically pleasing and you don’t have to be strong or have endurance,” Kulka said. “I really have trouble comparing the two.”
Whether he’s been on a field or in a ring, he has always been an imposing force. And he’ll have size on his side in this bout. He weighed in at 250.5 pounds Friday compared to Bruno’s 232.
POTENTIAL SLUGFEST:
Saturday night’s co-main event could determine who’s got the heaviest hands at lightweight in Canada. At least according to local fighter Mark Holst (153.5), who takes on Drummondville, Que.’s Martin Grandmont (154).
“I just hope he trades and stands with me,” said Holst, who is a Muay Thai fighter. “Most of the time fighters try to take me down. But since he’s renowned for his striking, hopefully we’ll get a chance to see who’s the best striker at 155 in Canada.”
He likely meant outside of the UFC, where Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout has carved quite a niche as the explosive puncher his nickname suggests. Not coincidentally, Stout owns a knockout victory over Grandmont at a TKO Championship Fighting event in 2007.
“That was a good fight, one that Grandmont was winning,” said Holst, who was one of the Bell Centre spectators. “Until the overhand right.”
The 23-year-old Holst who only had one professional bout to his name at that time, hopes to produce a similar result. And while he’s only fought professionally four times in his career — all wins — he feels he couldn’t be in a better position than right now.
“The training camp for this fight has been the longest in my career. I’ve had five weeks straight,” Holst said. “I know I’m ready and my confidence is at an all-time high.”
Holst, who worked a lot on his ground game at his gym, Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts under the tutelage of instructor Pat Cooligan, expects to have plenty of crowd support with family and friends in attendance. He was born in the nation’s capital — just across the border from Gatineau — and currently lives in nearby Aylmer, Que.
