Kirk Will Put Personal Feelings Aside in His Pro Debut
Tyler Kirk – Photo Aimee Noonan
Kirk will be facing Malcolm Gordon, a savvy and highly skilled fighter out of Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario a gym that Kirk has aspired to train at since he started training in MMA.
“Well, it started with Jesse Gross. I heard my friend talking about him right around the time I was thinking about joining the army. My buddy showed me video of Jesse fighting in the XCC and I was like, he’s from Wallaceburg no way, that’s amazing. I said to myself I want to do that stuff too.” Kirk told me over the phone this week.
His interest in the sport then led him to his current coach Chris Kimmerly and Redemption MMA, his home gym in Chatham, where Chris showed him a bunch of video and tipped him off to the man that Kirk idolizes today, current UFC featherweight Mark (The Machine) Hominick.
“When I met up with Chris he showed me a lot of video of a bunch of different guys and as soon as I saw Mark Hominick fight, I think it was against Ben Greer and I just, I don’t know I like how he is like a machine he just goes and goes.”
With the close proximity between Chatham and London, and Kimmerly’s brief history with Adrenaline it wasn’t long before Kirk made his way there for his first smoker match (a kickboxing match wearing protective gear with no take downs) and got a chance to meet and fight in front of his idol.
“He was actually the referee of my very first fight which was amazing and Sam Stout was in my opponents corner so even that was cool too.”
Kirk’s first combat fight ever was a close decision loss against Adrenaline wrestling coach and MMA fighter Clint Kingsbury. I asked Kirk if he was a bit nervous fighting his first match with his idol standing in the ring with him.
“Oh yeah, oh yeah. I kinda wanted to impress him but at the same time I didn’t want to make him look bad either by beating one of his students.”
In an ironic twist of future fate Kirk finds himself with a similar dilemma coming up in his first pro fight as well. He has future aspirations to train full time at the gym in London
and doesn’t want a tough war or big win to create any bad blood between him and that gym. He has trained very briefly against Gordon in the past and is confident that the two will put on a very tough and entertaining fight come October.
“It’s both of our pro debut’s and I hope they don’t get mad if I beat him but it’s a sport right so they have always been cool to me when we go up there but I want to train at Adrenaline so bad, I don’t care who gets in my way.”
Malcolm Gordon, like Kirk is not a big name in the MMA ranks as of yet but Kirk knows that he will have his hands full in his debut.
“I know who he is, I know he’s no joke. I’m training as hard as I’ve ever trained in my life. I’ve never trained for a fight this hard like doing two-a-days” Kirk will come into this fight as an underdog against Gordon and is hoping that he gets taken seriously.
“I just hope he doesn’t underestimate me you know because I’m certainly not underestimating him. I want to beat him bad and I don’t care if it’s on the feet or on the ground. I’m going to try and make it as entertaining as possible but at the same time I’m going to do whatever it takes to win just like I’ve always done in every fight.”
Kirk is ranked the top 125-pound fighter in Michigan right now but in my opinion, Gordon will be a step up from anyone he as faced before, especially on the ground.
Kirk has the skill and heart to succeed in MMA in a very big way if he gets the support that is so greatly needed to make it to the elite level in any sport.
Don’t miss his pro debut on October 18th. He will be fighting on the under card of the evening and his fight will be streamed live on the Internet.
Dwight Wakabayashi a Chatham native who lives in Toronto and is a featured colummnist for Bleacher Report UFC and regular contributor to Sportsnet.ca UFC.