Photo: Kelly Gervais, right, prepares for his upcoming fight on Saturday night. – Robb Fenton Photo
By Robb Fenton
It is the classic battle of a striker against a grappler and the stakes are the lightweight belt.
Kelly “Border City Bad Boy” Gervais will take on Tyson Steele this Saturday at EFC 4: Respect in the main event of the card.
With the belt on the line, both fighters are ready to put on a show and are looking to have that belt around their waist at the end of the night.
“I’m getting pretty pumped up. Training has been going good, I feel excellent right now. I don’t really think I can personally do anymore to get ready for this fight,” Gervais said. “I’m feeling good, cardio is good, strength conditioning is good. I’m just pumped up. I have to conserve myself for a few days and then it’s go time.”
Gervais said his strategy is to stand and fight, but realizes his opponent will go for the take down.
With a lot of help at MMA United from the other fighters and trainers, Gervais is confident he can weather the storm from Steele and execute his game plan.
“We’ve been working on lot of ground work, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. I am becoming a mixed martial artist, so I have to learn everything,” Gervais said, adding he isn’t worried about Steele’s take downs. “To take me down, he’s got to get close enough for me to hit him, so as long as I can do it properly, it should go my way.”
MMA United trainer Travis Quesnel is confident in Gervais’ ability to stay on high feet and fight, but said Gervais’ ground game is underrated.
“If Tyson thinks he’s not going to get hit, he’s got a problem. Tyson is going to try to take Kelly down and that’s what we’ve been training: sprawl, sprawl, sprawl,” Quesnel said, adding it won’t be easy for Steele to take Gervais down.
Gervais has a little knowledge of his opponent and what he likes to try to do and said while it has been effective in the past, he’s ready for it.
“He likes to kind of bull-rush from what I’ve seen. I’ve only seen a couple of his fights, but he likes to take the guy down, try to submit him, get the back and into a choke,” Gervais explained. “I am going to have a couple seconds to unload the hands on his face and hopefully make him pay.”
It’s no secret Gervais wants the fight to stay on his feet and turn the fight into more of a boxing match and both Gervais and Quesnel know that’s the best chance Gervais has to walk out of the cage with the title.
“Striking, he has one punch power,” Quesnel said of Gervais. “He lands one punch and it’s all over for Tyson. Tyson doesn’t like to get hit a lot, so when he gets hit, he’ll feel it. Kelly fought two or three weeks ago in Red Deer and he fought Trevor Wright. Trevor was supposed to be a big test and Kelly knocked him out in 29 seconds. Trevor was saying he couldn’t get knocked out, he got knocked out bad and was out for four minutes.”
“We train a lot of stand up and everything, but I’ve always liked boxing and kickboxing, so I’ll try to keep it there. It’s more entertaining for the fans,” Gervais said.
With the belt on the line, it would be easy for Gervais to become distracted with the hype and get too worked up over this fight, but he is keeping a level head and is just going to go out and do his job Saturday night.
“I don’t even think about the belt much. The belt would be cool, but I just want to get my record to 4-0,” Gervais said. “I just want to go out, fight hard and hopefully everything goes well.”
Gervais knows the crowd will play a part in the fight Saturday and he is hoping to use that to his advantage when he steps into he cage.
“I’m guessing he’ll bring a few fans down himself, but I’ve played hockey here my whole life in the Civic Centre, it’s pretty much been my building,” he said.
“The energy from the fans I have to learn how to use in a positive manner and it should be a good time.”
The main event is sure to be the highlight of the night for EFC 4, which goes Saturday night at the Civic Centre.
“Tyson is going to be a tough fight for Kelly. Kelly is going to be a tough fight for Tyson, too,” Quesnel said.