Few fighters on the Australian mixed martial arts circuit have defended their title as much as Matt Vaile (9-1).
The Kiwi fighter has strung together four consecutive defences of his XFC welterweight title. This Friday night at Hex Fight Series 13, he looks to add a new belt to his collection.
Taking on Hex welterweight champion Kitt Campbell (8-2), the winner will cement themselves as one of the top welterweights in the region. A UFC call up is a real possibility should either fighter win in impressive fashion.
In the lead up to the fight, Fight News Australia spoke to both fighters. Here is the second part with XFC welterweight champion Matt ‘The Viper’ Vaile.
How Matt Vaile got into MMA and whether he watches the sport as a fan
I did karate when I was 8 years old and that lasted probably two or three years and then we stopped doing that just because it moved. Once I was at high school I got into sort of a taekwondo style martial art and carried on doing that for a good 12 years. And that’s where I met Luke Jumeau my training partner and got my black belt through that. I ended up getting black belt 3rd Dan over about twelve years.
It really gave us a strong striking base. I did a couple of kickboxing fights before I got into MMA and they all went really well. I think it’s a good strong striking base and the grading system is pretty solid, so the mental toughness has always been there too.
I think I had seen highlights of Pride and all that back in the day. Shinya Aoki versing some of the bigger guys and you know, crazy grappling skills and everything else.
I don’t so much watch a whole UFC or anything like that. I definitely like seeing the bigger fights obviously. I don’t spend a lot of time watching all the rest of them, I think the competing is more my kind of thing.
Juggling work and training
I am still an electrician, so I will work 7.30 to 5 every day.
It goes up and down depending on the day and depending how the days’ work goes. It can alter a bit, but usually it doesn’t affect it too much. I go straight from work to training and then don’t leave ‘til say 9 o’clock. So, you just put in a solid session and when it comes to the weekend, that’s when you put in a little bit extra too.
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On his upcoming Hex welterweight title fight with Kitt Campbell
I’ve had a brief look at a few of his videos. From what you can see he throws a lot of forward pressure and bringing people into the clinch. He’s always in people’s face and doesn’t give them a lot of space to breath. I feel like the things that we have been working on, we have some real good tactics to sort of work with that. My natural style is a bit of a pressure fighter as well, so it is going to be a good show of who wants it most.
Most of my other fights as soon as I put pressure on, a lot of people back of or run or always seek the takedowns. I’ve never really had the chance to really throw down as much but yeah, I definitely think there is going to be some fireworks going off.
How it will feel to win his second Australian title and if it will be enough to get into the UFC
It will be huge.
I really just want it to prove the point of my case as to be why I should be in the UFC. I really want to get to that stage and obviously going there for a few of Luke’s fights, it’s definitely where I want to be.
There has been a little bit of talk. It’s sort of you really don’t know with those guys eh (The UFC). You just have to make every chance that you get count and then hope for the best.
On his one and only loss to Ben Alloway
That’s one thing that looking back now, we probably could have waited a little bit for that fight. At the time, I got offered and it was sort of too good to let go. But we hadn’t really worked on any sort of wrestling or anything like that. I felt real comfortable with the stand up with him, it’s only sort of the couple takedowns each round. I think he got three takedowns throughout one round, which sort of really took the points away. I managed to get back up onto my feet obviously, but it was really just the points thing.
One good thing about it is that it showed a whole lot of holes I had in wrestling. We went straight to work, working on all of that and now everything around there feels real solid and it’s been working well ever since.
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Having UFC welterweight Luke Jumeau as his main training partner
He’s been second to none. He went away to Phuket and everything, did a couple of years over there then came back and pretty much shared all his knowledge. We have sort of grown together and just up, up, up and the better we both get we make each other work harder and it’s just worked like that it’s just been a blessing really.
His prediction for this Friday nights main event at Hex Fight Series 13 against Kitt Campbell
I reckon I am going to come away with the TKO in the third round.
Video: Kitt Campbell speaks about the first defence of his welterweight title at Hex 13
