Sheldon Westcott was fast and furious in delivering a first-round TKO on the UFC 195 undercard Saturday in Las Vegas.
The St. Albert welterweight was declared the winner at the 3:12 mark against Edgar Garcia of Mexico in the opening bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“I was patient but I was also aggressive, which is the exact middle of the road where I need to be and I can keep that pace. I could’ve punched all day and I can keep that high-level pace for 15, 25 minutes,” said Westcott of his first UFC-sanctioned victory in the post-fight press conference.
Westcott, 31, absorbed some hard punches to the body before slipping under an overhand right and took Garcia to the ground 45 seconds into the scrap.
The Paul Kane High School alumnus proceeded to wrap up Garcia’s legs while working his way into a back mount position with a series of punches.
After grabbing the back, the southpaw unleashed a flurry of 50-plus punches before the referee stepped in.
FightMetric, the world’s only comprehensive mixed martial arts statistics and analysis provider, had Westcott connecting on 60 of 115 strikes, including 33 significant strikes, while Garcia landed just one strike.
“The (submission) is what a lot of people thought I was going to get there but once I got my hips down I knew I could T off and I hit a couple of shots and I felt them and I was tight and I know that being in that position the big, strong ones hurt and you’re not going to go anywhere,” Westcott recalled of the frantic finish. “I’m going to put this guy out. I’m not holding onto anybody today.”
Westcott improved to 10-3-1 after his first win after two losses and Garcia, 31, is 14-5 after his second defeat in a row.
The last fight for Westcott was April 11 against Pawel Pawlak (11-2) in Krakow, Poland, where he lost a unanimous 29-28 decision. Westcott was locked in a clinch at the fence for most of the match. Pawlak also out-struck Westcott and in the second round hurt him with knees.
“My last fight is what made me need to readjust and refocus myself. You sit there and you know how good you are and you watch yourself in the gym and do well against guys who are really good and then you perform like I did in my last fight so I needed to come out here like myself. I need to come out here and finish fast in the first round. Look at my entire career. I have seven fights inside of a minute. I need to come out here and put it on guys and I didn’t do that in my last couple of fights and I need to find that guy again,” said the middleweight finalist on The Ultimate Nations: Canada vs. Australia reality TV show. “I had to go back to the drawing board and get out of my comfort zone. I need to go where I had butterflies getting ready for sparring sessions.”
The co-owner of Complete Fitness and Martial Arts in Campbell Business Park spent time at Greg Jackson’s MMA fight camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and in Australia with TUF Nations Aussie fighters Richard Walsh and Brendan O’Reilly in their preparation for the UFC 193 card in November.
He returned to Jackson’s camp for the last 10 days before the fight.
“I had a really bad view of the place before I went there. It was stupid, honestly,” said Westcott, who was invited by Kyle Noke, who coached the Aussies on The Ultimate Fighter, to train with him at Jackson’s gym, where southpaws were in demand. “I had heard that all they did was try to win practice. All the guys just go hard and guys would get hurt in practice. I get paid to fight and I’m not fighting for free but I went there and they were hard rounds but guys were looking after each other. The coaching staff would tell guys we’re not giving out trophies in practice so I want you to work on this and not just try and win practice.
“The growth was huge. It was fantastic. I literally have to be the dumbest person on the planet earth to not get better in that environment, plus the coaching staff as well.”
