The loss of the Score Fighting Series left a void in the southern Ontario MMA scene that lasted years. Lightweight Adam Assenza, fighting this weekend at BTC 6, feels that void may finally have been filled.
Mixed martial arts in Ontario has had its struggles since being legalized in 2010. While the UFC rolled into the province in 2011 to much hullabaloo, the sport has yet to reach the levels many expected in Canada’s most populous province. After a strong start, and the launch of the Score Fighting Series out of Hamilton, events in the province dwindled thanks to the high cost of putting on shows in the region. SFS got out of the game. Many pointed the finger at the Ontario Athletic Commission.
BTC, however, is leading a new wave of MMA in Ontario. They’ll host their sixth show this weekend, in Burlington, Ontario. A veteran of the aforementioned Score Fighting Series, lightweight Adam Assenza, will be on the card. He’ll enter the night off a 3-1 run, having suffered the lone defeat in that stretch against former UFC fighter Jason Saggo at BTC 4. It was Saggo’s first fight following his UFC stint, and Assenza definitely learned from the experience, which cost him the promotion’s 155lb crown.
“I got a little bit too relaxed, a little bit too complacent, and he capitalized on a mistake that I had made,” Assenza (9-5) told Cageside Press recently, ahead of BTC 6 on June 1. “So it’s just a quick reminder that it’s MMA, anything can happen. Slip on a banana peel, get caught, get put in a position where you might be at risk, and things happen quickly in this game.”
At BTC 6, Assenza will take on Thomas Webb (15-7), an experienced foe who’s fought for Island Fights, LFA, and Titan FC over the years. “He’s an experienced guy, definitely game. He takes fights on short notice. He either wins them, or he comes with a close decision,” Assenza observed of his opponent.
Yet none of Webb’s attributes are about to change up his own game plan. “My thoughts are the same as any opponent I’m fighting. I don’t care what he’s going to do, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to figure him out, and when I do, I’m going to drop the hammer quickly.”
Rather than worry about his opponent, Assenza focuses on his own skills. “I feel as though I’m a lot smarter than most people give me credit for,” he said. “I can adapt very quickly, and I’m also really athletic. I try to cover everything at all times.”
Cage control will be key. “At the end of the day, when you’re in the fight, you need to dictate essentially where you want the fight to go.” Expanding on the subject, Assenza added that “the guys that finish fights often, they usually set up those shots. To the untrained eye, people might not pick that up, but there’s certain things you can do to make your opponent go a certain way. I’m very good at that, and I feel like, a lot of guys they don’t get the chance to see all the other tools that I have because my fights end pretty quickly.”
He’s not kidding. Prior to the Saggo loss, Assenza’s three-fight winning streak boasted three first-round finishes. “This is going to be no different. I’m going to go in there just like I always do and do what I do. If it goes a little longer, it goes longer. If it ends quickly, than it’s expected.”
Elaborating on his ability to find finishes in his victories, Assenza also underscored that he doesn’t try to force anything. “I don’t try to do anything with intent when it comes to the fight game. You’ve got to let things happen naturally.”
“When a guy’s in the cage with me, I’m always setting him up, I’m always looking ahead of the game, I’m always moving and doing certain things to elicit a certain response,” he explained. “That’s what ends the game quickly.”
“When it comes to the striking portion, when it comes to the wrestling portion, even the jiu-jitsu portion, you want to do things to make your opponent make the wrong prediction.” The wrong prediction can result in an early end to the night. Which is fine with Assenza, who joked “I’ve got a lot of good looking girls who come watch me fight. I’ve got to get out of there without too much damage, and I’ve got things to do after!”
Like many fighters, Assenza found himself in MMA “kind of by mistake.” In his share of fights as a youngster — “I’m sure a lot of people have that story as well,” he noted — he also had a background in gymnastics.
“I was so used to training 16, 17 hours a week, grueling workouts,” he said of gymnastics. “I had quit for a period of time, and it just felt weak to me. I felt like I needed to do more. I was getting in a lot of trouble.”
That led Assenza to an MMA gym. “I’m not going to say any names, but I remember my first day, I ended up sparring, I don’t know how they let that happen, but I was taking down guys that were in the UFC at the time.”
The success “was just from being super athletic, and being strong, and I guess the gymnast background.”
From there, Assenza had “a bunch of amateur fights,” but even then, he doesn’t consider himself to have been “schooled in the way of martial arts. I didn’t really have much proper striking technique, or wrestling technique, or even jiu-jitsu technique.”
At the time, there was no one who could point Assenza in the right direction as a fighter. “Now I’ve got the skills, I’ve got the game figured out. The last two years, I’ve tightened up my camp and my coaching staff. I’m ready to go.”
Assenza, who was born in and fights out of Burlington in Southern Ontario grew up “half in Burlington and half in Hamilton.” For those not in the know, Hamilton’s a fighting town.
“Hamilton’s a lot rougher than what people actually know. If you’ve grown up in the north end of Hamilton, it’s very comparable to Jane and Finch [one of Toronto’s less illustrious neighborhoods],” Assenza suggested. “People don’t actually believe that statement, but if you’re down there, any night of the week between 10PM and 1AM, you’re going to see some crazy stuff.”
The Score had grown the sport so much, I didn’t think it would actually stagnate for so long. Now with BTC Fights, they seem to be taking the place of The Score and doing things properly…
Despite its rough, working class reputation, Hamilton and the surrounding area remains a fixture in Ontario MMA, despite being overlooked by the UFC. David Shaw, UFC Senior VP, International and Content, recently told Cageside Press the promotion would forgo Hamilton in favor of Toronto, given their close proximity (that despite holding shows in both Brooklyn and New York Proper, among other exceptions to this apparent rule).
However, the area was still the home of the Score Fighting Series, and now BTC, which Assenza feels is stepping up to finally fill the void that promotion left.
Assenza’s first four bouts were with SFS. Yet just as he was getting going and reaching where he needed to be, the promotion closed up shop. After that, “there was no real MMA in Ontario for a few years. There was the odd show here or there, but it wasn’t run like The Score was.”
Other promotions were struggling, or downright questionable, “getting approvals for bouts that didn’t make sense.”
“The Score had grown the sport so much, I didn’t think it would actually stagnate for so long. Now with BTC Fights, they seem to be taking the place of The Score and doing things properly, and everything’s run by the athletic commission correctly.” Which is good news for the region, and the sport in Ontario as whole.
Adam Assenza takes on Thomas Webb at BTC 6: Night of Champions on Saturday, June 1 at the Central Arena in Burlington, Ontario.
