BACK in September 2011 I sat cageside and watched a 21-year-old Welsh prospect by the name of Jack Marshman take a first-round battering in a BAMMA British middleweight title fight.
But after nearly five full minutes of non-stop punishment, that prospect got up off the canvas, came storming back and stopped his opponent in the third round to become the promotion’s first British middleweight champion.
That was Marshman’s ninth professional bout and now, 16 fights later, he’s all set to become the first Welsh fighter to compete in the UFC.
It’s been a long journey for the 26-year-old, who joked that he was just glad he’s been able to evolve his skills since that bruising encounter.
“My face couldn’t take much more damage if I’d stayed at that same level!” he laughed.
“I’ve massively improved since then.
“I ended up moving over to Cage Warriors and I’ve progressed my training. I travelled out to Tristar and trained out there. All of it was part of my evolving process.
“I won the Cage Warriors world title just a few months ago and that was it, then. That set me on to the UFC, so it’s all been a progression.”
Now a seasoned veteran of the cage with 25 professional bouts under his belt and an impressive record of 20 wins, 5 losses, Marshman is preparing to take on Sweden’s Magnus Cedenblad at UFC Fight Night in Belfast on November 19.
It’s the pinnacle of a tough career that has seen Marshman juggle a promising mixed martial arts career with his day job as a member of 3rd Battalion parachute regiment in the British Army.
“A lot of people seem to mistake that and think I’m out (of the Army), but I’m still in,” he explained.
“I’ve been in the paras for 10 years now.
“Obviously now I’ve been signed to the UFC I’ve got to leave the Army. But I’m getting this fight out of the way first, then we’re gonna go through the process of leaving, which takes a few months.
“But right now I’m still serving as part of the 3rd Battalion parachute regiment.”
For Marshman, whose dual role as fighter and serviceman has marked him out as one of the toughest campaigners on the UK circuit, the prospect of walking away from the Army is one that’s been tough to accept, but he admits it’s the right decision to make.
“I’ve loved being in the Army,” he enthused.
“I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met and I’ve served alongside some of the best men I’ve ever served with in Afghanistan and stuff.
“It’ll be bittersweet to leave – I’ll miss the blokes. But I absolutely love this sport and I love what I do.”
Marshman revealed the call from the UFC took him completely by surprise, as he was just days away from making a defence of his Cage Warriors world middleweight title when word came of his big break.
“It was a strange one,” he laughed.
“I was around 10 days out from defending my title in Cage Warriors, cutting weight and going about my normal stuff. Then I got a phone call telling me ‘We’ve got a problem’.
“I was expecting them to say the guy I was fighting had pulled out, but they said ‘We’ve got a problem, the UFC want to sign you and they want you to fight at UFC Belfast’.
“I was like: ‘So what’s the problem!’
“That week was like a whirlwind. I had to get all the contracts signed and get my visa stuff sorted. It was a long week, but it was good!”
And now he’s officially part of the UFC, Marshman will make history on November 19 as the first Welshman to compete in the Octagon.
It’s something he’s clearly proud of, but rather than speak about his own pride, modest Marshman preferred to speak about the opportunity his success might bring to other budding Welsh stars working their way up.
“It is good for me, but I’m a massive supporter of Welsh sport in general,” he explained.
“I’ve got a ton of guys in my gym who are worthy of being in the UFC, so I just think it’s gonna open the doors.
“We’ve had a big wave of Irish fighters coming in, and as soon as the first one came in there was a massive wave behind them of loads of other fighters.
“And I’d love to see the same thing happen for Wales now, because we’ve been the forgotten nation as far as MMA goes.
“We’re the only nation of the four nations that hasn’t had a UFC fighter or a UFC event. So fingers crossed it’ll open some doors for us now.”
And as well as the time being right for Welsh fighters to make their name, Marshman says a UFC event in Wales would go down a storm with the passionate fans back home.
“We’ve put Cage Warriors shows on quite regularly in Wales and they’ve never not sold out,” he explained.
“You could put a UFC show on here next month and it’d sell out, no problem.
“The Welsh supporters, in any sport, are massively fanatical and passionate.
“So especially now they’ve got a guy in the UFC I think if you stuck a card on over here and filled it with a couple of (Welsh) fighters it’d be amazing how much it would kick off over here.”
Marshman is hoping to follow in the footsteps of some of Wales’ other great fighters down the years, albeit in a different discipline. If location is any guide for success, the signs look good, as he explained.
“My coach is Gavin Rees, who’s gone on to win British, European and world (boxing) titles,” he said.
“He came from the Joe Calzaghe camp. Then there’s Nathan Cleverly. They’re all from there.
“And they’re all literally from a small area – around a 10-mile radius – of where I live.
“They’ve all gone on to do massive things. So it would be great to see something happen from an MMA point of view, because it’s a newer sport that people are getting into.”
Compact and powerful at 185lbs, Marshman knows he’ll be giving up a sizeable height and reach advantage to Cedenblad when the pair meet on fight night, but he says that’s just fine with him.
“His big skill is being awkward, isn’t it? I think everyone I’ve ever spoken to about him when we’re breaking him down has used that word to describe him – awkward.
“But my boxing’s good, I’ve got good head movement and I’m good at getting on the inside of taller fighters and working them.
“I think him being tall and awkward will probably work well for me.
“I may be the shorter fighter but I can’t remember the last time I was the bigger guy in the cage, to be honest with you!
“But I’m happy at the weight and I just feel like I’ve got enough tools to stop him.”
Those tools have been sharpened through years of training at his home gym at Tillery Combat MMA Academy in Wales, but he also explained that he’s been working with other fellow British stars to broaden his skillset as he gets ready for his Octagon debut.
“We’ve had Bradley Scott, another UFC middleweight, coming down to spar with me,” he explained.
“And I was in Birmingham yesterday training with Tom Breese, who’s another UFC middleweight – and we’re gonna make that a regular thing.
“And I’ve been up to Cheltenham to spar with Che Mills as well.
“So we’re mixing it up well. We’ve got a lot of high-level guys.
“I think a few years ago when British guys first started getting into the UFC you had to go abroad to do your fight camps.
“I went and did a camp at Tristar and they are great, but you had to do it a few years ago.
“But now we’ve got so many high-level guys (in Britain) as long as we’re not fighting each other in the next couple of months we can move around and pick stuff up off each other, so it’s brilliant, really.”
And after 25 fights Marshman says he’s ready to jump into the Octagon and make his presence felt at UFC Fight Night in Belfast, where he’s promised to deliver the sort of all-action performance that has defined his career to date.
“The people who have watched me before know that I’ve never actually been in a boring fight,” he said.
“I go out there and I leave it on the line every time.
“I’ll be going for the win and I’ll definitely be going for the Fight of the Night, I’m sure of that.”
Tickets to watch Jack Marshman in action at UFC Fight Night: Mousasi v Hall 2 are on sale now and available via the SSE Arena box office and Ticketmaster.
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