Throwback Thursday – Hamilton’s Jeff Joslin’s First MMA Fight

#throwbackthursday – My 1st Pro MMA Fight! The event was called the UCC (now known as TKO) proving grounds and it took place in Montreal, Quebec at the Millenium Night Club back in 2002. The crowd was small, there were go-go dancers in cages and I made $100 :).

I waited a while to make my MMA debut because i wanted to develop my ground game. I was 27 at the time, a purple belt and had just won Gold at the IBJJF Pan-American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Florida. Everything was coming together skill set wise and i felt that it was time to step into the cage and get the pro fight game going!

I had never cut weight before so i signed up to fight at 185lbs because that was what i walked around at. The promoter told me a few weeks out that my opponent would be one of three different fighters that at the time i knew very little about –Jonathan Goulet, Patrick Cote or Kyle Sandford). Most of us on the card were fairly new pros at the time but looking ahead, the card had 6 future UFC Fighters on it!

Kyle and I had a fun scrap. He was a very strong and very technical grappler; difficult to move around while we were in the clinch. He landed two solid low kicks at the beginning of the match that had me limping the next day lol. Things ended up going my way: I landed an overhand right at 1:58 into the 1st round and won the match by TKO.

It was an amazing moment that i will never forget.

My father and martial arts idol Rick Joslin was in my corner. Alongside him was my friend and fellow fight team member Gavin. A few months before this fight I had started working with my future boxing coach, mentor and brother from anotha motha Acma Vito Brancaccio. Everything felt on the right track and my sights were set on one day fighting in the UFC…

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