By Subaru Muroi
The 21 year old Canadian fighter made his debut at Strikeforce: Barnett vs Kharitonov with an explosive tko win against Evangelista Santos @ 3:18 of the 3rd round. He has notable wins over Marius Zaromskis, Josh Burkman and Joe Riggs. His first amateur fight was at the age of 14 and he amassed a 6-1 record before turning pro in 2006. He now stands at 23-7, 13 wins by (t)ko and 7 wins by submission. His strong points is his well-roundedness body shots and reach, his losses have mostly come due to being out-grappled or out-wrestled.
Let’s take a closer look at what happened at his debut in the Strikeforce cage.
Round 1: Santos takes the 1st round with his signature move the leg kick, that he lands on multiple occasions, sweeping and breaking Mein’s balance and causing Mein to switch up his stance from time to time. Unlike in many of his other fights Santos paces himself, taking his time and showing improved fighting IQ against the taller striker. The round however was fairly close with Mein landing punches here and there, and avoiding the vast majority of Santos’ punches
Round 2: The first 2 minutes was much the same as the 1st round with both fighters maintaining smart distance and fighting evenly. Mein changes his stance from orthodox to south-paw from in what seems to be the leg kicks starting to take a toll, but shows surprising knack for fighting southpaw, as he finds his rhythm and lands straight lefts and beautifully timed combos to the body. Mein ends strong by actively pressing combos and landing counter punches.
Round 3: Both fighters turn on the aggression to win the final round Mein uses his superior reach to find his distance and timing first and lands multiple left hook counters by slipping his head to the left of santos’ straight rights. As Santos’ reacted Mein feints a slip and went for the left hook to the liver causing Santos to turtle and back towards the cage. Mein ends the fight via tko with a dozen standing elbows making it one of the most unique wins and a helluva way to make a debut against Santos’ a veteran of the sport whose previous fight was for the Strikeforce Welterweight title.
