A Bitter Taste
Jack Shore steps into the Octagon this weekend looking to return to winning ways. “Tank” tasted defeat against Joanderson Brito in his previous outing at UFC 301 in May when the fight was stopped in the second round after the Welshman suffered a cut to his lower leg, an outcome that has left a sour taste in the mouth of his coach (and father) Richard Shore.
“Name me another occasion in MMA history where a fight has been stopped mid-round due to a cut shin,” said Richard this week. “I can’t even remember it, but then again, you know, you’re fighting a Brazilian in Brazil, with a Brazilian referee and a Brazilian commission and a Brazilian doctor”.
Jack had spent 14 months on the sidelines recovering from a hand injury prior to the Brito fight, and with that bout having ended in such an anticlimactic fashion, it’s safe to say he’s excited to take on Youssef Zalal in Edmonton, Canada this Saturday.
“I know it’s a cliché but he’s had a really good camp”, Shore said. “No injuries, he’s looking strong. We’ve trained specifically for certain areas where Zalal is very good. We’re prepared…we turn up and we fight. We’ve never turned a fight down in (Jack’s) career. When this one was presented to us four weeks ago we grabbed it with both hands and we’ll see where the cards fall on Saturday”.
Tank taking over Canada! @JackShoreMMA vs Youssef Zalal is official for #UFCEdmonton 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/SvcZ98FIMJ
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) October 10, 2024
A New Beginning
Having won the opening 15 fights of his professional career, a run which saw him win a Cage Warriors world title before signing with the UFC, Shore made the decision to move from bantamweight to featherweight after suffering his first defeat at the hands of Ricky Simon in 2022. Saturday’s fight against Zalal will be his third at 145 lbs. and Richard said the change was one made out of necessity.
“We should have changed (weight classes) three fights previously, mate” he explained. “It was horrific. I mean, he was close to dying several times, we nearly had the fight pulled by doctors due to his blood pressure, dehydration levels, but he’s a stubborn, single-minded old bugger who will just keep going and keep going until he’s made that weight”.
Shore submitted Makwan Amirkhani in his featherweight debut at UFC 286 before succumbing to the hand injury that kept him out for over a year. Having lost to Brito almost six months ago he is now aiming to make his mark on his new division. His father is adamant that he is now in the optimal weight category to get the best out of his abilities.
“We’ve said before in lots of interviews…it’s easy to forget how horrific the weight cut was and the camp was when you keep winning,” he said. “After the (Ricky) Simon loss, I said to him ‘I can’t keep doing it’ because I do believe his weight cut for that fight impacted on his performance. And we went off and we’ve done these DEXA scans and we had a proper medical input as to what weight he should be fighting in and we were told under no uncertain terms (that) he’s big for featherweight let alone bantamweight and sooner or later cutting that weight for 135 he was going to have a kidney failure or even worse, you know?
“So I think the loss was necessary for him to have that realization that he had outgrown the weight. You know, when he was doing in those early days he was 24 or 25,” he continued. “He’s a 29-year-old man now and the body just develops the older you get so it’s been a good move for him. The camp now is a lot more about improving his skillset, getting in sparring rounds, polishing up different areas of the game whereas probably for the past four years fight camp has been (about) running three times a day. Running before sparring, running in the morning first thing 10k, just constantly a lack of calorie intake, it was all about cutting that weight.”
“But it’s been a good move for him, I think he’ll shock a few people Saturday when they see how he performs. Everything is much better. Not his just his camp. On fight week he’s much more relaxed, when he was fighting at bantam(weight) he’d be like a hermit stuck in the room for five days. He can take these fights at four weeks’ notice at featherweight. At bantamweight he’d need a minimum of twelve weeks.”
“I think every fighters only got X amount of weight cuts in them. It takes it’s toll every single time and like I said, he’s much happier mentally and physically fighting at this weight. When he beat Makwan, the internet blew up, they said, ‘Wow, what a move, this is the perfect move for him’ and then after a loss (which was a bullshit loss against Brito) they said, ‘Oh, he’s undersized for the weight class’. But we’ve interacted with a lot of fighters at this level in the featherweight division and we know Jack’s not outsized at all, it’s the right division for him”.
Jack Shore takes on Youssef Zalal at UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi this Saturday.
