Fight of Poise Versus Pomp

SCONE fighter, Lochlan Eadie will be making his professional mixed martial arts debut in Melbourne on Saturday night, with a composure well beyond his 18 years.

Lochlan will be fighting Raphael Scott a 29 year old and laughs at the differences between them in the promotional photo for the fight.

“My last opponent in Las Vegas was covered in tatts, he was jacked and older than me of course, everyone’s older than me,” he laughed

“But he was a bigger man who looked like he is just going to rip arms off people and then there is me and I’m like this skinny, young kid but the same thing is going to happen in Melbourne that happened in Vegas, except in this fight I will be much more composed and relaxed because I know exactly what this guy is going to do,” he said.

“He thinks because he is older and intimidating looking that he’s going to have it all over me, but he’s not; I guarantee you we’ll go in there and I will be the composed, calm one and he’s going to be the fighter that fights emotionally and is going to become aggressive and he knows that he’s like that, it’s been his downfall in his fights,” he said.

“If you’re emotional and you’re angry then your game plan, your techniques you forget things and everything goes out the window and you just want to hurt the person and that’s where you leave openings, because you are not thinking about covering up properly, you are slipping ahead, having things in the right position, your footwork, your hands drop so I believe that will happen and I will frustrate him in this fight,” Lochlan Eadie said.

Both fighters are purple belts in Jiu Jitsu and are in the lightweight division of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) weighing 70 kilograms.

Lochlan at 5 foot 11 inches has the height and reach advantage over Raphael who stands at five foot nine inches.

Raphael has had five professional MMA fights, of which he won the first three, lost the last two and was knocked out in the first round with a head kick.

Since fighters may not compete in MMA until they are 18 years of age, this will be Lochlan’s second MMA fight. The first was at an amateur tournament in Las Vegas which he won and this will be his first professional MMA fight.

Lochlan said while he may be younger, he is the one with more fight experience.

“I was listening to an interview of my opponent and he thinks that I may be being a little rash because he doesn’t know how experienced I am, as far as he’s concerned I’ve only had a few amateur fights and he’s had five pro fights and I’m making my pro debut,” said Lochlan.

“So he’s looking at it as he’s the more experienced one, but he’s never fought as an amateur, whereas I’ve gone overseas and fought in the pankration championships, I’ve fought muay Thai, I’ve fought hundreds of jiu jitsu fights and so if you look at it I’m the more experienced one and I’ve also been training for almost eleven years and he started training five years ago, so I mean…” he said.

“I’m definitely looking forward to showing off all these new tricks I have up my sleeve, I’m pumped,” Lochlan Eadie said.

LAS VEGAS FIGHT

Watch: video of the fight.

Lochlan’s last fight was in Las Vegas where he won against his opponent 35 year old Kyle Richardson.

Lochlan flew to Las Vegas when he was 17 years old and spent two months training at Syndicate MMA before turning 18 and competing in his first MMA fight.

“Towards the end of the fight I gassed a little and I had a terrible weight cut, but I rocked him a couple of times and busted him up pretty well, yeah it was really good I won the fight,” said Lochlan.

“I feel like what was cool about it was I was the one unique character because I was Australian and everyone else was American,” he said.

“People were like ‘oh so you’re the Australian’ and I’m like ‘yeah I’m the Australian’,” he laughed.

“I felt like I was flying under the radar but people were still expecting things,” he said.

“I’m not trying to be impressive, or cocky, or too much of what everyone else is doing because then I’ll lose what is unique about myself and my character, so I’m just going to keep doing what I am doing,” Lochlan Eadie said.

The MMA event begins at 7:30pm on Saturday, Lochlan’s fight is third on the card, which will be aired live on FOX.

UPDATE: Unfortunately Lochie’s fight was moved to seven on the card and Foxtel stopped their cross after fight 6. UPDATE 2: Lochie lost the fight on a technical knockout in round 2.

Related story: Highs and Lows of MMA.