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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief You may not know the name Mackens Semerzier just yet, but the Virginian featherweight is determined to change that as he heads into his WEC debut this Saturday in San Antonio, Tex. A late replacement on the card, the Miguel Torres trained Semerzier got the call just over a week ago to step in for an injured Erik Koch to face featherweight contender Wagnney Fabiano.
"If you would have asked me two weeks ago I would have said that Waggney's time in the trenches would have put him in front of [Nova Uniao teammate] Jose Aldo for a title shot [against Mike Brown]," Semerzier tells MMATorch.com. "He's always got a good gameplan and he's always ready to go. If this fight goes the way I want it to go and I do come out victorious then this is one of those fights that puts me in the limelight where I've wanted to be, right now when it's hot."
The 28 year old former Marine has been impressing those on the east coast for the last year, racking up five stoppage victories in his five career fights. He's been building up to this point through years of training in different disciplines, starting in high school as a wrestler and moving on to boxing, Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu throughout the last decade.
He holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but also sports that wrestling base and some fast, heavy hands. As adept on the ground as he is standing, Mack simply wants a good, aggressive opponent. "It doesn't matter if [the fight is] standing or on the ground; as long as we're punching, kicking, scratching and going after each other I'm pretty happy with the way the fight's going."
But Semerzier isn't just looking to be good now, he's always trying to find a way to get better, and training under Miguel Torres has been a great benefit for him in that way. "I know a lot of guys, it doesn't matter what sport you're playing, whether it's football, basketball, you always wonder how the guys perform at the elite level," Mackens says. "In the NFL, NBA, how do they perform, how do they train, how do they get ready for their sport? No matter what you do and how great you think you're doing it you always want to know 'how's that guy doing it? What does he eat? What time does he go to bed? How many rounds does he do?' So to get a chanceto be in camp with Miguel a bunch of times it gave me that insight into, 'okay, this is how he does it, this is what he does.' And you see that either you are doing that stuff or you're not and you need to drop some of your stuff and convert to get to the level those guys are at."
As for Saturday at WEC 43 and beyond, Mackens is ready to show everyone he's a true threat in the featherweight division. "Just stay tuned, I have high expectations for myself and you all should have the same," he says.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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