By KOTC Staff After Jarid Bussemakers stopped MMA pioneer Shannon “The Cannon” Ritch in March, in what was his biggest win to date, few likely imagined that the rising fighter would go eight months without competing again. As circumstances would have it, however, an opportunity to follow up on the impressive win fell through, leaving the 25 year-old no choice but to head back to his full-time job.
“I had to go back to work to make some money, pay off the bills and stuff,” said Bussemakers, who had been scheduled to fight King of the Cage Canadian Middleweight Champion Ryan Chiappe in April, until an injury prevented the champ from competing. “Now the paving season is done, so now that I’m done doing that, it’s time to make some money scrapping. I’ve been working ridiculous hours so there’s really no point in taking a fight when you have no time to do any training.”
“I thought more fights would have come out of it,” Bussemakers said, when asked if he had expected to be busier fighting following his stoppage win over Ritch. “I was supposed to fight Chiappe for the belt there, but that fell through; everything kind of fell apart. So I kind of gave up on it for a while but now it’s time to do some damage.”
Bussemakers will fight for just the second time in 2010 on November 21st, when he takes on Arizona welterweight Steve Eldridge, at KOTC Canada’s upcoming event in Edmonton.
“I know he won the Gladiator Challenge middleweight belt in the one fight that he won,” said Bussemakers, when asked what he knows about his next opponent. “I think he’s lost his last three or something like that. I saw a video of him getting head kicked KO’d pretty bad; so there’s my game plan (laughs).”
As it turns out, due to the fact that Bussemakers has faced Ritch in the past, the camps representing each man are rather familiar with the other.
“I heard he’s coming up with Shannon Ritch; he’s with Siege MMA and those guys,” Bussemakers noted. “So, I’ve fought Shannon before, and some of my guys have fought some of them before, so we all know each other.”
“This will be my second time fighting at 170,” Bussemakers added, while discussing his plans for the fight. “So I think I’ll have the size and power. I’m not too sure; he trains with those guys and they’re good at everything, so I’ll try to get in and out as fast as possible. Try to make a highlight reel out of it.”
When KOTC caught up with Trent Thorne recently, who is fighting Ritch on the November 21st card, the middleweight stated that he was hoping to catch up with Bussemakers at St. Albert’s Pix MMA.
“Yeah, we’re the Red Dragons out of Pix,” said Bussemakers. “We have a really good crew; we have 15, 20 really solid guys. We’re all fighting coming up; the Knysh brothers, Tony Bibby, Cody Krahn and Trent. We have a lot of good guys and somebody from every kind of style, so I think we’re going to be doing some serious damage real soon.”
And as far as a prediction for Bussemakers’ second performance in 2010?
“It will be something crazy; that’s my goal. Like I said I’m going for the highlight reel, so I’m going to bust out a freaky sub like a go-go or a Twister, or some kind of Ninja head kick. That’s my plan anyways.”
The November 21st KOTC card will be hosted by Edmonton’s Rexall Place and will feature a middleweight title fight between champion Ryan Chiappe and UFC veteran Joe Riggs in the main event.
