It was supposed to be a night he would remember for the rest of his life. Instead, January 17, 2009 became one Denis Kang would rather forget.
That fateful evening Kang realized a 14-year aspiration of fighting in the UFC as he squared off against Alan Belcher at UFC 93 at the O2 in Dublin, Ireland. En route to what seemed like a probable victory, controlling the fight standing and on the ground for the majority of two rounds, Kang made a mistake that cost him the fight and abruptly turned his dream into a nightmare.
Having successfully taken Belcher down three times in the fight, Kang shot in for a fourth takedown with just over 30 seconds remaining in the second stanza. Leaving his neck exposed, Belcher capitalized on his opponent’s rookie mistake and forced the PRIDE veteran, who is a Marcus Soares Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, to tap out at 4:36 with a perfectly timed guillotine choke.
Although he says he has addressed the loss mentally and has adjusted his training to shore up any weaknesses he exhibited in his last fight, Kang says he has never been a believer in dwelling on past setbacks.
“Of course you have to address your losses but you can’t blow it up too much and let it fester. You have to face it, analyze it and realize what you did right and realize what you did wrong. There’s nothing more you can do after that. There’s no magic – there’s no secret. That’s all there is to it,” he explains. “I’ve had smaller setbacks and I’ve had a lot bigger setbacks in my life. A loss is not the end of the world. I just want to put it behind me. All in all it wasn’t my best night. You haven’t heard much from me since the fight because I haven’t had a lot to say. I’m going to let my fighting do the talking.”
Kang (31-11-1, 2 NC MMA, 0-1 UFC) will get another chance to prove he belongs in the Octagon April 18 at UFC 97 in Montreal when he takes on fellow French-born fighter Xavier Foupa-Pokam (20-9 MMA, 0-0 UFC). A Muay Thai and savate, or French kickboxing stylist, Foupa-Pokam, who is riding a five-fight undefeated streak, is an apt match for Kang, who makes no secret of his preference to stand and trade with his opponents.
The difference between this fight and the last, the Canadian-raised fighter says, besides the fact he will have the home crowd on his side, will be that he will enjoy a complete training camp this time around.
“I couldn’t train much for the Belcher fight because I fractured my ankle back in December. The injury happened my very first day of training camp, so I had to take like three weeks off. I couldn’t do anything until it healed up. My camp was behind from the beginning,” Kang reveals. “That was the first time I did any jiu-jitsu in like a month [during the fight] because of my ankle. I don’t think my body was used to it. I couldn’t finish my submissions. My strength and my cardio really suffered from the time I had to take off.”
Despite having lost only four of his past 30 fights against some of the sport’s best including Kazuo Misaki, Gegard Mousasi and recent UFC signee Yoshihiro Akiyama, Kang has found himself perhaps undeservingly exiled from the majority of top ten middleweight rankings lists.
Shrugging off the opinions of his critics, Kang, who will find himself on the undercard for the first time in several years in April seems content at being outside of the spotlight for a change.
“I think I put too much pressure on myself to perform. This time I’m going into this fight with an open mind. I’m going to be a lot more relaxed. I’m not putting any pressure on myself. That last fight I felt I really had to live up to certain standards and things people were saying,” Kang says. “I felt like I had to get in there and be explosive and impress everyone. Now I don’t feel like that at all, so I can be more natural and be myself. I’m just going to take my time and do my thing.”
Exiled from his American Top Team Coconut Creek training center since 2007 due to a visa issue, the 31-year-old has been training in the interim at Tristar Gym with a host of UFC veterans including current welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, David Loiseau, Tom Murphy and Patrick Cote. He recently moved from Vancouver to Montreal to live with his girlfriend and to be closer to his adopted team in the French-Canadian city.
Never one to reinvent the wheel when it comes to training, Kang is focusing on the basics, more intently on the basics of striking and jiu-jitsu, to prepare for the fighter known in Europe as “Professor X”. Bringing in highly regarded Canadian Nova Uniao BJJ black belt AJ Scales to help hone his ground game, Kang feels he’ll be ready wherever the fight goes.
“My training never really changes. I’m putting a lot more emphasis on my jiu-jitsu and working on everything. [Foupa-Pokam] is good. He’s beaten some decent guys and he’s nobody to be taken lightly. He’s never really had a guy stand up with him too much. We’re going to see what he does when a guy tries to beat him at his own game,” Kang says. “He’s really awkward because he’s so tall and he’s a southpaw and he relies on his reach. He seems like he tries to keep his opponent at a distance and he waits for them to try to take him down and waste their energy. I know I’ve got the tools to dictate where the fight goes. My strength, my power and my endurance are going to be the difference. I’m going to go out there and do my thing, and go to work that’s all.”
Not wanting to look past his next fight, Kang says he isn’t setting any goals or looking at possible opponents for the distant future, having made that mistake in the past.
“At this time I’m really not looking at any other opponents. I’m really focusing on this fight. I’m focusing on short-term,” he asserts. “After that I'll look at the big picture, but right now I’m really putting everything into this fight. You’ll see me back on top – mark my words.”
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