Aaron Jeffery Shuns the Nonbelievers

Canada’s Aaron Jeffery has experienced his share of haters and nonbelievers. It just goes with the territory for the Bellator MMA middleweight contender.

“For a lot of my career, I’ve been the away team. Like my whole amateur career, I was going down to the [United] States, in these small shows in Ohio … I was definitely getting booed and hearing the ‘USA’ chants quite a bit,” Jeffery told Sherdog.com. “Same thing in my last fight against Dalton Rosta. There was some ‘USA’ chants in the crowd. I don’t think they wanted me to win, so I’m used to it.”

Prior to facing Rosta at Bellator 298, Jeffery had been coming off a loss. That bout, his fourth in Bellator, resulted in a unanimous decision victory against the No. 4-ranked fighter in the middleweight division.

“My back was against the wall, so there’s always big pressure, high stakes. I wouldn’t say this one is that much different,” Jeffery said, pointing to his upcoming clash with feared striker and former title challenger Fabian Edwards at Bellator 302 this Friday in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

A scientific approach, literally, has helped him get this far. As a sports nutritionist, Jeffery understands how to avoid the pitfalls of a bad weight cut.

“The one thing that’s going to stand out the most in a weight-class sport is keeping the weight in check and the weight cut; and the weight cut is down to a science for me. It’s super easy,” he said. “It’s never a struggle. I’m pretty comfortable on fight week and make the weight comfortably, and I put on a decent amount of weight after.” It benefits his training, too. “People tell me all the time that I train more and harder than a lot of guys,” Jeffery said. “The nutrition aspect is probably a big thing there, too. Just like keeping the body healthy, recovering properly, refueling properly, I think that’s a big part of it.”

Jeffery has seen weight-cut horror stories firsthand.

“You see guys who are clearly sweating way too much weight on the last day,” he said. “They look like they’re about to die and they can barely stand up. They look like a skeleton and barely make the weight, so that’s obviously not good. It’s usually at the weigh-ins when you see everyone hop on the scale, hop off the scale and then you just see crazy s---, like guys eating Doritos or a guy’s eating a footlong Subway sub on a still-dehydrated stomach. You see a lot of crazy stuff like that.”

Ultimately, Jeffery’s entire focus centers on being the best version of himself against Edwards. For that, he split his time between Florida’s Kill Cliff Fight Club and two gyms closer to home in Ontario: Niagara Top Team in St. Catharines and Aegis MMA in Oakville. A strategy tailored to defeat Edwards has already been fashioned.

“He is ranked No. 1 in one of the biggest promotions in the world, so obviously he’s a good fighter,” Jeffery said. “He has preferences on where he likes to keep the fight. His strong suit is obviously kickboxing. He’s a range guy. He likes to kickbox from a distance. He likes to fight at his pace, at his distance. He throws a long, left kick. He likes to stay long. I think I can exploit some things to where he’s less comfortable.”

Beating Edwards would open the door for a shot at the middleweight belt, currently held by undefeated American fighter Johnny Eblen. Does Jeffery have his eye on Eblen, or does the belt matter more, no matter who holds it?

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter too much. I don’t give a s--- who I’m fighting,” he said. “Whoever gets me closer to the belt and then whoever has it, that’s who I want to fight.”