Zack Powell clashes with Mark Hulme at Unified MMA 55 on January 19th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Powell spoke to Dylan Bowker of MMA Canada prior to this prizefight. Excerpts from the chat are below.
Zack Powell
Opportunity came knocking on short notice here but Powell sees it as the chance of a lifetime. While there was a tighter timeline for getting this fight set up, ‘Pow Pow’ sees this as being ten years in the making.
There were prior negotiations to be on this card that kept resulting in prospective opponents falling out. Hulme is a training partner of Dricus Du Plessis who vies for middleweight gold at UFC 297. Since he happens to be in the province, things fell into place for this bout from there.
Hulme is ranked number one in South Africa and Dana White is in the venue for his series Lookin’ For A Fight with a presumably locked in focus for this co-main event bout.
Though the awareness of Mark Hulme was not really there when the bout was booked, subsequent research in a couple of lanes illustrated to Powell what an incredible opportunity he has here. Powell said,
“I had no idea who he was. I had no clue, he’s been fighting in South Africa and in Russia. So I didn’t really follow that scene but like as soon as the fight got offered, I looked him up and I love the matchup. I love what he’s got going for him like he’s a pretty good fighter. But I feel like my skills really shut down what he’s good at. I’ve watched every Lookin’ For A Fight in the past month. What Dana looks at is age and then also who do you train with and how exciting you are. A lot of times these guys will come in and they’ll be training with certain UFC fighters. So like say I train with Mike Malott, I train with Aaron (Jeffery).”
Zack Powell vs Mark Hulme
Powell continued, “I don’t know if that’s to my benefit because he’s ranked like number four next in line for Bellator. But whatever and this guy trains with Dricus (Du Plessis). So like it’s; I’m sure Dana’s going to be watching this one. I think like; thinking of the two fights he’s going to be trying to sign guys from is my fight and then the Vogel fight. So hopefully me and Vogel come out on top and make Ottawa-Gatineau proud.”
🚨 #Unified55 News 🚨
🇨🇦 @PowPowMMA (6-1) now goes for his 3rd straight W vs. 🇿🇦 @MarkHulmeMMA (11-3), a winner of 3 straight, on Jan. 19 at @rebel_toronto, LIVE on @UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/FfWI9l9cV5
— Unified MMA (@unifiedmma) January 11, 2024
Unified MMA 55
UFC 297 also emanates from Toronto the day after Unified MMA 55 and several Niagara Top Team compatriots fill out that card. Jasmine Jasudavicius and Mike Malott are featured on the card with a bit of a Khabib-Islam Makhachev relationship with the latter fighter.
There is a mapped out path of Malott capturing UFC gold followed by Powell winning a belt a few years. These are conversations that have been expressly held amid hard NTT training sessions which clearly motivates both parties to further raise their level.
2023 was a year devoid of fights spent gaining a decent amount of weight, 60 pounds. Also, contemplating just training with teammates going ahead. Powell had an admittedly dimming competitive fire. But being there with NTT compatriot Aaron Jeffery for his Bellator bout with Dalton Rosta stoked the internal flame once more. He stated he had no fun in his last two fights. But now he’s so locked back in, Powell even yearns for the weight cut and other normatively unpleasant aspects of gearing up to get locked into that cage.
Unified MMA
Zack Powell plans to come out to the sounds of ‘Cult of Personality’. He looks to do this as a tip of the cap to CM Punk and to get White’s attention. When LM2’s Dylan Bowker mentioned the CM Punk tie-in to Lookin’ For A Fight with Mickey Gall calling out Punk on that reality show, Powell said,
“It fits in perfectly because that’s who I’m calling out after I beat Mark… Yeah I mean I feel like it’s very fitting. I know he trains at Kill Cliff (FC) with AJ and like I want to go train there eventually. But I feel like my first fight into the UFC it would be very fitting to go out there and fight Mickey Gall. Who is like (in) my opinion, the OG when it comes to Lookin’ For A Fight. Like him and Merab (Dvalishvili) are like probably the two most popular guys that got picked up from that show. So yeah like he got in by calling out CM Punk. So I’m gonna try and get in by calling him out.”
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