A competition loss can be a learning experience and can also have the power to light a fire underneath you that makes you even stronger.
This is how Squamish fighter Jamey-Lyn Horth Wessels feels as she reflects on the narrow loss of her second UFC fight in December last year in preparation for her upcoming match in Edmonton on Nov. 2.
Gearing up for her flyweight bout against German fighter Ivana Petrovic, Horth Wessels told The Squamish Chief she plans to be “a lot more aggressive” in the ring this time round.
Preparation time
“I'm super excited to be able to get back in there and fight again. I haven't fought since last December,” Horth Wessels said.
“Training for the last five, six weeks [has been] super intense, so I don't want to say that it's always the greatest. I mean, it's definitely a great opportunity, but it's a lot of hard work.
“Right now, I'm training six days a week, twice a day.”
Horth Wessels said she is going into this next fight with a vastly different mental state.
“A big part of fighting is mental, and I think going into my last fight, I was going in as a friend, with somebody that I trained with in the past, so I didn't think at the time about how that would have affected my mental health,” she said.
“But I think the biggest thing going into this next fight is that I'm going to be a lot more aggressive. I already know that my stamina and my conditioning are well enough to be able to fight the three, five minute rounds at full 110%.
“I think my mental game going into this one is that I know I have the confidence to perform at the highest level, and I know I can do that for 15 minutes straight. So I think that having that confidence, knowing that I can do that, is totally going to be the next game changer for me.”
Her first loss
A competition loss in any situation is always a tough pill to swallow, but on a big stage like the UFC, Horth Wessels described the experience as a “learning experience.”
“It was the first loss I ever received as a fighter, so it was definitely a learning process for me to accept that loss on the biggest stage of my career,” she said.
“Although I have supported teammates and other fellow friends that had gone through that similar process, I just had never experienced it. So it took me a little bit longer to make a thank you post after I had that loss, but it didn't really steer me in the other direction.
“It kind of lit a fire under my ass to be like, 'you know what–I can do this' and that it's not really a loss, it's a learning opportunity.”
Local support
As a proud Squamish woman, Horth Wessels has always been vocal about how much the community support means to her.
Friends, family and fans alike gathered at local venues like The Cleveland Tavern, to watch live streams of her fights last year.
“I'm born and raised here, my whole family's from Squamish, and there's so many great long-term families here that have been by my side since I was a young kid and supporting me and all my sport endeavours,” she said.
“But just being from a small town and having that much support is definitely a huge fire for me. It's not easy to be in fight camp; it's not easy to not have a full-time nine-to-five job, so financially the community is just so awesome; they support me in so many different ways.”
She is already beginning to receive messages from local supporters who have bought tickets to see her fight in Edmonton.
“Right now, it's already started with people being like, 'We're coming to watch in Edmonton, we got our tickets,'” she said.
“It's just such a great feeling knowing that so many people, I guess, in a way, look up to you, but also, are there along the ride with you, so you're not really doing it by yourself, you're never really alone.”
Giving back
Horth Wessels spent her childhood playing a number of different sports in Squamish and, as such, has found herself working with a variety of youth sporting groups in the community.
“Before I became a fighter, I was a soccer player, so I've worked a lot with local soccer girls and I actually do a lot with the local hockey community as well,” she said.
“Over the last three, four years, I’ve run all the dry land off-ice programs for a lot of the Squamish and Whistler teams. So it's not even just the girls; it's just the youth in general where I feel like I have such a great connection with them.
“I think just from my experience ... growing up here in Squamish, I played every sport you could think of, and I always had volunteer coaches and people that were always there to push me and support me along the way.
Years on, Horth Wessels is now able to act as a role model for the new generation of athletes.
“If I could be that for those kids, or I could be that for a kid, or two kids, whatever it may be, it's just such a great feeling knowing that I'm able to give back something that was given to me my whole career.
New beginnings
For nine years, alongside her husband, Kasey Smith, the duo have run classes at The Sound Martial Arts, offering Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and mixed martial arts for people of all ages.
But the martial arts school has found a new home in the industrial park in Squamish, and they held a grand opening event on Sept. 15.
“It's almost like a fresh start … like [having] clean sheets on your bed,” she said.
“I think just being out of the downtown area into a more central area, it's going to give us an opportunity to sort of expand ... and just hit a different market and bring in a different generation of people.”
She credited the new space to being a result of her husband's hard work and the volunteer time from Sound Martial Arts members.
“It was just nice that we all sort of built this place together, that we can grow into and that my husband can enjoy. It was kind of like a big thank you to him for all his time and effort,” Horth Wessels said.
The Sound Martial Arts new gym space can be found at 115-1111 Pioneer Way, Squamish.
Horth Wessels will fight in the UFC flyweight bout on Nov. 2 in Edmonton.
