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Campbell Is A Favourite Heading Into Aggression MMA's Lightweight Title Tourney
For Canadian fighter Shane “Shaolin” Campbell, it’ll be a night of firsts when Aggression MMA presents “Punishment”, Friday March 11th at the Shaw Conference Center in Edmonton.
In addition to a highly anticipated Welterweight Bout between Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford (13-3-0) and Johnny “JJ” Davis (13-4-0) in the Main Event, Campbell (2-0-0 in MMA) will be featured in the promotion’s first-ever Lightweight Title Tournament, when he takes on Dave Mazany (5-3-0) in the tourney’s opening round. Fresh off signing a 4-fight deal with Aggression MMA back in February, the event also marks the first time in his professional MMA career that he will get the opportunity to fight on his home soil.
This marks only the 3rd professional MMA bout for Campbell in his illustrious career. Following a successful stint in Thailand – where he became a two-time Muay Thai World Champion in 2007 & 2009 – the 24-year old Campbell, a native of St. Catharines, Ontario, moved back to Canada a year ago to live in Edmonton and take up the sport of MMA full-time.
There’s no questioning Campbell’s main strengths are his standup and clinch work, a carryover from his days competing in Muay Thai. As for his ground game, that’s still a work in progress. With plenty for him to learn, Shane is fully embracing the shift to Mixed Martial Arts, admitting that he’s ready for a new challenge after becoming such a dominant fighter overseas.
Shaolin Plans To Put On A Show Friday Night For Canadian MMA Fans
“(Muay Thai) almost started to get boring… there’s so many more aspects off MMA than Muay Thai. In MMA, it’s so much more like Rock, Paper, Scissors. One person has scissors, you come with a rock. Whereas Muay Thai, it’s pretty much everyone’s good at doing the one thing and you’re just banging back and forth constantly.”
Despite being relatively new to the sport, Campbell is confident in his abilities. Still, he’s not one to engage in the kind of smack talk against his opponent that has become so commonplace in MMA today.
He is, however, a true showman with a desire to entertain fans every time he steps into the cage. According to Campbell, March 11th will be no different, as he promises an electrifying performance vs. Mazany in front of the hometown crowd.
“My whole career, I’ve always wanted to be THAT exciting fighter. I try to do things that people come up to me at the end and say “Man, I’ve never seen that before… ever! Every fight I’m going in trying to – not prove a point – but put on a show, that’s for sure.”
Much of Campbell’s attitude toward fighting can be attributed to his longtime coach and trainer, Kru Alin Halmagean (of Iron Tiger Muay Thai). The Romanian-born Coach, who has successfully built and trained hundreds of champions during his career, was instrumental in making Campbell fall in love with Muay Thai when they met in Edmonton 7 years ago.
Kru Alin showed a keen eye for talent when it came to Campbell, giving him his nickname “Shaolin” – named after the Shaolin Monk Warriors of China – early on in their relationship.
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“Shaolin Monks are the type of people that are able to do pretty insane things. Within the first few months of training with Kru Alin, I picked up nunchucks and was just jumping around spinning them, when he called me the Shaolin guy,” said Campbell. “I had a fight coming up and got it tattooed and it just really stuck. He definitely has the eye. He calls me that a few months in and look what I’ve done with it. He’s quite the genius in my eyes.”
Still under his guidance, Kru Alin’s influence on Campbell has even extended beyond the ring. Though Shane has chosen to currently focus his energies on fighting, the longstanding respect and admiration he’s felt toward his mentor, and the sport of Muay Thai, has led him to recently open up a gym of his own in the Edmonton area, Shaolin Muay Thai.
“In me building my gym, I wanted to give back as well. I love the sport so much,” said Campbell. “I want to teach it. There isn’t anything else in the world I want to do. If I’m not fighting, I definitely want to be teaching.”
In the meantime, you can bet that “Shaolin” will be looking to teach Dave Mazany a lesson or two when both fighters meet Friday night in the first round of Aggression MMA’s inaugural Lightweight Title Tourney.
It’s just the latest opportunity for this upstart Canadian MMA fighter to give back a little “Punishment” of his own.
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