Jake Butler is back to his winning ways after dominating the experienced Egyptian Muhamed Ali at ONE FC: "War of Dragons" en route to a third-round TKO win, and the 4-1 light heavyweight hopes that he will be rewarded for that recent victory with an opportunity to redeem his only career loss,
"The rematch with Sylvain Potard is the fight I want next. I am a completely different fighter now, I am much better in all aspects of MMA and I am 100-percent confident that I will beat him this time."
Butler had been on course for shot at becoming the first-ever ONE FC light heavyweight champion after winning three fights in quick succession. His second-round TKO loss at the hands of Potard was a setback, but he believes a win over the Frenchman would be the best possible way to get back on title track.
"I want to beat Potard because he is the only loss on my record, and I feel like it was a loss that never should have happened. Beating Potard will give me a lot of satisfaction, and I think it is a good fight to advance me towards a ONE FC title shot."
Butler's approach to the fight with Ali (who coincidentally has a win over Potard on his record) was dramatically different from the tactics he had employed in previous bouts, as he utilized a wrestling based gameplan to very good effect.
There was no sign of Butler's striking, which had been looking increasingly impressive as his career progressed and he says this was due to a slight change of tactics.
"Going into the fight I knew that Ali’s biggest weapon was his right hand. My coaches at Evolve MMA wanted me to take Ali down early and look to finish him on the ground. I wanted to use my strengths and expose his weaknesses and I didn’t want to give him a chance to land a big right hand."
Since joining the fight team at Evolve MMA less than two years ago on the back of a wrestling career which saw him compete at an NCAA Division-1 level and captain the team at Princeton, the New Jersey native has been working tirelessly to improve the other aspects of his all-around game.
Butler has progressed from being a complete novice in the stand-up department to looking like an accomplished technical striker and he feels this skill set will serve him well in future fights.
"I have some of the best striking coaches in the world at Evolve MMA, and I work with Muay Thai World Champions every day. I will definitely being using my striking in my future fights but my coaches are helping me to combine the wrestling and striking so that they better complement each other."
When Butler first signed for ONE FC there was not a single recognizable light heavyweight name on the roster, but that situation is slowly changing as Asia's biggest MMA promotion had snapped up the likes of Christian Kaminishi and Brandon Vera with James McSweeney also set to drop down to 205 pounds.
While the prospect of a fight against some of these seasoned veterans has the potential to be intimidating to a light heavyweight with just four bouts under his belt, Butler is relishing the prospect of testing himself against some of the biggest names in the division.
"ONE FC is signing some of the top fighters in the world, and they are building really competitive divisions across all of the weight classes. It is great for the fighters and the fans," he said.
There aren't many 205-pound fighters in South East Asia and it is no surprise that ONE FC has had to look to places like Europe and the U.S. in order to fill the division, but Butler says he has plenty of suitable sparring partners.
"ONE FC middleweight contender Leandro Ataides is a member of the Evolve MMA Fight Team so I work a lot with him and some of the best fighters in the world come to Evolve MMA to train. Since I've been here, Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin have both come down to Singapore and I worked with Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton quite a bit before my last fight, he was a great training partner, and he really helped me prepare."
With ONE FC ramping up its international schedule and the break between events getting smaller and smaller, there should be even more opportunities for fighters to compete and Butler says he is hoping to be back in the cage again before too long.
"I would like to fight again as soon as possible. I am healthy, and I am ready to get back into training right away."
Whether he will be sharing that cage with Potard remains to be seen, but if Butler could avenge his only loss then a shot at the inaugural ONE FC light heavyweight title would be a fitting reward.