Canadian flyweight Jamey-Lyn Horth has waited 11 months to return to action in the UFC after a split-decision loss to Veronica Hardy, her first defeat as a pro.
At least Horth (6-1-0) won't have to wait Saturday on the UFC Fight Night show in Edmonton. The 34-year-old from Squamish, B.C., opens the Rogers Place card against Norway-based Croatian Ivana Petrovic (7-1-0).
"It definitely gave me a lot of time to game-plan and make changes and build that excitement factor for (Saturday)," Horth said of the time between fights. "So I'm pretty excited to get back in there and showcase what I've been working on and remind everybody that I'm still here."
Horth's long layoff was, in part, due to a shoulder injury suffered "sometime just before and during" the Dec. 3 loss to Hardy in Austin, Texas.
Horth said she got back to her hotel that night and could not lift her arm up to take her sports bra off. After an MRI to determine the damage, she was off three to four months.
Horth had to overcome obstacles in both of her previous UFC outings.
She moved up a weight class in her April 2023 debut against American bantamweight (All Hail) Hailey Cowan, who added to the degree of difficulty by missing weight at 137.5 pounds. Despite that, Horth won a unanimous decision.
Hardy, whose husband is former UFC welterweight contender Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy, presented a different challenge, given the two were friends having trained together in 2019 in Vancouver.
"Looking back, having some sort of pre-existing friendship definitely can have an effect on how things start," Horth acknowledged. "I definitely didn't start that first round full steam ahead. And unfortunately when there's only three rounds, you can't really play catch-up after you've lost the first."
Told by her corner to "Let it all go this round," Horth came on strong in the third, punishing Hardy with close-range elbows and knocking her down with just over a minute remaining. Despite that, she fell short with two judges scoring the first two rounds for Hardy and the third judge awarding rounds two and three to Horth.
Horth now sees a positive coming out of the negative.
"There were definitely a few weeks where I felt a little bit sorry for myself. Obviously it's just natural to feel that way," she said. "And then rewatching the fight, I kind of gained a little more confidence back. It was a very close fight. And I didn't see that way at the time because I got the loss and that's all I focused on.
"Looking back, I think there was a lot of good coming out of that fight."
UFC Stats had both fighters landing 43 significant strikes — with Horth holding a 74-61 edge in total strikes — and one takedown.
Petrovic, 20, is a Croatian who grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, moving to Norway in 2015 to be with her fiance, now husband. She started in kickboxing at 17, eventually switching to MMA.
Like Horth, Petrovic is 1-1-0 in the UFC, submitting China's Na Liang in April after losing her debut by decision to Brazil's Luana Carolina in July 2023.
Petrovic is the fourth southpaw in a row for Horth.
"Without sounding cocky, I feel like she is who I was a year or two ago," said Horth." And I feel I just have a little bit more to bring to this next fight,"
Horth previously held flyweight titles in both the Battlefield Fight League and Legacy Fighting Alliance promotions.
The LFA championship win in December 2021 came at a cost with Horth fighting through a nasty knee injury suffered early in the fight. Horth won by third-round submission, learning later she had torn her posterior and lateral cruciate ligaments as well as the popliteus muscles and tendons behind the knee.
She wore a leg brace around the clock for three months and had to wait six months before resuming full training.
Horth, who had her first amateur fight in November 2016 and made her pro debut in March 2018, got into martial arts through friends — initially as a cross-training partner to playing soccer.
She told herself she would move on from martial arts if she didn’t make the UFC by the time she was 33. She finally got the call six days before her 33rd birthday.
Horth and fiance Kasey Smith own The Sound Martial Arts in Squamish, a community that has rallied around her with Canadian rugby league captain Blake Mahovic, who co-owns The Backyard pub in Squamish, is among her sponsors.
She also trains at WKX Gym in Surrey, B.C., and Universal MMA in North Vancouver, which means a lot of driving.
"I like lots of caffeine and country music," she said.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press