Star Weekly is taking a look back at 2023. Here’s one of our biggest stories from last year.
Jack Jenkins’ rise in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has shown the world that he is no underdog. Jenkins spoke to Liam McNally from Las Vegas when he was just off the back of his June 25 UFC win against Jamall Emmers in Jacksonville, Florida.
From a young age, Jack “Pharjack” Jenkins knew he had the talent to make the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
The Bacchus Marsh fighter’s rise has been littered with bouts in which he has been proving to the world that he is no underdog.
Now he is preparing to cement that in the minds of the fighting world in his third UFC featherweight fight in Sydney on September 10.
Jenkins described his upbringing as a typical Bacchus Marsh childhood, with his parents and three siblings. His early interests in sport were Aussie rules and rugby, but it was at age 13 his brother’s interest in kickboxing influenced Jenkins to start training at Ziggys Gym in Maddingley.
A couple of years later, a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym opened in Melton, Metamorphica, and the keen 15-year-old would have his brother, Ben, drop him off there on his way to work with the Melton police, and pick him up after his shift finished.
Jenkins said Metamorphica is where his life-path was forged.
“[Metamorphica owners] Heath and Kelly Attard are exceptional people. Ben and I formed a really good relationship with them,” he said.
“Heath would coach me in the morning and then he would take me back to his house and he’d feed me, let me play the Xbox, and then he would take me back to the afternoon classes.”
“That set the foundation for me … Heath told me from an early stage that I had the talent and the drive to get to the UFC, that set me on path to where I am now.”
At 21, Jenkins returned to Australia from a stint living in Canada, which is when he decided it was “go time” for his MMA career.
He went straight into the professional fighting in Australia’s Hex Fight League, and in his first three fights earned three first-round wins.
He suffered two losses in his next two bouts, after which he said Attard “graciously” decided Jenkins needed to find a gym that had a bigger stable of fighters and had the scope to take him to a higher level.
Jenkins joined Absolute MMA, beginning with a scholarship in Thailand, then at its gym in Collingwood where Simon Carson and Andrew Colgrave were “big catalysts” in instigating the nine-fight winning streak that he is still on.
Jenkins said the next big turning point in his career was getting the call to fight Diego “El Pantera Negra” Pereira for the Australian title in 2020, with just two weeks’ notice.
“I was the big underdog,” he said.
“The way the commentators were talking was essentially that it was Diego’s night to win his title and I was just there to be the canon fodder.
“I obviously had different ideas about that. I went into that fight with a really violent attitude and I ended up breaking his jaw and breaking his leg and finishing him in the fourth round. At that point, people started to pay attention.”
Jenkins defended his title over the next two years, breaking more opponents legs – he’s currently at five of his last seven fights – including taking revenge against Jesse Medina, the victor from Jenkins’ first MMA loss.
“I took every fight opportunity I could get, every training opportunity I could get … When I could, I was sleeping on the floor at the gym … When the opportunity to fight came up I was making sure I was ready,” he said.
Jenkins said this period of his career culminated in March, 2022 when he was matched against Rod Costa, who was on a big fight winning streak.
“I opened as a 2.60 underdog,” he said.
“I met the bookmaker who was doing the odds for that and I said ‘hey, your analysts have got this wrong, I should be a 1.50 favourite’.
“So I ended up putting on my social media, ‘everyone go put a big bet on me because I’m gonna smoke this guy’. So many people put this bet on that they actually closed the market down and stopped allowing bets on me.”
Jenkins said he dismantled Costa over five rounds and that was when he was told he was ready for the world scene.
Jenkins’ first international fight was in Dana White’s Contender series, in which regional superstars get one chance to prove themselves in a fight. He said his gritty third round total knockout earned him a UFC contract.
“It’s just like, validation from 10 or more years of work. I’d been training for most of my life and you sacrifice…I missed out on weddings, I missed out on going out with my friends, I missed out on family events and you do that all with the chance you still might not ever get there,” he said.
Jenkins said one of the best moments of career was in February this year, walking out for is first UFC fight against Don Shainis in Perth.
“I was a bit nervous out the back and then as soon as my music came on and I started walking, the crowd just erupted, it was so loud in there, the ground was shaking when I walked out,” he said.
“I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. That point for me was the culmination of it, and it made all [the work] completely worth it.”
The match ended with Jenkins’ first UFC win, and another opponent with a broken leg.
On June 25, Jenkins had his second UFC bout against Jamall Emmers in Jacksonville, Florida.
Jenkins won by split decision, but wasn’t confident the vote would go his way.
“It was a really close fight, it was a bit of a chess match,” he said.
“I’m not gonna say I’m wrapped with the performance because I expect a little bit better of myself… but I’m happy I got the win.
“I took a lot from it as a learning experience and a growth experience, being in there with a guy who was so good and getting a full 15 minutes with him.”
Now, Jenkins’ eyes are on Sydney where he aims to give a “breakout performance” on September 10.
“…Where I can really start to show people that I’m world-class and I’m going to be one of those top guys for a long time.”
Jenkins said MMA fighting is “simultaneously the scariest thing and the best thing that you could ever do”, but in between all the adrenaline, his hometown still keeps him grounded.
“In some ways [life since joining the UFC has] changed drastically and then in others it’s exactly the same,” he said.
“I pretty much know everyone I see in Bacchus Marsh anyway and they’ve all known me since I was a kid so nobody treats me any differently there, and at the gym we’re all on that same path.”
“I’m just managing to keep my head down and sticking to the formula that got me here rather than trying to change or get my head up in the clouds.”
