In the world of mixed-martial arts, Shawn Pallan finds himself in a unique position – one of both a veteran and a relative rookie.
On the one hand, the South Surrey personal trainer is approaching 40 years old and has 15 years worth of fighting experience in a variety of disciplines – from boxing to jiu-jitsu to karate. But on the other, he has just one official MMA fight to his credit – a second-round TKO of Josh Mazzarole at the Boulevard Casino last February.
But no matter how he’s viewed – as newbie or a grizzled pro – Pallan would like nothing more than to add one more title to his name: champion.
By virtue of his win over Mazzorole, the 37-year-old is the current No. 1 contender for the B.C. welterweight championship; on June 17 in Vancouver, he’ll fight Comox Valley’s Chris Anderson for the belt.
And while Pallan appreciates the uniqueness of his position, having just one official MMA win to his credit, he’s also confident that his years of training have earned him the right to be in such a position.
“It’s a blessing to get this chance. I’m very lucky,” he said.
“Just to step into a ring and actually fight is a feat in and of itself – so many people train and say they want to fight… but only about five percent actually end up doing it.
“For me, having an MMA fight was a bucket-list thing – something I wanted to do before it was too late. I’ve worked hard for 12, 15 years, and now I’ve got this opportunity to get a belt… it’s just a real treat for me.”
Pallan is no stranger to martial arts and combat sports.
His background is as a “stand-up fighter” – boxing and kickboxing – and through the years, he’s had something of a nomadic training pattern, having jumped from gym to gym, and style to style before finally stopping at South Surrey’s Dragon’s Den, where he trains under Stephen Lapré.
“I’ve taken boxing classes, kickboxing classes, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, Kung-Fu, karate – a lot of different things. I never stayed in any of them long enough to get any good, but I dabbled in each of them long enough that I got the basics, and could take something from it,” Pallan explained, adding that the impetuousness of youth was sometimes the reason he quit some of the disciplines early.
“I was a young kid who wanted to be a fighter and I was impatient – I didn’t realize that it takes patience. You have to study it, work at it – that’s what really weeds out the goons.
“The guy who becomes a studier of the art is the one who is going to really be successful.”
Though he’d trained hard in the past – and has been training with Lapré for nearly two years – it wasn’t until last September that Pallan started working out with an eye towards stepping into the MMA ring.
Back then, he was 40 pounds heavier than the 170 pounds he currently fights at, and his skills were rusty after a handful of serious injuries sent him to the sidelines – most of which were suffered during previous training sessions.
He severely sprained his ankle when he rolled over it on the mat – “It’s still swollen on one side,” Pallen said – and he’s also broken both his pinky and ring fingers. Add to that a broken rib and most recently a leg injury, which set him back 12 weeks, and he’s had a lot to battle through.
The leg injury was the toughest, he said.
“I’m a personal trainer, and it hurt to walk when I’d go see my clients. I couldn’t run, it hurt to ride the bike for awhile. I just couldn’t do anything, and it’s a fine line between staying (mentally) strong and falling into a depression,” Pallan said.
“The joke was that I quit training for so long that even the dog got fat – I couldn’t take him for walks.
“Once you get back at it, (the weight) does come off pretty quickly, but the hardest part is that you’ve gotta take your licks to get back to where you were, so it got to me, for sure.”
In order to get back into shape quickly, he trained at Dragon’s Den three or four days a week, two hours per day.
“The first little bit was just about conditioning, but he did still have a lot of the skills, from his previous experience,” Lapré said.
“I just took what he had and tried to improve upon it, much like any coach would. You’ve got to see what he’s got and give him new skills to give him a better chance at success.”
At 37, Pallan knows he won’t be able to fight forever – eventually he’d like to get into coaching – and despite the ribbing he takes for being the resident “old guy,” he’s also dead-set on making the most of his opportunity.
Both him and Lapré have done their homework on Anderson, Pallan’s June opponent, and both men are confident the work will pay off in the ring.
“He’s more of a ground guy, so we’ll probably be spending a bit more time on the ground, but he’s smaller, so there’s the assumption – and this isn’t me calling him out – that maybe he won’t be as strong as I am,” Pallan said.
“It’s a pretty big fight for me. I get pumped up more as the day draws near. It’s the kind of thing where, the timing was just right for me. I could’ve fought (years ago), but I just needed the confidence to step up and say, ‘I want this.’
“And if I do it, if I get that championship belt, that’s something nobody can ever take from me.”
Wright to fight
On the same June 17 fight card as Pallan’s bout with Chris Anderson, another Dragon’s Den member, boxer-turned-MMA fighter Josh Wright, will also vie for a provincial title belt.
Wright, a South Surrey resident who has a Golden Gloves boxing title to his credit, will put his Muay Thai skills to the test in a B.C. middleweight (160 pounds) fight.