Tanner Boser will be making his debut on one of the biggest stages in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
The Bonnyville born heavyweight fighter will be having his first UFC match against Giacomo Lemos on July 27 in Edmonton at the Rogers Place Arena.
Although he knows it's going to be a tough fight, Boser believes his experience in the ring will give him the upper hand.
"I've fought a lot of the best guys in the world in Russia, and he hasn't fought anybody at the calibre of people I've been fighting for the last three years," he said. "I'm not discounting him at all... He's a good all-around fighter, and I expect it to be a good fight. But, I think the fact that I've been in deep water before, and I don't think he has, that's going to play to my advantage."
While Lemos has six wins already under his belt, Boser has come out victorious in 16 of his 22 professional matches.
"I think it gives me a foot up on a lot of the heavyweights, because a lot of the heavyweight division, the elite guys are older," he noted.
Boser was surprised with the opportunity of a contract with the UFC.
"I didn't expect to get signed to this card, so it was a pretty cool feeling," recalled Boser.
After growing up in Bonnyville, Boser moved to Edmonton in 2013 to train in MMA full-time and has been doing it ever since. He described what was behind his decision to relocate.
"I was kind of restless at the time... I had a good job, I was working with Bonnyville Water Conditioning and that was when the oil field was booming. It was a really good job, but I needed to do something, so it wasn't a tough decision."
The six foot two inches, 249-pound fighter couldn't pinpoint a specific part of his journey that stood out.
"I like all the places I've gotten to see and fight in front of foreign crowds and places. There's really so many things, and I don't know if there's things that specifically stand out about it," he said, adding he never realized just how far the profession would allow him to travel.
"I don't think I had any sort of inkling of the places that it would bring me."
With his UFC career ahead of him, Boser hopes to make an impression on the heavyweight division and prove himself a worthy opponent.
"I just want to win some fights and be good. That's kind of been my whole thing, and I don't have any specific goals. I'm not going to come in there like a lot of these guys that are like, 'I want to be the champ.' I just want to fight good guys, I want to have good fights, I want to beat some of them, and I want to be good."
He continued, "I'm not going to come in there as some guy nobody knows and start calling out big names. In terms of the bottom half of the division at the moment, which is what I could reasonably call out, there's nobody that really stands out."
