Jason South Believes He Can One-Up TUF Alum Gilbert Smith “On Anything He Does” at MFC 39

Having entered 2013 undefeated in his first 10 fights, it’s understandable that Utah-based middleweight Jason “The Mover” South feels his year could have ended better after suffering his first career loss in October to Sam Alvey for the MFC 185-pound championship.

“Last year was a good year other than my last fight with Alvey,” South told MMAWeekly.com. “Like always, I’m working on things, trying to better myself, and erase bad habits. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes and push it forward for this year.”

When looking back on the loss to Alvey, South feels it was a case of Murphy’s Law, where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong.

“He’s one of those guys who don’t look flashy by any means, but he has a simple game and is very good at it,” said South of Alvey. “It’s just some things standing up that I didn’t set up and made mistakes here and there.

“It was my first fight in a ring, so I had that to deal with. It was just kind of an off night and one of those situations where I didn’t pull the trigger on things I should have or made mistakes and he was able to flat-out capitalize on those mistakes I made.”

South (10-1) will look to get back on the winning track on Friday, Jan. 17, in Edmonton, Alberta, as he takes on former TUF cast member Gilbert Smith (7-2) at MFC 39 in a middleweight feature bout.

“I think we match up pretty well,” said South. “Gilbert’s a big, strong guy who is a strong wrestler and looks pretty well-rounded, but he definitely has some holes that I want to take advantage of. I’m very confident that I’ll be able to go in there and one-up him on anything he does to me.”

After his fight with Smith, South is looking forward to dropping down in weight and making another long undefeated streak that will hopefully lead to capturing the first major title of his career.

“I’m one of those guys who is hard on myself and after every single one of my wins I’m still not happy with things in the fight or what I did or didn’t do,” said South. “So this year I just want overall improvement, keep progressing everywhere I go and chase a belt at 170 pounds.”

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