BOJAN Velickovic. You’ve probably never heard of him.

Neither had Jake Matthews until Tuesday afternoon.

But the Melbourne MMA sensation has 37 days to get to know American Velickovic before they square off at UFC Fight Night Sydney on November 19.

Matthews and Velickovic yesterday verbally agreed to meet at Qudos Bank Arena in the latest addition to the card.

“I was starting to stress a bit ... thinking I wasn’t going to get one (fight),” Matthews said in announcing his move to welterweight.

“My first thoughts were ‘I’ve never heard of him (Velickovic) before’.

“We went and did our research. He’s tough, he’s in the UFC so it’s going to be a hard fight regardless of who I get.

“But I’m happy with the match-up. I think we match up really well. He hasn’t been finished in any of his losses, he’s pretty resilient and durable so we’re looking to find his weaknesses.

“We think we know where he lapses and we’re going to train accordingly and try and take advantage of it.”

A lightweight in the first seven fights of his UFC career, Matthews makes the move to welterweight, where he began his MMA career.

“I’m really excited,” he said.

“I just wanted to fight at welterweight. I’ve always loved GSP (Georges St-Pierre) and he was at welterweight, so I always wanted to fight there.

“When I made the UFC, they asked me if I wanted to fight at lightweight or welterweight. We had a chat about it and decided that I’d be able to cut the weight.

“But I was 19 at the time, smaller and not as developed, but as each fight went on I got a bit bigger and matured and it got harder and harder.

“When I last fought at welterweight I was a lot more relentless, had a lot more power and I wouldn’t gas out as quick and I’m hoping I can go back to those days and be a whole new Jake.”

media_camera Jake Matthews after his win over Akbarh Arreola at UFC 193 in Melbourne.

Walking around at 83kg, Matthews was forced to cut a staggering amount of weight to make the 70kg cut off at lightweight.

Not anymore.

“Some fighters carry on about 13-14 pounds, I was cutting 13-14kgs,” Matthews explained.

“Three weeks out from the fight I’d virtually stop eating — not starving myself completely — but no carbs, no bread, no junk food.

“I had a lot of veggies, no red meat, so it wasn’t very enjoyable. Then in fight week I’d start water loading and I’d have about six litres of water on the Monday and each day after that I’d try to lose a litre.

“We’d fight on the Sunday and on the Thursday I’d stop eating all together. On the Tuesday and Wednesday I’d have a slice of pineapple for breakfast, a couple of biscuits and tin of tuna for lunch and water and that’s pretty much it.

“So it’s pretty brutal. I’ve had some rough times during weight cuts, so I’m looking forward to fighting at welterweight and just being healthy.

“I’m not putting myself in danger any more. I’ll be fighting bigger guys but I’ll be 100 per cent in there and they’ll have to cut weight.”

media_camera Jake Matthews will return after 12 months Picture: Tim Carrafa

Velickovic, who hails from Serbia and fights out of Denver, Colorado, owns a 15-5-1 fight record.

He’s won two of his last five fights in the UFC, going down to Englishman Darren Till on September 2.

“We’ve pulled up all his recent fights and he’s had a few in the UFC,” Matthews said.

“Just watching his latest one, we’re trying to find the patterns in his fights and the things that he sticks to. He seems OK on the ground, but he tends to stand up a lot in his fights.

“He’s dangerous, he has explosive submissions on the ground but he doesn’t finish a lot of them. But I don’t want to give too much away.

“We’ll keep it pretty basic. We’ll recognise his strengths and try to avoid it and find out what his weaknesses are and try to take advantage of them.”

Matthews, 11-3, returns to the octagon after almost 12 months in the wilderness, having endured hip surgery.

Originally published as ‘I’ve never heard of him before’