The Film Room: Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Alexander Hernandez

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Alexander Hernandez stunned the MMA world in his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at UFC 222, where he knocked out Beneil Dariush in the first round on just two weeks’ notice. Instead of a step down in competition, Hernandez will face Olivier Aubin-Mercier in a UFC on Fox 30 lightweight showcase this Saturday in Calgary, Alberta.

This installment of The Film Room sheds some light on their showdown.

Rise of ‘The Quebec Kid’

Aubin-Mercier got a late start in MMA, but the lifelong martial artist has slowly worked his way up the ranks in the UFC while developing his skills to become a well-rounded fighter. He grew up training judo and competed for the Canadian national team, winning a variety of medals. He started his mixed martial arts training with Firas Zahabi in 2011 and quickly became one of the Tristar Gym general’s star students. Aubun-Mercier now holds a black belt in judo, a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a blue belt in taekwondo.



Aubin-Mercier perfectly manifests the Zahabi system, and his skills are eerily similar to Tristar standout Georges St. Pierre. His grappling base, snapping jab and counter rear straight can be categorized as Tristar 101 and represents the same style of fighting St. Pierre used to become one of the greatest martial artists of our time. Aubin-Mercier has some of the best submissions in the lightweight division, with seven of his 11 wins coming by rear-naked choke. He is rather patient once the fight hits the ground and earns most of his submissions later in the fight after breaking down his opponent for the majority of the bout.



Aubin-Mercier stifled Drew Dober’s aggression with a variety of jabs throughout their fight at UFC 206 before getting the rear-naked choke finish in the second round. Instead of throwing the same jab over and over again, he will change the position of his lead hand to make the jab come at different angles. Aubin-Mercier usually keeps the lead hand low to make the jab come at an upward angle but occasionally will keep the lead hand higher to change the trajectory of the punch. Along with feints, it makes his jab almost impossible to time or see coming and serves as his main source of success on the feet.



Aubin-Mercier is not much of a leading attacker and elects to jab his opponents at range while looking for counter lefts as they come in. His go-to counter is the back-skipping left straight to lead hook that he uses when getting back to the cage.

‘Alexander the Great’

Hernandez stormed onto the lightweight scene with his shocking 42-second knockout of Dariush on March 3, and he did so as one of the biggest underdogs on the card. Even more impressive was the fact that he took the fight on two weeks’ notice and called his first-round knockout in pre-fight interviews.



At first glance, it appeared the kill shot was a left straight, but it was actually a glancing forearm/elbow to the bridge of the nose. Dariush is also a southpaw and keeps his lead hand quite low. Hernandez knew if he feinted a jab to pull a jab out of Dariush he could land his left hand over the top.



Hernandez might be touted as a striker after the Dariush knockout, but he is much more of a grappling-based fighter. He puts on relentless pressure to back opponents to the cage for easier takedowns and can counter his opponents’ aggression with shots at the hips. Once the fight hits the ground, Hernandez has vicious ground-and-pound and often looks for the Khabib Nurmagomedov-style arm trap behind the opponent’s back, leaving him only one hand with which to defend.



Similar to Aubin-Mercier, Hernandez has a sublime rear-naked choke and wastes no time attacking an opponent’s back. He will not be able to move to that position as easily as he did on the regional scene, but his grappling skills and submission instincts figure to help him in the UFC. The promotion may be throwing Hernandez into the fire a little early, but Aubin-Mercier seems like an ideal foe through which to gauge the 25-year-old prospect’s whereabouts in the lightweight division.