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Seven years of sweat and combat have earned local mixed martial artist Dave Scholten a title shot.

The 35-year-old Abbotsford fighter is less than a week away from his Canadian Bantamweight title fight and says at this point in his career, he has his pre-fight routine down to a science.

"Nerves affected my performance for my first four MMA fights, but now I just relax and realize it's just like practice," says the Abbotsford Collegiate, then Abbotsford Secondary, grad.

Scholten is taking his veteran experience into a ring in West Edmonton Mall Friday night against undefeated Ontario-native Nick Denis.

While Denis is a Muay Thai specialist, meaning he likes to stand up and exchange kicks and punches, Scholten is an accomplished wrestler.

His 10 years of wrestling experience includes a standout career at Abbotsford Secondary, Simon Fraser University and three national championships in the early 1990s.

"I haven't faced too many wrestlers with my experience," Scholten says humbly.

He adds, it was because of the coaching he got in Abbotsford and at SFU that he developed his love for wrestling.

It is because of his on-the-mat success that Scholten wants to take Denis to his territory - the ground.

"I want to take it to the ground and then either ground-and-pound or submission," he says.

Along with training with Universal MMA, out of Vancouver, Scholten also runs his own business in Abbotsford, Cedar Roofs Only.

Keeping busy between work and training, the MMA veteran says he brings a lot of strength to the bantam division.

'My biggest assets are my strength and especially my hand strength - I have really big hands for my size."

Another advantage for Scholten is his ability to drop weight. Wrestlers often have to lose weight fast to be able to fight and that is the case for his MMA title shot on Friday.

With 10 pounds to lose by Thursday's weigh-in, Scholten says he won't eat that day and will hit the sauna to drop the last couple of pounds.

Then he has less than 24 hours to get some good meals in and drink a lot of water before fight night.

"At this point I have it pretty well down. I had to lose weight for fights all the time when I was wrestling," he says with a knowing smile.

Paul Fontaine, Abbotsford Times 2007