A Victoria comic book fan has an alter ego fit for a superhero – he works as a web developer for the B.C. government by day, and fights in the UFC by night.
Last Friday, Ryan Janes was a 4-to-1 underdog against Andrew Sanchez in The Ultimate Fighter 26 Finale at the Park Theater, just a short walk away from the iconic Las Vegas Strip. His heavily favoured opponent pummeled him in the first round. But like zombies in a graphic novel, he kept coming back.
Janes won with a third-round TKO.
“As a nerd kid who watched a lot of cartoons and a lot of superheroes, I’m quietly living my superhero dream,” he told CTV Vancouver on Monday. “How amazing is this?”
Wearing a Darth Vader ugly Christmas sweater with light-up light sabers outside his favourite comic book store, the 36-year-old explained that a loss on Friday could have spelled the end of his fighting career.
“I had one flight left in my contract, two losses. One more loss, pretty much I was done,” he said.
Janes even earned a cool nickname for his alter ego courtesy of a ringside commentator: The Terminator.
He’s expected to be back pounding a keyboard for his home province on Tuesday.
