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Notes and quotes from fighters from The Great White North. This week's edition: Mein, Ford & Clements.

This week we look at three welterweights making noise in the MMA world -- one fighter who recently signed with Strikeforce, another who joined Bellator, and another who is just hoping to get to the UFC.

Strikeforce loads up with Young Guns

For some time now, Lethbridge, Alta's Jordan (Young Guns) Mein has been one of the best fighters in this country who is still a relative unknown.

He won't be much longer.

Mein, who has been on a tear for the past year but fighting in small promotions, has finally landed with one of the two biggest MMA organizations, signing a deal with Strikeforce.

And the man he'll make his debut against next month is no slouch -- Mein takes on Evangelista (Cyborg) Santos, who was originally supposed to fight this past Saturday in a potential welterweight title shot-earning bout against former top contender Paul Daley before Santos was sidelined by an injury and replaced by Tyron Woodley.

Mein (22-7) certainly isn't easing into his new contract. But he feels he's prepared for the new level of competition.

"Cyborg is up there, a top contender," Mein said. "I'm ready to step it up."

Truth be told, the son of fighter and Rumble in the Cage founder Lee Mein, already got a taste of some top competition in his last fight when he faced Dream welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis at an event in Mississauga, Ont., in June. The 21-year-old more than held his own, earning a somewhat surprising unanimous-decision victory.

"I learned a lot (in my last fight). I knew (Zaromskis) loves to strike. We watched lots of his video, and I figured why not test my standup abilities again," Mein said. "I just outpointed him, landed more than he did me. I rocked him in the first round, so he respected my power, and I picked him apart a little bit. He loves those high kicks, I made sure my hands were up. It was a fun fight."

Mein said he suffered a couple of injuries in the fight, including a broken toe and a dislocated right foot. And he said his forearms were quite sore from blocking all those kicks. But he's all healed now.

Prior to that fight, he defeated a former UFC veteran, Josh Burkman, in the first sanctioned MMA event in Ontario. He's already been getting a lot of media attention lately so he's "semi-used to that" now and doesn't expect too difficult a transition to the big show.

And while some think Strikeforce's roster is a little on the thin side, Mein believes there's plenty of good competition being offered there. And he likes the opportunity to fight for the first time outside of Canada, as his Sept. 10 bout against Santos will be in Cincinnati.

"I do think there's quite a few guys in (Strikeforce) that are top athletes that I can compete with," Mein said. "I just want to show everyone else what I can do and this deal gives me that opportunity."

The Real Deal goes big time

Just over a week ago, Bellator Fighting Championships made its Canadian debut, and it was a success. With it, the Chicago-based organization has made a commitment to having more of a presence north of the border.

On top of plans to come back to Canada again, it has also been signing more talent from the Great White North. That includes the extremely popular Edmonton slugger Ryan (The Real Deal) Ford.

"I was offered a few other contracts, but Bellator was the best one fore me to take," Ford said. "It gives me that exposure as pretty much every one of their fights are televised. This allows me to build my name in front of a bigger audience."

It seems he's already getting some good exposure. On last week's episode of MTV's Jersey Shore, Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino was wearing one of Ford's "Real Deal" T-shirts. (Ford was quick to tweet in response.

While the 29-year-old doesn't yet have a date or an opponent for his Bellator debut, he expects it to be in October at a not-as-yet confirmed return to Casino Rama in Orillia, Ont.

Ford's deal with the new organization, agreed upon just a couple weeks ago, allows him to continue to fight in Canadian promotions provided Bellator approves his opponent. Last week Ford, who is under contract with hometown promotion Aggression MMA, got confirmation of his opponent for a Sept. 16 bout already on his calendar and it was accepted.

Ford (16-3) will face Charlie Rader, former cast member of The Ultimate Fighter Season 13, in Edmonton at Aggression MMA 8.

"It's a good deal because I can still fight here in Canada in my hometown. You never know, maybe Bellator will come to Edmonton!"

Ford added that would be ideal, because he isn't necessarily rushing to fight south of the border, especially since Canadian fighters have to pay taxes that come right out of their purse.

Sarah Kaufman, whom Ford has trained with at ZUMA gym in Victoria, earned $10,000 for her win over Liz Carmouche at a Strikeforce show last month, but had to pay $3,000 in U.S. tax.

"I'm waiting for the right opportunity to fight in the states," Ford said. "If I'm going over there to fight, it's got to make sense in the books."

If he wins his next two fights, he said he'll be qualified and entered into Bellator's upcoming welterweight tournament.

And that would most certainly be the right opportunity.

The Menace hopes to make an impression

London, Ont.'s Chris Horodecki was a huge winner at the aforementioned Bellator show. Interestingly, he was supposed to fight at a different event with a new promotion in Windsor one week earlier. But a withdrawal took him off that event and opened the door for an opportunity with the bigger promotion.

One of his Adrenaline Training Center teammates, Chris (The Menace) Clements, of Dresden, Ont., did fight on that card. He defeated Travis Briere with a highlight-reel spinning back kick 31 seconds into the second round of the headlining bout at Border Wars, the debut event for Professional Fighting Championships.

"The fight went pretty much according to plan," Clements said. "I knew he was athletic, so I wanted to slow him down and clinch him. I knew I was more technical so I wore him down in the first round, got in his head that I was better than him on the ground.

"I set up the kick in second, and it just happened really quickly. He hit the ground, I heard a big groan and I finished him with just a quick follow up."

It was Clements' first professional fight in his home province and he said the crowd was amazing and the energy was awesome.

"It was great to have such crowd support. I'm used to fighting in Quebec where fans are usually booing me!"

The knockout was Clements' third straight, after he took out former UFC veteran Jonathan Goulet in Ringside MMA and Cal Grummit by TKO at an Xtreme Cagefighting Championship event in Michigan. All three were for championship belts (which you can see at an autograph signing this Saturday in Wallaceburg, Ont.)

Clements (9-4) hopes to keep the streak going and catch the attention of a larger promotion. But he has only one destination in mind. It's the UFC or nothing.

"I want UFC," Clements said emphatically. "I don't want Strikeforce, I don't want Bellator. I'm 35. I don't have four years in those (organizations) to build a name for myself.

"I want another big fight in early or mid October, and try to get the UFC's attention again then hope it carries into the show when the UFC comes back to Canada."

He's going to have a busy fall already -- he's getting married in September. But he knows he has to keep training even as he's gearing up to get hitched.

"I'm just trying to find a way to do it both without interfering with each other."

Good luck to him -- on both the pending vows, and his UFC dream.