One of the intriguing match-ups that will take place at King of the Cage Canada’s upcoming May 28^th “Combustion” event in Edmonton, Alberta, is a tilt between rising light-heavyweights Cody Krahn and Trent Thorne. Both men will head into the bout having won three straight and both men have just two losses to date. The fight could speak volumes about where exactly the victor sits in the 205lb. division, which is why according to Krahn it needs to happen, before either man starts calling out for a title shot.

“I went after the fight myself,” said Krahn (6-2) while discussing the background to the upcoming fight. “I had heard that Trent had called out Bill Mahood after beating Chad Olmstead. I knew that me and Trent were supposed to fight a while ago. So I figured this was my opportunity to tell him, you know if you’re going to be fighting Bill Mahood, you should be fighting someone like me first.”

“I mean I wouldn’t be particularly interested in fighting Bill Mahood,” said Krahn about the current KOTC Canadian champ. “So I think Trent needs to be fighting guys at a level of competition like myself.”

Thorne has already fought three times in 2010, and aside from his aforementioned win over Olmstead, the Edmonton fighter has also earned first round victories over Jordan Murray and Bobby Kalmakoff at recent KOTC Canada events.

“Trent’s a good guy,” said Krahn who trains out of PIX MMA and Frank Lee’s. “I certainly have nothing against him. I don’t think he spends enough time studying the fundamentals. He’s more of a basement warrior. He just rolls and spars with a bunch of guys. That’s how he trains. Where I prefer to do at least a little bit more with the class work because you have to work on what gets you good. These basement warrior guys are a dying breed.”

“I’ll make no secret of it, I plan on making this a stand-up fight,” Krahn added. “I don’t think Trent’s taking me down.”

Krahn has had considerable success in a relatively short time as a professional fighter. Since turning pro in November, of 2008, the 26 year-old has already put together victories over established veterans like Marcus Hicks and most recently Dan Chambers. Although Krahn has only been fighting professionally for less than 18 months, he began training in martial arts much further back.  

“I started training about the time I was 19, 20 years old at National Kickboxing,” Krahn told KOTC. “I was doing Muay Thai, and then I noticed that they had a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class so I jumped into that. I found that it was something that I was really good at it.”

“When I saw that it was something I was good at I wanted to see how I could do competing,” Krahn added. “I never had really tried too many sports and had been good at it. I did football, basketball, and soccer, all that; team sports never really did it for me. I wanted to challenge myself and hang out in the cage. So far it’s been good.”

And as far as Krahn’s prediction for his upcoming bout with Thorne?

“I’m going to say TKO or KO no more than three and-a-half minutes in.”