Class is in session at Mississauga's Elite Training Centre and UFC fighter and instructor Claude “The Prince” Patrick is seated like a muscled Buddha, carefully watching as dozens of his students grapple, attempting various holds and submissions.

His eyes dart from one aspiring fighter to the next, analyzing subtle shifts in weight and position as they struggle to sink in guillotine chokes and slip out of kimura arm bars.

"It's like looking at pieces of a puzzle," he explains, his eyes still fixated on the action. "And if you look at the pieces long enough, they start to make sense. You see where everything is supposed to go."

For Ontario-based fighters like Patrick, everything is falling into place now that mixed martial arts (MMA) has been legalized in the province.  UFC 129 is taking Toronto by storm this week, and Patrick is fighting on the undercard.   The event will bring thousands of people to town to spend tens of millions of dollars on everything from tickets to t-shirts. With the Rogers Centre selling out in record time, it’s also thrusting Toronto into the world’s MMA spotlight – making us a hub for the sport and potentially transforming skilled fighters like Patrick into homegrown superstars.

Patrick continues to oversee the action, occasionally getting down on the mat to demonstrate the techniques he has carefully honed over the years.   The instructions he barks are more akin to haikus than commands, because somewhere in that mess of manic limbs and sweat-slick, writhing bodies Patrick sees poetry.  

Fighting has been the Toronto-based welterweight's muse since his days of restless youth, when he would incessantly rewind the fight scenes in films like Bloodsport, desperately trying to figure out the moves.

He wouldn’t remain a spectator for long, though.  His obsession with martial arts inevitably led him to the gym and the beginnings of a now-blossoming MMA career.  

He turned pro in 2002 --- and after an early-career loss he’s gone undefeated in his last 12 matches.    

On Saturday night at Rogers Centre, he'll enter the octagon for the biggest fight of his life: battling fellow welterweight and submission specialist Daniel “The Ninja” Roberts.

The fight represents his third battle under the UFC banner, where he’s undefeated.  

It also marks his first pro fight on home turf.  Due to a ban on MMA that was only recently lifted in Ontario, Patrick’s career was moulded on the road --- fighting for small organizations and relatively paltry paycheques.

Making it into the coveted UFC seemed like a lofty dream, not to mention fighting on a huge card in Toronto.  But after years on the unheralded MMA circuit, he made it.

“To be honest I didn't foresee this,” he admits.  “The UFC was the like the big pie in the sky...but it didn't seem like a way to make a living at the time, it was just something pretty cool and completely out of reach.”

To supplement his income in his pre-UFC days Patrick worked a slew of odd jobs, but never lost focus. Along the way he was inspired by the success of friends and former training partners like UFC standout Carlos Newton and rising legend, Canada's own Georges St-Pierre.  

“I was never really down on myself because I wasn't there, I just kept working and surrounding myself with positive people,” he explains.

“I knew St-Pierre way before the hoopla of the UFC or any title bouts.  I've learned [through him] that dedication and hard work really pays off.”

Ironically Claude Patrick spent most of his life dreaming of becoming a fighter, but now has a hard time shaking off some of the stereotypes that inherently follow.  

He eschews street fighting, and even in his days working security or bouncing, he avoided conflict.

“I never laid a hand on anybody. I'm not into beating up people on the street.”

“Fighting is one facet of my life and something that I do but I would not characterize myself as 'the fighter'. I don't have any tattoos, I'm not a beer-swilling bad-ass type guy ‘gonna knock you out.’ I'm a peace-loving guy who just likes to do my martial arts, teach and train and compete and that's pretty much it.”

Despite his pacifism outside of the octagon, in 2008 Patrick found himself on the receiving end of a brutal beating by nine people in a Quebec hotel room.  He was placed in a medically induced coma, but went on to a full recovery.   While his resurgence makes an intriguing story-line, it’s an incident he’s grown tired of commenting on.

"If you heard about it happening then you know as much - or more - than I do,” he said, with a tinge of irritation.  “But that's the go-to story so I don't know if I have to do something epic for them to talk about something else instead."

It couldn’t get much more epic than an eventual showdown with old friend and fellow welterweight, Georges St-Pierre.  Despite their close bond, Patrick maintains he’ll fight anyone.

“The guy you are training with today could be the guy you are fighting tomorrow. It's the nature of the beast.”

“For $3 million we can fight each other and then sit down and laugh about it on the beach later.”

All black and white photos: CITYNEWS/Michael Talbot