| Fight promoters battle for acceptance |
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| By Kathy Michaels - Penticton Western News |
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| Published: April 21, 2009 6:00 PM |
| Although billed as an event featuring hot girls and cage fighting, those behind bringing a controversial event to Penticton say Mixed Martial Arts is the chess of the combative sports world. |
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| The South Okanagan Events Centre is scheduled to host the International Fighting Championship Aug 15, following city council’s earlier 3-2 decision in favour of allowing the event to make it to a local stage. |
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| But acceptance of the sport has been hard fought, said IFC founder and CEO Howard Petschler, who has yet to get entry into facilities in the Lower Mainland as well as a handful of cities in the U.S. |
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| "To the uninitiated eye, it looks like a street fight, but it’s an exciting fast-paced sport", he said, comparing MMA to boxing. |
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| "This has got a whole new appeal and to a whole new generation". |
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| Fighters are allowed to punch, kick, knee, throw, choke and take-down an opponent using various arm bars and leg locks. Biting and bending back an opponent’s toes or fingers are prohibited, as are spitting and pulling hair. A match can also end if a fighter chooses to tap out. |
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| There are literally, "no holds barred", however, and that term could be part of the reason for misconceptions, said Petschler. |
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| "It’s really an intricate chess match, but you have to be cross-trained in all the different types of martial arts and it takes an incredible athlete to do it", he said. |
| IFC’s vice-president and match maker Paul Smith, went one step further in defining the sport’s fighters as a cut far-above average brutes. |
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| "Demographically, its (fighters) have the highest education level of any combative sport out there", he said. "Way over 70 per cent of the top fighters in the sport are college graduates. You have guys out there who have masters degrees and PhDs". |
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