Beyond Traditional combat with MMA

 

 

 

 

There is a fight club in town, but members don’t have to worry about keeping their mouths shut.

 

Chad Petepiece is a fourth-year Carleton student and member of this “fight club.” Petepiece belongs to Fighter Integrated Training Mixed Martial Arts (FIT MMA), a local MMA training facility.

 

He and a friend signed up for classes at the gym in their first year of university. Petepiece has been training there ever since. He said MMA gives him a sense of accomplishment he has not experienced anywhere else.

 

“It’s about having the perseverance and determination to never quit no matter how much you want to,” he said. “It’s about pushing yourself to your mental and physical limits to test yourself and see what you can really accomplish.”

 

Patrick Colvey, another Carleton student who trains at FIT, said MMA gives him an incredible sense of confidence.

 

“What I like best about MMA is never walking around scared,” he said.

 

Craig Brown, owner of FIT, described it as an ever-evolving sport. It combines different elements from a variety of traditional combat sports like boxing and wrestling.

 

However, it is not just about kicking ass in competition. There is a lot of vigorous training involved.

 

“Guys go out and train hard, and it’s not just about fighting,” Brown said. “Guys put their lives on hold for this.”

 

Fighters often have several coaches because there are so many elements of the sport to train for, he said.

 

Brown started training nine years ago and has been fighting professionally for eight years.

 

Petepiece recently trained for his first amateur competition. His training regime involved going to the gym five to six times per week for three hours each day. On top of that, he did sprinting exercises on his own time to improve his cardio strength.

 

In May, he competed in his first fight in Gatineau. MMA is banned in Ontario, but is legal in Quebec.

 

Petepiece said he was kind of nervous, but excitement took over as soon as he entered the gym.

 

“The walk-in music starts, and you just get really pumped up,” he said.

 

The fights consist of three, two-minute long rounds. If it is unclear who won the fight, a panel of judges will make the final decision. Petepiece won his fight by unanimous decision.

 

“We had a lot of people cheering for us,” he said. “You feel kind of like a rock star.”

 

Colvey compared MMA fighters to “walking weapons,” but said most are very disciplined and never fight outside the gym.

 

“MMA fighters are in it for the sport, not to hurt people,” he said. “You will never catch a trained fighter getting into bar brawls.”

 

Brown said a lot of gyms are starting to cash in on MMA. However, he warned, that does not mean they are totally qualified to teach it. At FIT MMA, he said, professional MMA fighters teach the sport.

 

Brown recently became the Canadian light heavyweight champion of W1 MMA, an elite MMA competition organization.

 

Both Petepiece and Brown said the sport is becoming more mainstream as the television program Ultimate Fighting

Championship (UFC) gains popularity. However, they said they also realize not everyone is a fan of it, most people

because they believe it is too violent.