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STARE DOWN - Sal Farnetti, 3-14 as a professional boxer over a five-year career, is now an ultimate fighter. Farnetti fought against the famed Butterbean during his professional boxing stint. JOANNA GARCIA/Special to the Valley Press

Mixed Martial Arts continues to grow

Wrestlers, others feed off MMA's abundant popularity

By PATRICK BURNS
Valley Press Sports Correspondent

"It definitely attracts more kids into the program," Young said. "They all want to be the next Matt Hughes or like other fighters they have seen on TV."

Stuart's father, Mike Young, the wrestling coach at Highland, has also recognized the attraction of Mixed Martial Arts - the nation's fastest growing sport. The Bulldogs coach encourages his kids every year to take a Brazilian Ju Jitsu class from Highland assistant football coach Anthony Bowers.

"They're interested in it, but we don't get that far into it during wrestling," Young said. "That's why I think some of them should take the class."

There are very few facilities in the Antelope Valley that are explicitly MMA gyms, but there are numerous areas where athletes can practice multiple forms of martial arts to develop an MMA style.

"As an athlete you like to spread yourself around in many areas," said Adam Borjon, a former wrestler at Quartz Hill who is currently practicing Ju Jitsu and trying to develop an MMA style. "Especially with martial arts (because) there are so many different forms of it you can do."

The Training

Most of the local fighters who aspire to be MMA professionals practice at least two radically different forms of martial arts - a stand-up style and an on-the-ground style.

For stand-up training, fighters can practice boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai or other stand-up striking martial arts, all of which have numerous gyms in Lancaster and Palmdale to attend. For ground training, most fighters practice Ju Jitsu, and most former high school wrestlers realize their training in the sport is very useful.

"Here you are mixing many different sports together, so it is a lot harder to train for and be prepared," said Kazeka Muniz, the head trainer at Gracie Barra Ju Jitsu in Lancaster. "You need to have conditioning plus technical and tactical training."

Muniz has a lot of people come through his gym who aspire to be ultimate fighters, even though he specifically teaches Ju Jitsu.

Fighters who aspire to become professional MMA athletes need to go to multiple martial arts experts like Muniz in order to get the proper training.

Muniz, a two-time world champion in Brazilian Ju Jitsu, has trained famous ultimate fighters such as Tito Ortiz and Michael Bispin, a three-time light heavyweight champion.

"It's so hard to find someone that can put it all together," said Sean Bovine, a former wrestler at Quartz Hill who aspires to fight in World Extreme Cagefighting someday. "That's what makes the sport so difficult."

A Wrestling background

"Honestly I think you need a wrestling background first," Bovine said. "Unless you can knock a guy out with one punch every time, you need to have a grappling background first. It's wrestlers and Muay Thai fighters that are really taking over the sport."

Not only does wrestling give some of the aspiring fighters some useful skills for the sport, but it also teaches athletes the fear factor that is necessary.

"Wrestlers all have a very high pain factor," Bovine said. "If you have adrenaline pumping in your face the whole time, you don't feel it until afterwards."

Borjon said that adapting to a sport where he had to deal with being punched in the face was something that fueled him to work harder.

"Getting hit in the face or the stomach made me want to work that much harder," he said. "I was going to dedicate myself so I could come back and hit them back twice as hard."

Not all successful high school wrestlers make good MMA fighters. Many don't wish to be in a sport where they will continually be struck to the head.

"I don't like getting hit in the face," said Jason Fonzi, who wrestled at Quartz Hill last year and is now on the team at Fresno City College. "I'm planning on sticking with freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling for right now."

Even wrestlers who can admit that they would like to enter the sport will drop out soon after appearing in their first couple of fights.

"There is a big difference in the amount of people who see it on TV and want to do it and the people who actually go out and do it," Bovine said.

Making Money

Most wrestlers-turned-MMA fighters not only consider the sport more challenging and more exciting, but think it is the best way to make money in the future.

"I liked wrestling a lot," Bovine said. "But it won't pay the bills later on."

Bovine, a 5-foot-4, 135-pound fighter, has a background with Ju Jitsu from training at Gracie Barra gym and fights in Muay Thai competitions for Team Boonsook in Lancaster.

"When I was wrestling in high school, I didn't see myself making any money afterwards," Bovine said.

Over the span of nearly three decades, wrestling has become a lot less popular at the collegiate and professional level. Part of that is because of Title IX, which mandates that colleges have an equal number of sports for men and women, but the recent decline can also be traced to the rise in popularity of mixed martial arts.

"Since 1980 over 150 schools have dropped their programs, so it is becoming less popular," Quartz Hill wrestling coach Trevor Leach said.

Leach added that many kids who wrestle are also involved in other sports that provide opportunities to go to school and make money.

"Football has a lot more scholarships," he said. "That's why you see so many kids going to college to play football.

"With ultimate fighting it's definitely brought an eye to the sport of wrestling and gives these kids something else to do when they want to move on."

The rise of MMA

The ascendancy of MMA into becoming the nation's fastest growing sport is not something unique to the Antelope Valley. Many fans witnessed the excitement of the sport a year ago at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, when two MMA shows were held. Although the second show generated over 6,000 fans, the city of Lancaster later banned cage fighting so many local fighters compete in Victorville or elsewhere.

Hervi Estrada, vice-President of the AV Boxing Academy organized both shows.

"I couldn't believe how many people we had out there," Estrada said. "I would have felt lucky to just get 1,000 people and when that many showed up, I was thrilled."

Estrada works mostly as a matchmaker/promoter for boxing in the area, but is very interested in MMA as well. He arranged for local fighters Daniel McWilliams (1-1) and Sal Farnetti (0-1) to take part in shows this year at the Victor Valley Fairgrounds.

Estrada finds many ultimate fighters enter the sport after being involved with boxing.

Farnetti was 3-14 as a professional boxer for five years who lost to Butterbean, a big name in the sport, before deciding to take up ultimate fighting.

"I like it because you have to train in so many different areas," Farnetti said. "Boxing definitely helps, but it's trying to put together a lot of different styles."

The fast pace and brutality of MMA fights has helped MMA grow while boxing - a sport clouded in controversy, confusion and politics - has gotten stagnant in recent years.

"Boxing is always going to be around because it's a great sport," Estrada said. "But if you look at the professionals, they are really worried about their records, and that is killing the sport. In ultimate fighting guys go into a fight and go all out.

"In this area, there might not be a lot of specific MMA clubs for guys to go join, but there will always be plenty of fighters. I'm hoping the sport continues to grow because people in the area love to watch it."

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