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Xtreme Fitness Mixed Martial Arts New location offers more MMA options

NTAKEDOWN -  instructor William Wheeler,
top, works with student Kevin Plunkett
during a training session. The soaring
popularity of mixed martial arts has led
local MMA promotoer Justin Vasquez
to abandon training and managing fighters
out of his garage so he could open
Xtreme Fitness. ewEVELYN KRISTO/Valley Press  location offers more MMA options

By GREG WAGNER
Valley Press Staff Writer

It's gotten a face-lift.

Mixed Martial Arts promoter Justin Vasquez has moved his center of operations from the tiny, stuffy garage of his Littlerock home to a suite in the Lancaster Business Park.

"We turned my garage into a gym as best we could, but we outgrew it," Vasquez said.

Vasquez, who manages near 25 clients, witnessed in less than three years how one training partner turned into two and morphed into four.

Soon a handful of pro fighters had to wait outside the makeshift 13-foot-by13-foot cage inside Vasquez's crowded garage to get some work in, requiring the move to Lancaster a couple months ago.

Now Vasquez, in conjunction with financial backer Jorge Benitez, run a gym called Xtreme Fitness that serves not only pro MMA fighters, but plenty of amateur Valley residents looking to break into the sport.

"There's just nowhere else in the Valley where you can train everything for what we pay here ($85 a month)," said Lancaster's Kevin Plunkett, who gets taught in Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, boxing and Muay Thai - four essential skills required for the all-around MMA fighter.

Though the official opening won't take place until after Sept. 27, when Vasquez will hold Chaos in the Cage 6 at the AV Fairgrounds, and the AV Competition Team T-shirts are still on back order to replace the outdated Team Garage design, Xtreme Fitness has been steadily increasing its number of clients since it began holding classes.

Pro fighter William Wheeler hosts a daily Jiu-Jitsu session in the mornings and many of Vasquez's fighters train at Xtreme Fitness in the evenings.

"I like other people to get out here and get experience with those (pro) guys," Vasquez said. "I've trained at some gyms where it's like pros over here and you (amateur) guys over here, but that ain't cool."

Xtreme Fitness's new students, many of whom trained at local gyms that had limited hours or focused solely on one element, appreciate the chance to grapple with the pro fighters in the Valley.

"It's nice because everyday there are different people circulating and coming in," said Jahan Razavi of Quartz Hill. "There are so many times you can come in and you've got such a larger variety (of sparring partners)."

While sparring with professional fighters might lead to a few bloody workout shirts, it's a quick way for up-and-comers to better learn how to tackle a sport whose popularity is billowing with each televised event.

"You learn by kind of getting your butt kicked," said Wheeler, the younger brother of 2008 Olympic wrestler Adam Wheeler. "You keep ducking and, by getting hit every time, you're going to learn to (block). When we grapple and you get caught in an arm bar 30 times you're going to start protecting the arm."

Xtreme Fitness gives more than just a couple fighters the chance to train at the same time. During one of Wheeler's recent classes, students kept rotating through to spar with their instructor while the others grappled with each other.

That's the kind of classes a new setup with about 900 square feet can provide.

Vasquez, who attended Littlerock and Palmdale high schools, is giving Valley youngsters the opportunity he wanted while he was in his late teens.

"I was one of those kids, football didn't do it for me and I didn't like basketball," he said. "I wanted to box."

With boxing declining in the opinion of most demographics and MMA continuing its march to overtake it, Vasquez has provided a forum for prospective fighters.

After high school and venturing a bit on his own MMA career, Vasquez set up a base of operations in Victorville. He soon realized he could find the same kind of interest back home.

"I finally was like, 'Why am I managing all these guys out of town when there's so much talent in the AV?'" Vasquez said. "I just have to find them."

Vasquez still holds clients in Victorville. Those connections will soon pay off for his Valley group, with Thomas "Wildman" Denny, who will fight Nick Diaz on CBS July 26, scheduled to appear for a seminar during Xtreme Fitness's grand opening.

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