The Wake

Herpes is spreading quickly across the state, and it seems possible that cage fighting will do the same very soon and be just as nasty.

Thursday night at the Myth Nightclub, Elite Fighting X-treme celebrated its one-year anniversary the only way they know how: they hosted a jaw-dropping, tongue wagging, drooling spectacle of mixed martial art fighting along with strippers and ring girls dancing between matches.

The crowd, sufficiently amped and drunk, enthusiastically cheered for every takedown, haymaker and arm-bar inside the octagon. The action was quick inside the cage with all but three fights lasting past the first round. The arena was peppered with yells of “KICK HIS ASS!!!” and incredulous reactions to the violence.

Twelve matches took place that night with many memorable moments of stark reality and brutality. In one of the early matches, Rich Taylor squared up against Zeb Hansen. This match was over as soon as they rang the bell. Taylor rushed Hansen, unloading fists of fury upon his skull until Hansen fell. Hansen wrapped his legs around Taylor while on the ground. Taylor then picked Hansen up and dropped him on his neck. It looked as though his spine was sure to snap. After that Taylor continued to pummel Hansen’s face until the referee stopped the match.

One Thursday a month, EFX overtakes Myth and provides fans an up close view of an emerging sport that may replace boxing in popularity. EFX draws over 1,000 people on a Thursday night.

“We came up with a whole new concept as far as doing it on a Thursday night rather than a Friday or Saturday night, which is pretty typical. We tried to make something so that it was continuous throughout the year. We do the show once a month, ten months out of the year. We’re trying to make Thursday night the ‘it’ night,” said Nick Gamst, co-founder of EFX.

Gamst worked as a promoter across the Midwest before beginning the EFX endeavor with co-founder Carey Thul, who also worked as a promoter for nightclubs. Gamst said he is trying to take the local mixed martial arts fighting scene to a different level by making the events more of a show for everyone to enjoy.

“We try to make it more of a show than just a fight with a lot of give-aways and dancers who perform on the stage,” Thul said.

Through their connections, Gamst and Thul proved to be the perfect combination to increase the popularity of cage fighting in Minneapolis. Gamst knew plenty of free-style fighters from his promoting days and Thul knew a healthy amount of wrestlers across the metro area from his days in the ring and as a wrestling coach. That combination brought in two modes of fighting that appear complementary inside the octagon because while there may be the guy throwing haymakers to KO an opponent, the wrestler employs wrestling moves like shooting his opponents legs to get him to the ground and then KO him.

Gamst and Thul have used every play in their books to establish a good crowd for each event from giving away tickets to helping develop local, recognizable talent. They have attracted advertisers by giving away tickets to shows and other bonuses.

“We’re advertising for these people for pennies and then giving them tickets to the show so they get jacked about it and want to do business with us in the future,” Gamst said.

Perhaps the strongest method of attracting people stems from having local fighters appear on a regular basis. The local fighters bring in their friends and introduce them to the sport while telling others. Among the local talent is former wrestling standout Marcus LeVessuer, the four-time Minnesota state wrestling champion.

The local influence was evident throughout the night, especially when fighters from the Rice Street Gym entered the caged octagon. Some in the crowd began chanting “Rice Street” to encourage fighters like Frank “The Tank” Johnson.

Johnson attempted to defend his EFX Lightweight Amateur title against Richard Silva from Northfield. Silva handed Johnson his first defeat and took his title in one of the better fights of the night.

Johnson had the height advantage and looked larger than Silva, but Silva, with his wrestling background, shot at Johnson’s legs immediately and took him down. Johnson tried to escape from Silva but ended up getting stuck in an arm-bar and subdued. The fight looked like a chess game, each fighter able to counter the other’s moves.

Understanding the mind of a fighter resembles studying the mind of a drug addict, because they search for an indescribable rush that no other activity really provides.

“I’m pretty calm until they say fight and then I get a shot of adrenaline. Then it goes away real quick. My heart makes two pumps ‘bump, bump’ that I can hear and it seems like the loudest thing in the world. Then by the time I get to my opponent it’s all gone. It’s a weird kind of rush I’ve never really experienced before,” said Brock Larson, a UFC fighter and EFX referee.

Chris Barrera, the EFX Lightweight champion prepares himself for a match by thinking about his children.

“I think about my kids running around with the belt and if I lose they won’t be able to do that anymore. That and the embarrassment of losing are my motivation inside the ring,” Barrera said.

Larson, a Minnesota native, began his career in a jiu-jitsu dojo competing in those tournaments. He won many of the tournaments and talked to others about the next step, which was fighting, he said. He started working with Sean Sherk, another Minnesotan and Lightweight UFC champion and eventually was noticed in some smaller events like EFX, he said. He’s had success in the UFC, compiling a 13-1 record along the way.

“If I win my next match I would have grossed $20,000 in a six month period. The pay is starting to get up there,” Larson said.

One component to the sport is the competition between the different schools and gyms that train the fighters. “There’s animosity and respect for the other schools. A few months ago we fought Team Bison and won two belts,” Barrera said.

Although the teams fight each other, he was quick to add that the schools help each other out in any way they can. A member of Team Bison rubbed down one of Barrera’s teammates before a match that same event, he said.

“There’s about five or six schools for full contact fighting,” Barrera said.

It’s difficult to say a sport with so much carnage resembles a sport, but fights like Johnson versus Silva remind people that although fighting typically proves fruitless, it’s quite impressive to watch two intelligent fighters, like Ali and Frazier. If this sport is going to grow, this is how it will do so. It rivals boxing now because boxing hasn’t had accessible champions since Ali, Foreman and Leonard. With our culture’s acceptance of more violence, mixed martial arts fighting does look like a viable vehicle in sports. Many people enjoy watching fights whether in a cage or on the street, and EFX unabashedly allows these people, along with the people who enjoy strategy fighting, to revel the event.