Fight Night

Last night, June 13th, was one for the books! My company that I am working for out here, UCMMA, held the first event since I've been out here that I have been able to attend. The event was Warrior Challenge 15, 19 amateur fight, two of which were title fights. This was an amazing night and I was lucky enough to have full access as a staff member to everywhere in the building. This was a very fun and unique experience because this is a level of authority that most people at the fights do not have. Two very strong elements of identity that I noticed being exhibited at this event were power and pride in place. 

Power was a very obvious element to observe at an event like this. You have all of your drunken men walking around in their Tap Out shirts trying to puff out their chests to look more macho. Then you have all of the girls that are often times also drunk and competing for all of the men’s attention. This is very entertaining to observe because in this case the real men, and sometimes women, are the ones that are fighting in the cage. These are the entertainers that put their own well being on the line for everyone else’s enjoyment. However, although the fighters are very important, they are not the top dogs in this setting. The ones with the real power are the staff, venue owner, and company owner. They all have the ability to go to the restricted areas, to tell the fighters when, where, and what they need to do, and are the ones that make the event happen in the first place. This is where the real power lies.

            Pride in Place is also HUGE in a place like this. While interviewing the fighters for their introduction videos I made sure that they stated where they are fighting out of and where their hometown is. There are plenty of rivalries between towns and places like west or east London so this is an important bit of information to state. Not only does it get the fighters hyped and fighting with a sense of pride but, it also gets the crowd going. You will see people go insane when a fighter from their country, town or ethnicity comes out. You’ll often times see a fighter flying their country’s flag if they are foreign, as they walk down the walkway to the cage. This happened last night and let me tell you the place almost rioted! For anyone interested in the sport I highly recommend that you go check out a UCMMA event. The professional fight productions are out of this world and I can promise you that you will have a great time. I will definitely be watching these fights when I come back to London next because they are a blast!