Opinion Corner: IFC in VC worth the time

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Tonight in Valley City five Jamestown men will take to the octagon in a no-holds-barred battle. It should prove to be an interesting event.

The mixed martial arts group known as Impact Fighting Championship has fighters from around North Dakota in different weight classes throwing haymakers and launching into roundhouse kicks.

The same group came to Jamestown not that long ago and not many events have the atmosphere of a fight night.

Some fights went quicker than others, but there were a few good spats and the crowd, and I, was entertained.

While boxing pits fighters trained to throw blows, and wrestling has matmen grapple each other into submission, MMA fighting uses all of that and more.

Martial arts, wrestling, boxing and more will be on display Saturday.

Even the toughest of boxers and wrestlers will admit that they couldn’t last in the ring with their MMA counterparts.

Having a state-wide outlet for this sport was desperately needed as the sport continues to grow nationally — now with multiple Ultimate Fighting Championships shown on FOX.

It’s worth going out and supporting these local IFC fighters, even if it’s an undercard bout.

Everyone starts somewhere and for these fighters, that’s right here in Jamestown.

Locally Jamestown’s North Dakota Warrior Fight Club will have five contestants at the North Dakota Winter Show at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Daniel “Tacklebox” Perez, Kevin Tajaden, Jesse Diaz, Paul Patrick and Patrick Woods, will all try to improve their records.

I’ve met a couple of these guys and I can tell you they train hard and live for fight nights like tonight.

Plus it’s a good show. If you’re into watching hand-to-hand, or foot-to-body, or fist-to-face combat, Valley City is the place to be tonight.

(Rodgers is a news writer at the Jamestown Sun.)

Tags: valley city, mma, sports, opinion