Laughlin Entertainer: Cover Stories

There was a time in Laughlin's recent past when live boxing was touted as something that was going to be a staple on the calendar. Laughlin, because it was in Nevada and governed by the respected Nevada Boxing Commission, was going to become a mini-Vegas with title fights drawing crowds.

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to those plans. Boxing took a dump in the pantheon of sports. The whys are varied but not the least of which is the rise of “ultimate fighting.”

What started as an underground combat sport in the 1990s with a dearth of rules and a myriad of ways to bring down an opponent, soon discovered it was offering more ways to get the crowds up-on their feet. The mainstream wasn't too far away.

As the phrase “ultimate fighting” has given way to the more general term “Mixed Martial Arts,” along came a few rules to keep fighters safe (and regulators at bay) while still maintaining the raw feel of this particular style of hand-to-hand combat. Thus, phrases of “rear naked chokes,” “arm bars,” and “tap outs” have become a part of the national lexicon as did “uppercuts” and “jabs” in a previous day.

Mixed Martial Arts has thus become a regular on many casino calendars over the past couple of years. One of those events comes to the Aquarius Casino Resort on Saturday, June 28, as Rock & Sock Promotions Inc., presents bouts in the Aquarius Pavilion starting at 8 p.m.

Rock and Sock enters the fray...

Rock & Sock Promotions is well known in the Laughlin area for promoting and producing live boxing events, live concerts, Pay Per View events, wrestling shows and closed circuit exhibitions at numerous Laughlin casinos over the past decade and a half. Not one to miss the writing on the wall, Rock and Sock gets into the Mixed Martial Arts side of things for the first time in Laughlin with their Saturday event.

“Mixed Martial Arts has grown enormously over its short history and the sport itself has evolved into the mainstream,” explains Ken Weiss, of Rock & Sock Promotions. “To the untrained eye it looks like boxing without the rules-almost a street fight with certain limitations. But it's not street fighting, of course.

“Comparing boxing to MMA is like comparing a ballet to a tap dance. The MMA audience is attracted to the athletes who are well conditioned-very tough guys who engage in a sport that appears-I emphasize ‘appears'-to be something many can do. They can relate well to the athletes. But for their own safety, I suggest they enjoy it from the audience. These are enormously well-trained athletes.”

For those new to the sport, Weiss explained the difference between a boxing match and an MMA bout.

“A boxing match, as most of us know, is a certain number of three-minute rounds (generally two-minute rounds for women's boxing), with as many as 12 rounds depending on the fight-for non-title fights, generally 6, 8 or 10 rounds,” he explains. “A boxing match ends on a decision determined by three judges or it may end earlier by knockout or technical knockout.

“I think of MMA as a hybrid of boxing and legitimate wrestling. MMA fights consist of three to five rounds. Non-title bouts are no more than three rounds and title bouts may be up to five rounds. Each round is five minutes in length. The fight ends either by knockout; by submission (when one fighter signals he is conceding the bout); and a Technical Knockout (TKO) which can be a stoppage by the referee, the ring doctor or by a fighter's corner.

“In MMA there is a lot of what is called ‘ground fighting' where both fighters are engaged on the mat, in a sort of wrestling style, in an effort to force a submission or a knockout.

“Even the ring in which they compete is different, the gloves, and rules are significantly different. To say one is more exciting than the other would be like comparing soccer to football. It depends on who you ask. Each has its own excitement.

“Boxing has a storied history. Great fighters in history need only one of their first or last names to stir up memories-Ali, Louis, Marciano, Frazier, Dempsey and later of course, Chavez, Oscar, Tyson. And boxing is still alive. Last year, Oscar De La Hoya fought Floyd Mayweather and grossed more money than any boxing event in history. There will always be boxing purists and we understand that.

“But MMA has certainly made an impact on the sports landscape-but it's young. We'll have to see how far it goes. Professional boxing is almost 150 years old. But given everything we see, MMA is doing very, very well. It's growing very rapidly.”

So how about the version of MMA coming to the Aquarius, Saturday?

“Skip Kelp and his MMAT organization have been enormously helpful in putting this show together,” states Weiss. “We will have an exciting night of MMA action on Saturday night. Get there early.”

The main event features the undefeated J.T. Wells (4-0-0) against J.R. Sims (3-2) in a bantamweight division bout. The complete card for the Saturday bouts is as follows (subject to change):

MAIN EVENT

BANTAMWEIGHTS

J.T. Wells (4-0-0)

vs

J.R. Sims (3-2)

UNDERCARD

HEAVYWEIGHTS

Josh Burns

professional debut

vs.

Phil Friedman (1-1-0)

WELTERWEIGHTS

Boyco Ranchev (0-1)

vs.

Kyle Burgess (0-2)

MIDDLEWEIGHTS

Charles Dera (0-0-1)

vs.

Jason Karpel

professional debut

Jacob McLintock (2-0-0)

vs.

Adrian Valdez (0-1-0)

J.T. Stanley (4-0-0)

vs.

Chris Kennedy (3-5-0)

LIGHTWEIGHTS

Estevan Payan (5-0-0)

vs.

Sean “The Rebel” Dizay (2-2-0)

Victor Meza (3-0-0)

vs.

Mike Dizak (2-0-0)

RULES? We don't need no

steenking rules....or do we?

For those new to MMA it may look like anything goes and there are no rules. But actually, there are. These include:

* Matches are won by:

-knock-out; tap-out (submission); referee stoppage; corner throwing in the towel; event doctor stoppage; or judges' decisions based equally on striking, grappling and aggression.

* There is no head butting, eye gouging, hair pulling or “fish hooking” allowed.

* Fighters are not allowed to strike-with either kicks, elbows or punches-the back of the head or spinal area.

* Small joint manipulation is prohibited. Fighters must have control of at least four fingers/toes.

* Intentionally throwing the opponent out of the cage is not allowed.

* Elbow strikes are prohibited.

* Fighters are not allowed to kick their opponent in the head if he is down. A fighter is considered down if he has three points down (for example, two legs and one arm).

MMAT

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT

Saturday, June 28 (8 p.m.)

Aquarius Pavilion

within the

AQUARIUS

CASINO RESORT

Tickets start at $25

For tickets or information, see the A.C.E. Rewards Club booth within the casino; or call 1-800-435-8469; or

702-298-5028;

or visit www.theaquarius.com