The Fight Is On: MMA - Mixed Martial Arts

The New Alhambra looks like any old boxing arena; especially in South Philadelphia - where fighting is king.

Ask your Pay Per View dealer where they sell the most fights. The answer: Philadelphia. There's a reason one-time champ "Smoking" Joe Frazier stayed in his hometown to open a gym. Hell, there's an even bigger reason that Sylvester Stallone chose to film one more Rocky movie in Philadelphia. It's a fight town. And the harder, swifter and hungrier its fighters are, the better the "smokers" will be-old-school "sweat-n-grease" gym-based matches made for the young elite boxer and the old aficionado.

Sure, there's heavy metal pumped out of the speakers courtesy of some local radio station. There's some beer ad banners around the mezzanine. So what.

Blood and guts are about to take center stage. And there are plenty of people - men, women and kids - here to see it. But instead of just seeing a few men duking it out mano a mano, a few women fight during the 12 separate matches. And instead of 10-plus rounds, these bashes are three rounds - lasting two minutes each - with barely a second to spare in between. And instead of just two guys in bulky gloves, the competitors wear black headgear and barely-there 7-ounce gloves and cloth shinguards.

As they approach - cautiously at first - they attack each other with an elegant sense of …well, tact - a python-like precision of strikes; coiled hand-and-kick combinations. They shield and counter. They attack each other with their knees all swerving at incomparable angles and their kicks are swift, nailing each other from the side.

What the hell is this? It's not boxing.

Is this something out of The Matrix? Should I expect black clad ninjas to fall from the sky or guys in sharp suits like Kill Bill?

No.

This is Evolved Fighting; Muay Thai; Mixed Martial Arts (MMA); Kickboxing; Ultimate Fighting; a dignified-but-viciously-energetic sport where, rather than just gazing at heads and the hands, you're watching a darting, cascading flurry of combinations. It's a little bit of Judo, Karate, submission wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu. You can't fight while on the floor. But yet you can tangle in what often seems like mid air. And when it's done - all 12 rounds - you won't know what you just saw.

Fighting Fair

Since 1993, MMA - Ultimate Fighting - has swept the nation - slowly - even though in most areas, it's not exactly legal or illegal, sanctioned or not sanctioned, according to most state athletic boards or boxing commissions. K1 - the very height of elite Japanese Ultimate Fighting dedicated to palm punches, as well as kicks - is implanting itself into the American consciousness in 2006 like microchips into Silicon Valley. Schools and specializing gyms are popping up, and are being recognized as places for serious students of the game.

Since 1995, Angel Cartagena has been doing it - some form of Muay Thai, some version of international kickboxing. He had exposure to it while in the Marine Corps, and he got hooked on it. Nowadays, he's out of the fight and into training under his own banner (Evolved Fighting) at his own gym (Body Arts), where he teaches with his fiancée, the still-fighting Khara Clendenon.

"You just want my pretty face in the story so you don't have to have his ugly mug," jokes Clendenon, a short, lean woman in her early 30s, before her betrothed starts to speak about his own past's game. "When I was competing, nothing was legal," says Cartagena, 38. "We'd train and go to matches across the country, only to find that the state's athletic commission wouldn't sanction it and the bouts would be canceled."

Sure, all forms of MMA are still illegal in 45 of 50 states. State boxing commissions - since the 1970s, haven't been crazy about Thai boxing. But at present, so much of it - depending on the state - exists in a world of cautious semi-sanctioning. Varying states have different rules as to what's considered amateur and what is professional. In some states, as long as you compete, you're an amateur.It's probably because it seem so different and so much more violent than normal boxing. "But it's a tough, fun, great time" says Cartagena, who sees his own Evolved Fighting promotions as a movement that offers as much of a platform for performance as it does its more humanistic aspects. It's also about a movement in sport as the World Kick Boxing Association - a U.K. organization based in Virginia - attempts a bigger foothold in the States.

Sanctioning bodies are required. But, according to Angel, it's often a promoter that can do most of his own sanctioning.

Is that good?

"It's awesome because I'm more careful," he says. "Look, I've been to sanctioned events and fought in sanctioned events, and they do so many illegal things, it's ridiculous."

In Angel's first match, he fought a guy bigger than him who had 25 wins under his belt.

Too formative an opponent, no?

Angel wouldn't let that happen at his events. Too much discrepancy between the levels of experience and weight.

"Oh, I still beat him …"

Angel is determined to create a fair fight platform.

"I'm just out for the fighter to get the fairest experience possible."

Fighting Strong And Hard

MMA fighters can punch, kick, knee and elbow with gloves that offer as much plushness as gauze. International-style kickboxing allows fighters to strike anywhere but the groin. But you can't fall to ground fighting (the "ground and pound" art of mounting and bashing an opponent) and you can't throw elbows or knees to head. There's no biting, eye-gouging, fish-hooking or spitting allowed, either. Fighters are allowed to throw cleanly - a swift shift - but not headlock and toss.

But there's so much else to do and watch - and so many places to find willing participants.

Like many cities that have MMA or Ultimate Muay Thai events, there are studio-style gyms for serious students dedicated to the sport. In Fight Club-like secrecy (only with the moused, spiky hair), these serious students of Muay Thai know where to find the best, dedicated teachers.

Angel's Body Arts has a mostly male clientele - at an average of 24 years old, with backgrounds in engineering, real-estate development, general contracting and pharmacology. The women are in real estate or are Ph.D. students in psychology.
Angel is growing his students into being world-class competitors, students who "fight strong, fight hard, fight smart."

For Khara - a woman barely 5 feet tall, who spent a lifetime in securities brokering and real-estate development before owning a construction company and the gym - students have to want something more.

"To me, it is a mental challenge above and beyond anything else. Those are the people I'm looking for," she says. "As far as a physical challenge, it is the most thorough workout - exciting, fulfilling. But for me, this is about facing my fears."
The emotional and mental connection in returning to the absolutely physical is more than just an outlet through which to beat up people. It's about connection - to students in her gym and competitors in the ring.

"The three rounds of every fight for me go this way, "Khara says matter-of-factly. "First you show skill, then endurance, then heart."

She admits feelings of anxiety before stepping into the ring. "How am I going to look?" she wonders. But she's not thinking about her hair or makeup. Rather, how will she perform, live up to her own expectations of what it means to be Evolved Fighting's biggest boss and most-devoted student?

"As soon as I'm in that ring - kicking, swerving - I feel a wave or relief. Because it's not solely determined by me," she says.

And then, she Muay Thai kicks your ass all over the ring.

It's hard not to love a sport like that.