麻豆社区

Two rookie mixed martial arts fighters battled to quick first-round wins at Total Mayhem, a fight night held at the Fraserview Centre in Vancouver last Friday.

Jesse Fairburn and Owen Holmes got their MMA careers off to flying starts, both submitting their opponents mere minutes into their fights.

Fairburn, 25, was competing in a lightweight 155-pound division, battling Thomas "Can't Stop Me鈥� Proppe, of Surrey, B.C.

"In my eyes, it was one of the best fights of the night,鈥� said Chaos Combat Club coach Sheldon Casselman.

Fairburn took Proppe down early, but was quickly rolled over and mounted by his opponent. Fairburn went on to slip out of the hold, slam his opponent down, all before mounting Proppe and "smashing him out.鈥�

The fight was over in two minutes, 35 seconds.

"I knew the guy had power 鈥� and lots of it,鈥� Fairburn said of Proppe. "He came into that fight with one win and one loss, and his win 鈥� he knocked the guy out pretty bad. So the whole gameplan was about not letting him be in a position where he could beat me.鈥�

Fairburn knew he had to take Proppe off his feet, and he did that 10 seconds into the bout. Once down however, Fairburn was surprised by Proppe's power.

"When I took him down, I froze,鈥� the Yukon fighter admitted. "And he was really physically strong. He managed to flip me over, and got me into full mount, which is one of the worst positions I could be trapped in.鈥�

However, while pinned, Fairburn managed to relax and take comfort in his training experience. He scrambled his way out of the hold and regained a dominant position.

"That was the beginning of the end,鈥� he said. "From there, I landed pretty much every shot. For the most part, they landed pretty hard, and I threw about 10.

"He looked at me for one of those shots and said 鈥業'm done, I'm done,' and I looked up at the ref, and he wasn't reacting, so I landed three more,鈥� Fairburn explained. "At that point, I stopped. I told the ref 鈥榟e's out.' I stood upand got off of him, and you could hear the crowd react. 鈥榃hat was he doing?' He was completely out of it. I really felt for his safety and I knew I didn't need to hit him anymore.鈥�

Fairburn said one of the things he was most proud of in his fight was his ability to hear his coach's instructions through the mayhem surrounding him.

"I was in such a primal state of mind, almost like I was in reptile mode,鈥� he said of his thoughts inside the ring.

"But the thing I am happy about is I was still able to listen to my coach. That was one thing that he stressed was very important 鈥� that I keep my ears open for his voice above all the other chaos that was happening in the room.鈥�

Hard work pays off, Fairburn said. The youngster currently puts in 10 hours a week working his craft at the Chaos Combat Club, plus five more for strength and conditioning.

Fairburn said the sport has changed his life. Training has helped him lose over 50 pounds, and has been instrumental in breaking a drug addiction.

"It's something I enjoy,鈥� he said. I've always been a fight fan. I got into it to get into shape ... and that day I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

"It's such a pure form of competition,鈥� he explained. "You can beat me at the put the ball through the hoop game or the hit the ball with the stick game ... but at the end of the day, if I can kick your ass, that means more to me than anything else.

"For me, it's not violence, as crazy as that sounds. Violence to me, is an act of hate. When I step into the ring with another man who's put in the hard work and made the same sacrifices I have to be in there, to me it's a beautiful thing to share that with somebody else and really show competition in its most primal and most exciting form.鈥�

Meanwhile, Holmes, 27, battled Tom Austen in a 180-pound catchweight division.

Prior to entering the ring, Holmes was surprised to find out his opponent was four inches taller than he had originally been told by the fight's promoter.

Austen entered the ring with an 8-0 record in kickboxing, fighting mainly in New Zealand.

But that didn't change Holmes' strategy. The scrappy fighter took down the six-foot-five Tom Austen early, before submitting him just over a minute in with a chokehold.

"It didn't change our gameplan any,鈥� Casselman said of Austen's size. "We were going to take the guy to the ground regardless if he was six-foot-one or six-foot-five.鈥�

The fight started out rough with Holmes absorbing a kick to the face, the coach explained, but things turned around quickly.

Holmes slammed Austin down with a double-leg takedown, and then pinned him with an arm triangle.

"It was a good fight,鈥� said the coach.

Holmes could not be reached for comment after undergoing dental surgery yesterday afternoon.

"They've been training a little over a year and a half,鈥� said Casselman of his two fighters. "This was just awesome. I told the guys: 鈥榃in, lose or draw, just go down there and have fun. It's your first time competing 鈥�

Just go down there and have fun. Soak in all the knowledge and all the fights. If you win, that's a bonus.'

"They went down there, and they dominated. I'm not joking. When I say dominated, I don't mean that in a light way. They looked really good.鈥�

Chaos Combat Club, located in Porter Creek, opened in September 2011. Casselman said more than 40 adults practise MMA with his club, with seven of those aiming to fight in the ring.

In March, six adult and two youth fighters from Chaos took home 15 medals (six gold, five silver, and three bronze) from the Tiger Balm Internationals in North Vancouver.

Future fights are planned to occur through the Five麻豆社区Fight League in Dawson Creek, B.C., this July.

"We go hard,鈥� said Casselman. "We train hard, we practise hard every day and we don't take a whole lot of rest time.鈥�