Boise News

6,500 filled seats?

Lucky Us! Boise is an Extreme Fight Series Hub

By Jennifer Gelband, 10-13-06

The Extreme Fight Series (XFS) has the same rules and is pretty much the same kind of mixed martial arts as the Ultimate Fighting Challenge: Use any or all of the various available martial arts and fighting techniques and kick your opponent’s ass.

Boise-based Knockout Promotions hosts Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights in the XFS series; this weekend Boise will look like the video game Street Fighter when these MMA fighters take to the cages at Unleashed Fury 2 (the sequel to Unleashed Fury, of course).

This once-underground sport is now a popular family attraction. The first event in the series earlier this year sold out to crowd of 6,500, and Knockout Promotions General Manager Sean Roberts is expecting a similar turnout for this follow-up.

“We did just boxing matches before, but we’ve evolved into the MMA because it’s just become very popular,” says Roberts of the company’s evolution. “Boxing has been pushed out and everyone wants to see cage fighting.”

This MMA fighting is a little karate, a little jujutsu, a little kickboxing, and pretty much any other martial art or fighting style that fighters can work in. It sounds totally dangerous, but according to Roberts, this is a sport like any other where teeth can be lost and noses can bleed. “There are many rules these guys have to follow and there’s a lot of sportsmanship. It’s a sport, its not human cockfighting,” says Roberts. “No one has died in MMA; more people have in boxing.”

One of the rules, for example, is that a fighter can’t kick a downed man or elbow someone in the back of the head.
According to Roberts, this kind of extreme combined fighting – specifically pro kickboxing and pro MMA – is a professional sport sanctioned by the State of Idaho as of January 2006. However, these pro sports (and even some amateur versions) are not sanctioned in all U.S. states, so maybe that pseudo-illegal aspect is one reason the fans flock to the sport.

To keep these fair, organizers use educated matchmakers to pair up each of the thirteen matches of the night. Each match is essentially made up of three three-minute rounds, though there are some exceptions. And Boiseans can expect to see both local guys and world champions from places as far as Norway, Brazil and Tokyo.

Brandon “Big Dog” Shuey of Boise is matched up against Lee “Superstar” Anderson of Sun Valley. This is one of the most anticipated fights in Idaho history – they’ve been trying to fight each other for ten years.

And what cage fighting show would be complete without a few girl fights? Idaho Falls native Amy Davis is ranked 6th in the world in kickboxing and recently came in runner-up for the Thailand National Title in a match in Bangkok. Davis will fight seven-time world champion Sumie Sakai, who weighs in at a wee 118 lbs. with a mere 5’1” frame. Sakai has become a huge celebrity in her native Japan in her near-ten-year professional fighting career, and she’s making her USA fighting debut here. Major international success is sure to ensue. Fans can say they saw her when.

The main event of the night, however, is not to be missed. Knockout is hyping the big match: a square off between American Dan “The Bull” Bobish and Norway’s Dan “The Decapitator” Evansen. These 300-plus-pound muscle men are former UFC fighters and King of the Cage champions, so they most definitely have a lot of fury to unleash.

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