Love of boxing inspires man to try MMA cage fighting

Living by his mantra,  mentally ready, physically prepared, civil in mind and savage at heart, Kevin James, 29, is making his way into Mixed Martial Arts fighting.

MMA is a form of ultimate fighting that has become popular among all ages.

James lives in Bonners Ferry. His wife Kristin and two small children are his biggest fans and supporters. He was kind enough to share his story.

James is a long time boxing fan. He and his younger brother used to spar and imitate boxers and martial artists while growing up.  

After James saw his first UFC fight he said that it changed everything for him. He now wanted to become a fighter starting on the ammeter level.

MMA fights are held in either a cage or a ring depending on the fight.

They are fought in three, three minute rounds. If a fighter hasn’t knocked someone out physically or technically, a decision is made as to who was the best fighter. In championships fights the three minute rounds can go to five rounds.

“The difference on a cage or a ring is with the cage, you have that strong support when your backed into it, not like a ring when you can wither fall out or you have to bounce off it to gain momentum,” James said.

He fought his first fight on Jan. 29, of this year, and said he prefers cage fighting. I was not able to make the fight but heard about it in real time on Facebook. James won the fight by technical knock out one minute 13 seconds into the fight.

“Kristin was actually more excited about my first fight than anyone,” said James.

He fights in the middle weight division at 185 pounds. He is training for his second fight to be held on March 31, in Nespelem, Wash.

James explained to me that MMA fighting is a number of fighting styles all in the same fight. Each fighter has their own styles, strengths and weaknesses and part of the sport is learning early on your opponent’s. James prefers a stand and strike style, but had to use a lot of his wrestling techniques in the first fight.

A boxing glove is worn, this was news to me. Perhaps because the gloves are much smaller than a traditional boxing glove. They allow fingers to be free so grappling and grabbing is possible which is allowed with this type of fighting. There is still quite a bit of padding to protect the knuckle and hand.

James is very excited for his next fight which is also an ammeter fight. However, it is his goal to move up in the cages.

“Ultimately I would like to go pro but a fighter has a shelf life, as long as I am physically fit, healthy, and I don’t get hurt I will continue on as long as I can,” James said.

James said he may fight one more fight this year and then he wants to concentrate on getting stronger and maintaining his health. Then plans to set up a schedule for next year’s fighting.

I asked James, what his thoughts were about boxing back in the day isn’t as popular as it used to be.  

He said, and I would have to agree, that the fighters were too busy trying to avoid each other dancing around the ring with long bouts of no contact. Twelve rounds of this gets boring. Fighters have to keep the audience engaged.

I personally have not been able to sit through an entire MMA fight.I find it brutal and I hate seeing people get hurt.

Yes, I know sounds funny coming from a boxing fan. But it just looks brutal.

Hypocritical? Maybe.

 I saw a guy get hit during a MMA fight I was attempting to watch, and within seconds he had a huge hematoma (a mass of blood that forms in a tissue, organ, or body space as a result of a broken blood vessel) as big as his head as on his forehead. By the way the fight kept going and the other guy kept hitting the hematoma, I thought is was going to explode.

I will try again to tune in on television for a while and see for myself why this is so exciting for so many. My husband watches them from time to time and I usually up to my room to watch something on TiVo, which is often over shadowed by cheering and yelling from the people downstairs watching the fight.

Good luck to Kevin James, who by the way is a very nice guy, it will be some time before I can watch him get punched.

The fights start at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 31, at the Nespelem Community Center, in Nespelem.