Monday, March 31, 2008

There's a new fight game in town, mixed martial arts fans.

Throwdown Elite Training Center is opening a state-of-the-art gym at 1640 S. State St. in Orem, and with it comes what organizers promise to be the first of many big-time MMA battles.

Throwdown: Showdown takes place at 7 p.m. Friday, April 18 at the McKay Events Center in Orem and features a main event with former UFC and current IFL heavyweight fighter Mike Whitehead taking on Utahn Soakai Pulu. Also on the card are Zach Light -- who is Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's wrestling coach and will be an assistant coach on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter -- as well as local favorites Derrick Downey, Tim Panter, Casey Beckstead, Harold Lucambio and a host of "rivalry" fights such as BYU vs. Utah, Orem vs. Mountain View, and Provo vs. Timpview.

"There hasn't been anything at this level as far as production goes in the state," said Griffen Reynaud, the Throwdown ETC matchmaker. "I would say it's like the old WEC before the UFC took over. It's going to be a huge, huge production. I think people are going to be really surprised how first-rate, how big it is."

The focus for Throwdown has been two-fold.

"The vision is the brand -- the show and the gym itself," said Johnny Riche, a figure familiar to Utah MMA fans because of his long association with Ultimate Combat Experience. "We're opening a first-class gym and putting on a first-class show."

The Throwdown training center is a franchise that grew as an offshoot from the Throwdown cage company. Though Dean Lister's gym in San Diego was converted to a Throwdown Elite Training Center, Utah-based Throwdown ETC is opening its headquarters in Orem with plans for more gyms throughout the West.

There are other Throwdown-affiliated training centers, such as Rampage's and Tito Ortiz's Big Bear camps, Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Iceman Mountain Camp in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Legends MMA in Hollywood and the Cro Cop Gym in Croatia. However, those are separate from the Throwdown ETC gyms. That's not to say there won't be some star power on hand.

Riche says UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, UFC interim heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira and his twin Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will be at the grand opening. Mike Whitehead will also be doing a seminar, and the gym is trying to set up seminars with Silva and Minotauro. Other MMA figures lined up for seminars are UFC light heavyweight Lyoto Machida and WEC 185-pound champ Pahlo Filho.

The plan is to bring out a big-name fighter for a seminar each month. Throwdown knows the gym won't be the only one to offer such events, especially with the likes of UFC veteran Jeremy Horn's Elite Performance gym not far away.

"Obviously with Jeremy you already have some of that going on; we want an abundance of that. We want our members to feel special to have those guys come," Riche said.

The seminars would be free for members, with nonmembers able to pay to get in.
The gym is set to open in mid- to late April as an extreme fitness training center geared toward fighters, but also toward moms, yoga and women over 30, Riche said.

Part-owner Adam Legas said the 21,000-square-foot facility targets people who want something different from a typical gym experience, where they're in a class doing yoga, Pilates, cardio or kickboxing. It's been about two years in the making and sports a grappling cage just under 3,000 square feet, a competition cage, a regulation boxing ring and medicine balls, kettle bells, ropes, pegboards, tractor tires, sledgehammers, a heated yoga facility and an altitude chamber. There's also a huge dry sauna, massage and physical therapy, a protein smoothie bar and an Internet cafe.

"We have the best instruction in the state," Legas said. "We've recruited from all the best."

The combat trainers include K-1 kickboxing fighters, two women who are pro kickboxers and muay thai specialists and a jiu-jitsu instructor. There will be kids classes, too.

"We're really focusing on kids and teenagers because we know that we can improve their lives and give them something to get excited about," said Legas, whose own children have been taking private MMA lessons for two years. Classes for kids are broken down by age for 4- to 8-year-olds, 9- to 12-year-olds and 13- to 18-year-olds.

Memberships purchased before the opening are $50 a month, which rises to $80 after the opening. The memberships don't include massages or private lessons, but they do allow members into any class save for a few MMA and jiu-jitsu classes that are elite, invitation-only sessions.

"We're going to get fighters because of who we are and the facility," Reynaud said, "but it's going to be a full-service gym and we'll be catering to the average person that is maybe interested in that or just being in shape and being more of an alternative fitness facility rather than just a dojo or a fight gym or a Gold's Gym."

Which comes back to Throwdown's dual approach.

"We really want to promote a family environment at the club but also create really high-intensity, high-quality events like in Vegas, but without the ring girls," Legas said. "Our goal is to make it be something that's accepted as a regular mainstream sport."

With the abundance of MMA activity in the state, Utah is certainly a good place to start.

"As far as the West goes, I think it's a hotbed, it really is," Reynaud said. "We've got a few gyms out there, some big-name guys. For whatever reason, it's just grown and grown and grown here. Part of that has to do with the sport in general, part of it has to do with UCE exposing people who would not be exposed to it, at least in the beginning. I think the UCE has done a good thing by giving people opportunities to get in there."

Tickets for Throwdown: Showdown are $20 for general admission bowl seats to $50 for reserved seats and $100 for VIP seats. General admission tickets are available at SmithsTix or at the McKay box office, while reserved seating and VIP seats are available by e-mailing Johnny@throwdownetc.com. The event won't be broadcast live, but it should be available on Comcast a week or two later.

Throwdown hasn't started work on the next fight card, but the organizers expect to put on a similar show in Utah every three to four months.

Here's the current card:

Mike Whitehead vs. Soakai Pulu (heavyweight)
Zach Light vs. Rad Martinez (155 lbs.)
Derrick Downey vs. Tim Panter (185 lbs.)
Tua Lino vs. Eric Fredrickson (heavyweight)
Camron Pacheko vs. Casey Beckstead (145 lbs.)
Paul Sizemore vs. Tallon Tores (185 lbs.)
Dan Bishop vs. Craig Ross (145 lbs.)
Usabio Sams vs. Harold Lucambio (170 lbs.)
Dan Gardner vs. Casey Carter (170 lbs.)
Rivalry match-ups BYU vs. UVSC, BYU vs. U. of U., Orem vs. Mountain View, and Provo vs. Timpview