Muleskinner

Issue date: 9/7/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: cageofhonor.com

Smoke rolls out of a black box on the floor as Will Burns' name is announced to a crowd of 2,000 thrill seekers eating popcorn and hotdogs in the stands. The adrenaline in his 26-year-old body is out of control. He is ready to punch somebody.

Burns is part of the International Sport Combat Federation coming to CMSU next weekend and he's prepared to show Warrensburg just what the ISCF is all about.

"It's intense," said the undefeated fighter. "It's a combination of a lot of Martial Arts thrown into one fight in a cage. You can't get out."

When Burns says "You can't get out," he really means you can't get out. The cage surrounding the wrestling mat ensures that once the door is shut, there is no getting out.

"Once that door closes you better have bad intentions," said John Attigliato who will be fighting in only his second match next weekend at the Multipurpose Building. "I don't want that other guy to get hurt, but I definitely want to win and I want him to lose."

This kind of fighting combines many aspects of other sports; boxing, kickboxing, martial arts and wrestling. The biggest difference is the rules, or lack of rules.

"Pretty much the only rules are you can't hit with your elbows, no eye gouging, no hits to the throat, groin or back of the head and no twisting one finger or toe, you must twist two at a time," said seven year fighting veteran and fight promoter Robert Hulett. "Everything else is on."

"Everything else" includes bare hand punches, kicks, chokes, twisting arms, legs and just about anything else a fighter can get his hands on.

The combination of those offensive moves is completely up to the fighter. Each of them has their own style, techniques and strategies.

"I like to circle and not rush in," Burns said. "In one of my first fights, I was so anxious that I ran right over to my opponent and he knocked me out. I ended up finishing that fight and I learned to kind of wait my opponent out and not to rush things."

"When you are in that cage, you just do what comes. My head is pretty clear and I just take what comes to me. Sometimes there is a lot of punching and kicking while you are standing and sometimes it hits the ground very quickly. It all happens so fast it's kind of hard to remember what happens. I just react to what that other guy does."

If the sport sounds violent, that's because it is. And people seem to like it that way. Sport combat fighting is growing in popularity. Televised professional fights like those of the International Fight Competition have spread the sport's reputation for entertainment.

Continued...

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