UFC fighters to attend tonight’s cage fights

Local Ultimate Fighter fans will get a taste of the pros tonight when several prominent faces from the UFC make an appearance at Proving Ground 2, a cage-fighting event hosted by The Cage, Inc., at the Corn Palace.

Ryan Bader, CB Dollaway and Aaron Simpson — all professional UFC fighters — will be in attendance at the fights. Bader was on season eight of The Ultimate Fighter, a series on Spike TV. Dollaway was on season seven of the show.

All three fighters wrestled at and graduated from Arizona State, and all three have at least one All-American honor under their belts.

“Absolutely, yeah (it’s great),” said Chris Christiensen, owner of The Cage, Inc., of getting all three fighters to come to Mitchell. “Sometimes there’s logistical issues with time constraints because they’re doing other promotions, but they were available.”

Christiensen said the three will be cornering for Danny Felix and Eric Larken, two professional fighters. Both graduated from ASU, and Felix is the No. 1 freestyle wrestler in the world. Larken was a four-time All-American for Arizona.

Felix will take on Erick Buck and Larken will take on Robert Tuttle on the pro card. In the third pro fight of the night, Dakota Cochrane will take on Carlos Claudio.

This is the first time Christiensen has brought pro fighters to the Corn Palace. He put together a similar event that featured amateur fighters from around the area several months ago.

“This is going to be something similar,” he said. “We’re going to do a mixed card with seven amateur fights with people from the local area and people from Omaha, Neb.”

Corn Palace Director Mark Schilling said that as of Thursday night, tickets were still available for the event, which starts at 7 p.m. today. The tickets are $20 for general admission, or the soft seats at the Corn Palace, and $40 for VIP seating at tables on the main floor close to the cage.

Christiensen said that after several cage fighting events in Mitchell, he’s starting to see more familiar faces and more people in attendance at each event.

“We’re getting good support,” he said. “I think the local area is becoming more familiar with our organization and they’re enjoying what we’re doing.”

Schilling also said he thinks the cage fighting fan base is growing in Mitchell, and he added that events like this are good to have in Mitchell to give people something different to do.

“There has been good interest. I think people are starting to pick out some of their favorite (fighters) they have seen (before),” he said. “There really is a need for other events in Mitchell. (Cage fighting) may not appeal to everyone, but there really is a need. There’s people who don’t go to basketball games because it’s not their thing.

“These other types of events are really popular with people who are looking for something different.”

Tags: cage fighting, sports, ufc