Listen, maggots: Don't go thinking Lords of SoCal 1 at the Bren Events Center on the campus of UC Irvine tonight is just another mixed-martial arts bone crush.
“Spurred by a vision of SoCal as the birthplace of American
MMA, Lords of Combat is poised to build SoCal's MMA nerve center,” proclaims the sport's newest MMA promoter. “Through
making great fights with local fighters, Lords of Combat will breed the best
MMA fighters in the world, preserving the SoCal MMA tradition.”
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Breed?
Uh, message to Lords of Combat: ixnay on the ideovay of the eedingbray.
Lords of Combat brings fighters from Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties to the Bren tonight for its debut caged event that will have winners go on to a bigger payday at a yet-be-scheduled second event. It all leads to a series-culminating championship.
“Never before have SoCal fight fans had the opportunity to crown the
best fighters in the SoCal region,” barks Lords of Combat president Anwar
Elmahrek. “Lords of Combat will make that a reality.”
Our region's MMA roots extend back to 1978, when Rorion Gracie moved from Brazil to the South Bay and erected a makeshift gym in his garage where he taught his family's style of the grappling art Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He would go on to found professional gyms around the country and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Now, the UFC and other MMA leagues are part of an industry that makes billions. Many fighters train, live and visit bars dedicated to their sport in Huntington Beach.
However, most bouts are held not in Southern California but elsewhere, like Las Vegas. Lords of Combat strives to change that, recognizing our homegrown fighters by throwing them in a cage–right here in OC. “We are offering Southern California fighters an opportunity to to represent their towns,” Elmahrek says. “We want to take them under our win–to build them into fierce fighting machines.”
Details about Round 1 are on the poster above or visit LordsOfSoCal.com for more info.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.