Eugene native Matt Williams, on a typical day, works as an ice-cream maker at Dutch Girl Ice Cream Company.
But on Saturday, the 5-foot-8, 165-pounder entered the octagon at the Lane County Fairgrounds for one of 17 full-contact fights scheduled for the second Emerald City Cage Fights. Nearly 2,000 people attended to witness 34 amateur fighters from Oregon and California duke it out.
The sport of cage fighting comprises wrestling, jiu jitsu and kickboxing, much like the Ultimate Fighting Championship TV program.
“I like the mixed martial arts fighting,” fan and Eugene native Ladd Lange said. “My favorite part is the mat rushing and the jiu jitsu submission holds.”
The matches are no-holds-barred, meaning nearly everything goes when a fighter steps into the octagon. A few of the limited list of prohibited techniques include biting, eye gouging, hair pulling, groin strikes or grabs, elbows, head-butting, and kicking or kneeing a downed opponent in the head.
Of course that doesn’t eliminate the blood splattering and bone rattling hits, much to the approval of many in attendance.
“I saw Roland Graham (the Heavyweight Champion) hit this one guy,” event promoter Jason Georgianna recalled. “The fight was over in one punch. He actually broke the guys’ nose so severely that the cartilage was just hanging out. I mean, it was brutal.”
But Georgianna, a fighter himself and current featherweight champion, is quick to note that violence is not the focus of the sport.
“It’s not really the blood, per se. I get excited by seeing fighters who are aggressive and determined to win and who show a lot of different techniques,” Georgianna said. “I like it when a fighter is well-rounded and aggressive. That’s what excites me, when I see action that goes back and forth.”
On Saturday, 18 of the 34 fighters, including Williams, hailed from Eugene.
Williams took on fellow Eugene native Lance Wipps, who won the fight in 50 seconds after Williams tapped out.
“Lance came out strong. He’s a good wrestler. He had a lot of moves,” said Williams, who fell to 0-2 lifetime. “I gave him my back and he took full advantage of it. It was my slip and he conquered it.”
Win or lose, there’s always plenty of admiration between the fighters. Williams and Wipps embraced in the middle of the cage following the battle.
“We respect each other,” Williams said. “There’s so much respect between us all. It’s people competing against each other. It’s not brutal violence. It’s one martial art against another.”
For now, however, Williams intends on keeping his day job with four other fighters at the Eugene-based ice cream company.
“It (the sport) is a good workout. I don’t know about (going) professional,” Williams said.
Brass Knuckles Promotions, headed by Georgianna and Rob Hisamoto, planned this year’s event, which traditionally tours various cities throughout Oregon and northern California.
Last November’s inaugural Emerald City Cage Fight marked the first event of its type in Eugene in more than a year.
“I plan on doing this a long time here in Eugene as long as people still find it entertaining, which I think they will,” said Georgianna, who later added he hopes to make the event a bi-monthly in Eugene. “Obviously there is enthusiastic fan response here. People love the sport.”
Georgianna made key changes to Saturday’s cage fights, including increased security, bleachers and a projector screen to capture the action.
Georgianna grew up in Ashland before resettling in Hoopa, Calif., where he trained fighters and built his own repertoire by wrestling and joining a boxing club after initially specializing in Brazilian jiu jitsu.
He hosted his first event in Hoopa, which has a population of 2,000. Nearly 700 people attended and witnessed Georgianna win his fight.
Since then, he has used various venues in Salem, Klamath Falls, Medford, Weed, Calif., and Redding, Calif., gathering a loyal base of fighters in the process.
Georgianna said he hopes his events provide the fighters with a springboard to bigger and better things, and that fans keep coming back for more.
“If you haven’t been to one of these, you need to come check it out,” Georgianna said. “Two thousand years ago, the Greeks had this game as part of their Olympics. It was the most popular sport in the ancient Greek Olympics, and it’s going to become the most popular and enjoyable sport in modern day America.”
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