MMA is looming large in AC

By Bill Ordine

For The Inquirer

Mixed martial arts, a combat sport once considered a notch above street brawling, has muscled its way onto the mainstream sports entertainment landscape, largely because of the exposure it has received in casino showrooms and arenas.

Following the example of Las Vegas, a handful of Atlantic City casinos are lining up their own mixed martial arts shows.

The most ambitious is going on at Resorts Atlantic City, where the New Breed Fighters put on bouts every four to six weeks. Other promoters have events scheduled at the Trump Marina and Tropicana casinos.

The next MMA fight card at Resorts will be Friday, with New Breed Fighters departing from its usual format of amateur fights and staging 16 professional bouts in the casino's Superstar Theater. The next day, the Asylum Fight League MMA will send its fighters into the ring in Trump Marina's Grand Cayman theater. On April 16, the Ring of Combat MMA return to the Tropicana Casino's Tropicana Showroom.

The Atlantic City fight cards feature pros hoping to battle their way into the big time or amateurs pursuing the sport as a serious hobby. In either case, the shows routinely attract sold-out or near-capacity crowds.

"A casino has drinking and gambling, clubs and music," says Sean Dunleavy, a 27-year-old East Stroudsburg University graduate and lab technician who is 2-0 in New Breed bouts. "That's exactly the sort of thing that our fans want to do either before or after the fights. The two worlds, MMA and casinos, seem to go perfect together."

Like Dunleavy, many members of New Breed Fighters are local amateurs.

"What you get a lot of times are policeman and firefighters and even teachers," says Steve Callender, senior vice president of operations at Resorts. The fighters often sell tickets and bring their own fans.

"MMA lowers the age demographic for our property, in particular, and for Atlantic City, in general," Callender says, "because this is such a new, fast-growing sport."

Mixed martial arts is a blend of combat-sport disciplines, including boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and jujitsu. Since MMA is faster-paced than traditional boxing, and cards are packed with up to 16 bouts, the audience gets lots of action for the buck, proponents say.

Tickets for Friday's card at Resorts, starting at 6:40 p.m., cost $50 to $135; a booth for four is $300 (information: www.newbreedfighters.tv). Tickets for Saturday's bouts at the Trump Marina, starting at 8 p.m., cost $40 to $100 through Ticketmaster (information: 1-800-777-8477). Tickets for the April 16 card at the Tropicana, starting at 8:30 p.m., cost $50 to $200 (information:www.ringofcombat.com).

New Breed Fighter events at Resorts also are scheduled for April 3, May 1 and June 19.