RAMA, ONT.—Brandt Dewsberry was in big trouble and he knew it.
The 20-year-old mixed martial arts pro was wobbled, groggy and staring down Joel Powell, the former national team wrestler who had spend a round and a half dumping Dewsberry on his back and pummelling him.
Before Dewsberry could react Powell had pounced, wrapping himself like an anaconda around his opponent, locking Dewsberry in a real-life sleeper hold and forcing him to submit to end the first ever legally sanctioned MMA bout in Ontario.
Saturday’s event, titled “MMA: The Reckoning,” didn’t feature world-class action. The lineup blended faded former UFC vets with rising prospects and fighters who would never graduate from undercard bouts. But according to Casino officials it drew more paying customers to Rama’s 5,200-seat auditorium than any of the previous 13 boxing shows held there, evidence that the sport’s popularity runs deeper than the UFC.
And if you’re the type of person who searches for historic moments in a sport that has existed for less than two decades, then Saturday’s card made history as the first MMA show in Canada’s most populous province.
If MMA’s steadily rising popularity wasn’t enough to bring fans to Rama, the idea of witnessing a turning point in Ontario’s sports history appealed to fans like Toronto resident Rob Kim.
“It played a role. I thought it would be pretty cool (to see the first show in Ontario,” said Kim, who paid $150 for his seats. “It’s the fastest-growing sport in the world. What’s not to love about it?”
Before Saturday, live mixed martial arts shows had been off limits in Ontario, forcing local fans to drive to Quebec or Ohio if they wanted to see MMA bouts in person.
Seven years ago the sport’s legal status wasn’t much of an issue, but in 2005 the Spike TV reality show The Ultimate Fighter sparked an explosion in the popularity of both the sport and its largest promotional outfit, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As MMA’s profile rose, pressure mounted on the provincial government to legalize the sport. Last August, after intense lobbying by UFC lawyers, the ban was lifted.
But while the UFC was the first promoter to announce they’d host a show, English promoter Robert Waterman took advantage of a previously scheduled boxing date at Rama, assembled “The Reckoning,” and beat the UFC to the punch by three weeks.
“The fans here are rabid,” he said. “They’re so knowledgeable and so committed. It’s almost an honour (to promote the first Ontario event).”
In the hour before the opening bout, as the auditorium slowly reached capacity, organizers worked to ratchet the energy level ever higher, pumping heavy metal music through loudspeakers, as the promoter’s flickered across five massive wall-mounted screens.
Like other MMA promoters, Waterman had succeeded in selling the idea that the sport offers non-stop action.
But in reality, the action comes in spurts. Midway through the second fight, as a pair of light-heavyweights cautiously circled each other, a voice cascaded from the auditorium’s cheap seats.
“Hit each other!”
MMA purists in the crowd could appreciate even the stretches that appeared boring, but as the sport grows more mainstream it attracts fans who are ambivalent about its fine points.
Like boxing convert John Paton.
The Bowmanville resident showed up Saturday in a T-shirt emblazoned with the image of legendary heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey, but says MMA’s incessant hype won him over.
“You can’t go to your buddy’s house and watch boxing anymore,” said Paton, who was attending his first MMA show. “Everybody has UFC on the brain.”
As he spoke his girlfriend, Kristin Kehoe, sat nearby scrolling through her BlackBerry. She, too, was attending her first live MMA show, though she still struggles to understand the sport’s appeal.
“It’s a lot of wrestling and rolling around,” she said. “I would rather watch boxing.”
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