Shrewsbury ‘Town of Flowers’ is about to hit the spotlight for a very different reason – cage fighting.
The county town, famous for its floral displays, meandering river and historic buildings, will take on a decidedly tougher image when it welcomes some of the country’s top cage fighters later this month.
To the uninitiated, the sport conjures an image of brutal, bare knuckle fighting to near death – but those who practise this increasingly popular pastime would disagree.
Directors Doug and Andy.
Cage fighting is promoted as a skilful mix of martial arts and is heavily regulated, with fighters required to wear protective gloves.
On September 25, The Severn Cellars and Warehouse, in Howard Street, will host ‘Cage Control’ – the second cage fighting event organised by Spartan Mixed Martial Arts based at Greenwood Industrial Estate, Shrewsbury.
There will be 12 fights, and a meet and greet with the fighters available on request.
Andy Molyneux, director of the professional MMA gym and an International Sport Kickboxing Association MMA European silver medallist, told the Chronicle his members come from all over Shropshire, Cheshire and the West Midlands.
And due to its popularity, plans are in place to hold a Cage Control event every three months at The Severn Cellars and Warehouse, and then expand to other venues.
“It’s one of the fastest growing sports in the world at the moment and is huge in America,” he said.
“The area in which we fight has got wire cage fencing all around and the sport is heavily regulated now. There are lots of rules and we always have a doctor and two paramedics and an ambulance at every venue. In most of the fights people rarely get a bloody nose,” Andy added.
Cage fighting can involve kick boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu, with many different ways to win a fight and is quickly becoming the fastest-growing televised sport in the world.
“With mixed martial arts it’s very rare to get hit more than a couple of times, not like boxing,” said Andy. “With boxing if you get hit and knocked to the ground they let you continue, but with mixed martial arts if you get knocked to the ground and you’re not intelligently defending yourself then the referee stops the fight.
“Cage fighting is exciting to watch and the guys are pure athletes and some of the fittest people in the world. Anything can happen, it’s like a game of chess, it’s a complicated thing to watch.”
Since June last year, Andy, 34, a black belt in kick boxing, and fellow martial arts instructor Doug Wildman, 37, have run their own training centre Spartan MMA which has recently become a full-time gym.
Their fight team consists of amateur, semi-pro and pro fighters, including one female semi-professional cage fighter Jess Offermanns.
Andy and Doug are also coaches for the World Kickboxing Association England team.
Lee Youens, 25, from Mount Pleasant, is a semi-professional fighter with Spartan MMA who has been involved with martial arts since he was 15.
“Cage fighting just seems like the real deal as far as martial arts goes,” he said. “It’s just something new and really exciting to watch because there’s such variety in the different martial arts you see people competing in.”
The former Belvidere School pupil, who is also the ISKA Amateur European Featherweight Champion, will begin a three-year course at Derby University next week where he will train to be a primary school teacher, but he intends to continue with his cage fighting which he says is ‘ingrained’ into him.
“When I’ve got a fight coming up I will train three hours a day, five or six times a week,” he said.
“I haven’t ever been injured badly – I broke my foot in my last fight and broke my nose a few times in training. I broke my foot by kicking someone in the head. I was meant to kick with my shin bone which is more effective but it landed on my foot.”
Lee said he enters ‘the cage’ with gloves made up of four ounces of padding, a groin guard and gum shields before proving his muscle against his latest opponent.
“There’s a lot of build up before a fight, it’s quite stressful. But the best thing to do is to stay calm and I find it helps to laugh and joke with the coaches,” he said.
“I would definitely recommend cage fighting. All the people I have met have been the nicest people. There’s no animosity towards the opponent, everyone is really respectful, which comes from martial arts.”
To find out more about Spartan MMA, visit www.spartanmma.co.uk
By Charlotte Hester