UNC Asheville’s MMA Club held a boxing exhibition in the Asheville Mall Nov. 21, featuring fighters from the university as well as from Appalachian State University, NC State University and Clemson University.
The event had seven fights, pitting opponents of equal height and weight as well as skill level against each other for three 2-minute rounds.
Declan Bell, the MMA Club president, said that planning the event was a risk that paid off at the end of the day, due to struggles with planning the fight and reserving a space before the event happened.
“We weren’t even sure we were going to have the event until two days before,” Bell said. “Finding a place to do it, making the matchups, picking who was able to do it due to limited spots, was all extremely hard.”
A roaring crowd consisting of students from the participating universities as well as passing onlookers cheered on the fighters, which Bell noted as one of the many rewarding aspects of the exhibition.
“I couldn’t tell you just one rewarding thing about the fight, but seeing the crowd’s reactions and how much fun the fighters had,” Bell said. “It was so much fun. The more people that reach out to me or stop me on campus and tell me how much fun they had, gives me more of a reason to do another one.”
David Bahena, a UNC Asheville student, had the opportunity to participate in the exhibition match. Bahena said that training for the event consisted of a lot of conditioning and boxing techniques outside of the usual Monday and Friday MMA club meetings.
Along with this, the club would spar with boxing clubs from other schools such as Clemson and USC Upstate which allowed for the fighters to improve their skills as well as connect. Bahena noted that he felt proud that he kept pushing himself to prepare for the fight, as well as collaborating with Bell and other MMA Club members to make this event possible.
“It was crazy, it felt like we had the home advantage, being able to hear everybody’s cheers,” Bahena said. “Even if I was getting knocked around a bit, people were getting entertained by it. It’s an entertaining event for people to watch and I’m pretty proud of how many people showed up honestly.”
Tony Grebrentsov, an Appalachian State University student, was one of many students who made the trip from Boone to witness the exhibition. Grebentsov said that events like this can connect universities and encourage students to get to know each other as well as build on the community that combat sports can create. As a member of the boxing club at App State, Grebentsov traveled with friends from Boone to cheer on his peers.
“The atmosphere was lively and the turnout was good,” Grebentsov said. “At first, people were shy, but as the fights progressed more people started showing support to their side with cheers. The crowd made it fun.”
Bell said that he hopes that he’s able to have more exhibitions, given that the combat sports scene is a fairly new territory for colleges. Bell emphasized accessibility was a big factor for the club, as he wants to open the door to anyone wanting to train and compete in fights.
“Our goal for the club is to let whoever wants to learn combat sports feel like they’re able to learn and compete,” Bell said. “Even if people just want to see what our club’s about, they should come check us out. We’re open to anybody at any training level.”