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North County cage fighting vies for the mainstream
By Maggie Grainger
August 28, 2006
San Diego, CA--The first rule of the North County Fight Club is…don’t even think about comparing it to the cult flick “Fight Club” – it’s getting kind of old.
Or that’s according to Jeff Clark, the 35-year-old CEO and president of North County Fight Club, whose company manages more than 15 professional fighters who train and practice mixed martial arts at his Carlsbad studio.
Clark, who got his start in karate, says he’s sick and tired of people confusing the professional sport as an “excuse for rednecks to get together and just break each other.”
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Jeff Clark, bloody victorious (Photo courtesy aliciaphotos.com) |
“It’s a professional sport,” he points out. “And it’s actually very civil – we don’t even use bare hands.” In fact, the sport is the hottest thing on the fight circuit right now, with people shelling out up to $300 a pop to see the stars duke it out in Vegas. Fights are also constantly selling out on pay-per-view. “The fights are filling up three to five-thousand seat arenas,” he pointed out. “And guys can make anywhere from a thousand bucks to over a million bucks – it’s good money.” For those not in the know, mixed martial arts fighting combines several martial arts techniques including kickboxing, wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu. Almost anything goes in the three, five minute rounds -- expect joint manipulation, head butting, eye poking or a kick in the groin. |
Clark admits he likes to go for body shots first because the body shot is the hardest position to recover from and get back on your feet.
The winner of the “Ultimate Fight” is determined by either a tap out, referee stoppage or a good old fashioned knockout.
Clark, a Temecula native, said he loves the adrenaline rush before a fight and it’s the adrenaline that keeps him going.
“My best fight was my third fight,” he said. “I was facing a very tough fighter and ended up finishing him quickly in the first round with a large elbow strike.”
He said that while victory can be sweet – defeat can be sour.
“My worst fight was my last one,” he said. “I got caught by a wild punch and didn’t recover fast enough so the ref stopped it.
“I felt like I let my teammates down.”
He admits it takes a certain amount of courage to get into the ring and wussies or amateurs need not apply.
“Another misconception is that you can just jump in the ring and go for it,” he said. “Normal people can’t just hop into the ring – you have to earn cred.
“If you did that, you’d have a lot of fighters asking ‘Why do you deserve to be here?’”
When he’s not pounding it out in the ring, Clark said he can be found sleeping or cuddling with his puppies and “just hanging out.”
He also teaches advanced karate twice a week in between daily training sessions.
For more information check out www.ncfightclub.com.
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Maggie Grainger is a Vyuz staff writer.
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