Friday night, February 22^nd, Softball Country Sports Center was transformed from an indoor industrial practice space into a professional arena with drama-smoke, rap music, stadium seating and swirling spotlights among the roof trusses.  The entire place was spanking clean (including the Ladies' Room which somehow even stayed that way throughout the evening)!  In spite of a busy bar scene, enthusiasm was allowed to express itself but I didn't observe anyone being unruly.  Perhaps that was "helped" by the very visible presence of Security Personnel but even Sven Bean and his wife Lisa seemed to be able to relax and enjoy themselves with their guests and sponsored fighters.

On February 21st, 2008 at the Palladium night club,  the full house was buzzing with anticipation for the Rocky Mountain Bad Boyz Ballistic Battle: Battle in the Cage 11 event to start.  The event was well organized and ran very well.  The coordinators also gave away lots of cool stuff including some UFC tickets. 

One thing I have found from my interviews with fighters, the motivation that gets them involved in mixed martial arts is either that they were bullied when they were younger or they were the bullies.  In the case of Ted von Roll, fighting in the streets of Oakland, CA was his urban training ground however that venue usually led to trouble.  A good friend suggested that he try working out his fighting compulsion in a gym rather than the streets which is the path that brings him to Denver this week for his second amateur fight.  His record in the ring to date is 1-0 but as he told me, his street record is about 100-0! 

Cody Donovan has been working with Sven Bean of BattleQuest fame for the last 1 ½ years having competed in one earlier BattleQuest and two Ring of Fires.  He has his eyes set on fighting in the top of the Division – whether that be UFC or another group as he works his way up the ranks.  Setbacks (like the 8 second knock-out that he suffered from Isaac Diamondes in an early Ring of Fire) are used as fodder for the education that Cody is looking to acquire in his pursuit of the degree of martial arts:  A Winner’s Belt.

The telephone interview with Brett Roller gave me a picture of a young man who seriously researches and studies the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents as he prepares for a new match.  Brett will be fighting Tyler Toner at Battlequest 7 on Friday night and he doesn’t take this fight casually.  He has studied Toner’s videotaped defeat to Scott Jorgenson and is training specifically against the strengths and weaknesses that he has pulled from that videotape.

Tyler Toner will be competing as a main event contestant at Battlequest 7 at 145 lbs.  Toner has suffered only one defeat and that was at the hands of Scott Jorgensen in May of 2007 at Ring of Fire 29.  Toner’s most recent fight was Battlequest 6 in July 2007 and he is eager to get back in the ring after a hiatus created by a series of scrubbed match-ups rather than by his own decision.  His opponent on Friday February 22nd will be Brett Roller who comes to the ring with a record of 7 – 1.   Although Tyler (6 – 1) has never seen Roller fight before, it doesn’t faze him as his momentum is pumping hard in anticipation of this match-up.