The main arena of Bracknell's sports and leisure centre has traditionally been home to sports like basketball - tonight, it hosts an evening of cage fighting. Even as the doors open at 5.30pm a healthy gathering of people, mostly between 20 and 40 but of all ethnicities and genders, are massed outside the venue. Inside organiser Paul James is buzzing around with the air of a father making last-minute wedding preparations for his daughter. This is only the third time his Freestyle Fighting Federation have held a fight night in the country. The 'cage' itself is already prepared and although it looks quite impressive it's not quite as scary as it might sound. Forget the image of an oversized budgie cage, it's more akin to a hexagonal wrestling ring with a car park fence around the perimeter.
 | | The cage at Bracknell. |
The night has fifteen scheduled fights involving various disciplines, but most are mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts. MMA fighters can use a wide variety of techniques drawn from several combat sports against their opponents, a range which gives people the impression MMA fights are little better than pub brawls. Paramedics And some fights do indeed resemble a Friday night in the town centre. One fight is called off after 23 seconds - one fighter refuses to stop hitting the other and the referee has to force him away from his opponent.
 | | Fighter Rich Austin required medical attention |
Paramedics rush to the injured fighter's aid and security is called to prevent his partner entering the cage - she is pressed up against the wire hurling abuse. She then watches, horrified, as the paramedics get on with their work. That was the only such incident we saw throughout the night, and fight judge Darren Richardson insists these things do not normally happen. "That was absolutely disgusting behaviour, I've only seen that once before in all the time I've been judging. "99.9 per cent of the men are sportsmen. It's just that one. You get it in every event - you got it in the World Cup the other day. "Just because it's MMA it gets judged too quickly. You saw another footballer headbutt another one for no apparent reason." Many other people attending the fight night are sure their sport is unjustly vilified and can easily be compared to others. Technique | "If I wasn't doing this I'd probably be drinking my life away." | | Rob Nisham |
Fighter Rob Nisham is from Bracknell and is competing in only his second full fight in a cage. "People don't understand what they're talking about," he tells me. "They refer to it as a fringe sport, dirty and brutal - it's not. "You see the amount of skill that's in that cage, the training that goes into it. It's all about technique, it's less brutal than boxing." Rob's friend John has come along to support him. He says he views his friend as an athlete, not a thug.
 | | Rob Nisham (left) in the cage |
"He's not just someone who's got drunk and is going out for a pub brawl outside a club. "He's not on drugs or alcohol, he's trained over the last three or four years for this event. He's worked hard to do it. "Some people are born to be teachers, some people are born to be footballers, some people are born to be fighters." Rob views MMA as a career and admits: "If I wasn't doing this I'd probably be drinking my life away." Worry His other half, Karen, and brother Steve have also come along to support him. I asked Karen how she felt when Rob began training to fight in the cage. "I was a bit taken aback by it. I didn't know how I would feel knowing he was in the cage. "It's what he wants to do and he knows I'm 100 per cent behind him, I'm going to support him all the way. But of course I worry." Rob's fight is the second of the evening and is a kickboxing clash. MMA fights have a tendency to become quite intricate spectacles conducted on the floor of the cage; by comparison, kickboxing is fast-paced.
 | | Rob's brother and partner look on |
It soon becomes clear that Rob is struggling. He lasts the full three rounds against his opponent but loses on points. More than once Karen leaves her chair and stands anxiously by the side of the cage - when he finally emerges, a beaten man, she rushes over to hug him. "He did well, he went the distance," she tells me afterwards. "I'm a bit disappointed though, obviously. The other guy was a better man at the end of the day. "He's never gone the distance before in a fight so I think he was a bit gassed to be honest. "After the first round I honestly thought, when he bent over, that he'd been knocked out. So I ran over to see how he was. I thought it was the end of the fight." Disappointed When Rob emerges from behind the scenes 20 minutes later, he insists he enjoyed the experience, despite taking some heavy blows. "I felt really good going in, it was just the guy hit me really hard and took the wind out of my sails. I'm a little disappointed but I really enjoyed it. "I was hitting him with the shots but they just didn't have the oomph behind them, I was tired." In talking to people like Rob and Karen it becomes obvious that the people taking part in cage fighting are normal individuals pursuing their sport of choice. I met a tree surgeon, a policeman and an engineer, all of whom train and fight in their spare time. But equally it is impossible to avoid the conclusion, when watching some of the fighting, that there is a real risk of serious injury. The objections many people have to mixed martial arts fighting are by no means without foundation.
 | | A referee presides over all bouts. |
So what future for cage fighting in Berkshire and Britain? Everyone here uses boxing as their yardstick and Rob's brother, Steve, reckons MMA is the safer sport. "In boxing if you get knocked out they'll give you a count and let you carry on. In this, if you get knocked out, the fight is over." Publicity But promoter and trainer Andy Fordman believes that is a comparison to which few people in power will respond. "Nobody's died or been seriously injured, unlike boxing, but boxing has been around for hundreds of years. MMA's been around for about eight years. "There was some bad publicity in the mid- to late-90s. Someone got badly hurt with kids at a show. A guy was bleeding, he fell out of the ring with kids on the front line. It was all over the news. "If government officials see that, that's going to put them off. Sometimes it's hard to hear the referee, sometimes you switch off and all you want to do is beat your opponent up. "When the guy's on the floor and you're hitting him, if the ref doesn't get in there quickly there can be one punch too many. "If there's a government official there, that will be enough for them to say 'no way'." Stepping stone Fight judge Darren Richardson reckons if MMA had the same money boxing can generate, that would change. "Some decent sponsorship is the next step, so the guys can actually make a living out of this and dedicate themselves to the sport. "Then we'll be on the world stage. If the money was there we could produce much better athletes." Rob Nisham is undaunted by the uncertain future for the sport. "This is just a stepping stone to bigger things," he says. "I'm going to move on, get more experience, get better and fight more often." | 
