Top Photo: Jamie “Boogie” Anton, bottom, of Throwdown Elite in Orem, Utah, and Dave Allred of Elite Performance in Sandy, take it to the mat at Showdown V, a professional mixed martial arts fight night held at Utah Valley University November 20, 2009.

MMA is a combat sport that involves a variety of different fighting techniques and skills, many based on traditional martial arts, wrestling and boxing, with two opponents pitted against each other inside a chain link round or octagonal cage. The sport increased in popularity in Utah and the United States with the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament in 1993 and moreso in 2007 when the UFC bought its rival brand and merged all contract fighters into one promotion.

I photographed this project on mixed martial arts culture in Utah for the past year and a half in my spare time and it is posted on my website here:

PHOTOS

I can’t explain my initial draw to MMA, but I kept making photos of events and fighters because it interests me as a non-traditional sport and because of all the people I’ve met. Utah has a great MMA community and it’s constantly growing. The story won’t end here, I will continue to tell it as long as people allow it.

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Mike Terry published some of these photos in his zine, Ezra. Please let he or me know if you’d like a copy.

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