IU student trains as cage fighter

Cage fighter Luke Taylor manically pounds on the short bag in the balmy confines of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s “Dungeon,” throwing his entire shoulder, hip and torso into each alternating blow. \n“Take his side!” fellow fighter Mike Griffin yells, and Taylor swings his hips and legs over to the right side of the bag.\n“Knees!” Griffin shouts as he paces around the bag, keeping one eye on the clock. He allows Taylor to send a dozen heavy knee kicks into the rib cage of his hypothetical opponent before grabbing one of his feet and yanking him away. Frantically lunging back onto the bag, Taylor continues to pound it with a series of elbows.\n“Slam!” Taylor stands up with the bag on his shoulder and tackles it into the ground. The onslaught of fists, elbows, knees and sweat continues for two more minutes, culminating with a final slam and exclamatory fist. \nThis is an Elite Cage Fighting light-middleweight champion’s warm-up before two hours of Brazilian Jui Jitsui training. \nOn Saturday night, Taylor will defend his belt for the second time at Elite Cage Fighting’s “The Gathering” at the AmVets Post 2000 on Bloomington’s west side. Three belts, including Taylor’s, will be on the line as more than two dozen fighters from across Indiana square off in a steel cage in front of an estimated 600 people. \nMixed Martial Arts, or MMA, is a combination of boxing, wrestling and other martial arts made popular by the television success of Ultimate Fighting Championship Fighters punch, kick, elbow, knee, grapple and lock their way to victory by submission, tap-out, knock-out\nor decision. Although a wide variety of attacks are allowed, lethal strikes such as eye-gouges and trachea shots are prohibited.\n“Whether the fight stays up or goes to the ground depends on the fighters,” said Taylor, an IU senior majoring in religious studies and political science. “A good wrestler or Jiu Jitsu guy will try to keep the fight on the ground and stay aggressive.”\nTaylor, a wrestler in high school, said he prefers to grapple on the ground, fighting for an arm lock or choke that will force his opponent to submit. Griffin, a Bloomington native who served four years in the Marines, trains at IU’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club with Taylor, but he likes to think of himself as an all-around fighter.\n“You got to be prepared for anything in the cage,” Griffin said. “The fight may stay up and be a rock ’em, sock ’em slug-fest, or go to the ground and have a lot of grappling and fighting for position.”\nBecause of the violent and dynamic nature of MMA fights, the presence of a cage actually makes the fight safer for participants.\n“Aside from the visual appeal, the biggest factor with a cage is safety,” said Phil Walsh, co-owner of Elite Cage Fighting, which has been hosting such events since April 2005. “Because of the throwing and grappling in MMA, there are more injuries because of fighters being thrown out of a ring. You don’t have to worry about guys being picked up and thrown six feet over a cage; that’s more WWF.”\nThe cage serves a convenient double purpose: protecting the fighters and serving as a formidable backdrop for the drama that unfolds within \nits confines.\n“Your mind-set stepping into the cage is different every time, but it’s probably the most important part about fighting,” Taylor said. “My first fight was completely surreal. Everything was a blur. Then it was over in the first round, and there was just this incredible rush afterwards.”\nLast February, Taylor won the light-middleweight belt from Nick Kaufman with a kimura arm lock in the second round. In marked contrast with his first fight, Taylor said he felt completely confident, relaxed and loose before his last fight and first title defense, a 15-minute contest Taylor described as his toughest fight ever.\n“His corner told me that his guy was going to knock me out in the first round,” Taylor said. “I let him punch me in the face three or four times and laughed at him. I think that broke him mentally, seeing me laughing after being punched in the face and having a bloody nose.”\nThe confidence Taylor felt before seems to be carrying over to his second title defense. For his match against Justin Curtis, a fellow Brazilian Jiu Jitsu specialist, Taylor predicts another second-round victory with the same kimura arm lock.\n“Its going to get rough on Saturday,” Griffin predicted. “This is going to be an eye-opener for a lot of people.”