Jarad is a huge boxing and MMA fan and on his way out the door. He had previously covered MMA events in the past and had wanted to cover Northwest Fighting's Spokane Showdown event for the last issue in Fall Quarter. Being an MMA fan myself, I had always wondered what it would be like to cover a cage fighting event.What kind of forced me to jump at the chance to cover the assignment was Jarad had mentioned Hilary was going to cover the event.
Now I love Hil to death, and I enjoy her writing, but I know she is not a big fan of sports, nor had she ever written a sport story before (later she would edit the Sidelines page for her last issue as EIC). After approaching Hil and telling her I would cover the Showdown, Jarad and I set up a meeting time and a plan.
The Showdown itself was held at the East Central Community Center and as I stood in the gym, I watched as competitors, family, and friends took spots throughout the gym, preparing themselves for the show, reminding me of wrestling matches that I went to in high school.
Other than some camera issues Jarad was having, and the horrible smell of sweat and pizza that filled the gym, . It was also at this time where I got the news hooks for the story. I say two because the main event was the title fight, and the match before that was going to be a girl fight.
Before the first fight, I did some preliminary interviews with the fighters and learned that many of them were fighting in the cage for the first time. I also managed to interview a mother who watched her son fight for the first time.
The outcome of the fights varied. Some bouts went all three rounds, while others were over in less than a minute. I went with the process of watching the match and recording notes (takedowns, times, submissions, etc), praying to God that Jarad was getting good photos, then running over and getting a quick quote from the winner, similar to Joe Rogan. One lesson I learned is that it's hard for some people to talk, even for a little bit, after they are trying to catch their breath.
After I had interviewed the last champ and taken some photos with the fighters (sometimes photos with the people are necessary), I went home and wrote the story, trying to figure which quotes and grafs I would put in. Talking about the title change and the chick fight were important, and I felt that having the quote from the kid's mom supplied not only an audience reaction, but also gave an interesting aspect of someone watching their child fight.
Like many stories I have written this year, this was on a tight deadline, and for that particular issue, Sidelines seemed pretty good as far as content went (the Men's Cross Country team had just won it's ninth consecutive championship), so I wasn't sure if the story would get printed in the paper. To my surprise, it was well received by my peers, despite a small controversy with the word 'mount' (which still made it in).
Related links:
Rage in the Cage
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