by Joy Zaccaria, www.dcmma.com

It’s like a game of chess. The good players are thinking two or three moves ahead. In the world of mixed martial arts, instead of checkmate, it’s a chokehold preventing blood from reaching the brain that could win the match—but strategy is just as important.   As a blend of styles including kickboxing, wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, mixed martial arts (MMA) is familiar to most people outside of the sport as Ultimate Fighting. It seemed to have picked up where WWF left off as a money-maker with a prized demographic of male viewers aged 18-34. While the glitzy aspect is what is usually on TV, the other side of it consists of mostly earnest fighters and promoters who want to see the sport grow organically and for the benefit of the fighters.  Eric Marshman lives in northern Virginia and has been training in mixed martial arts for the past four years. At age 23, he will be entering Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, VA this summer. “And I’ll be training in MMA right up until then,” he said. “I’ll have an edge. Nobody else is working out with the intensity that that comes with this. It gets you sharp.”  The biggest challenge for Marshman, especially in the first couple of fights, was to get his head around it by trying to stay focused and relaxed. “The more you train beforehand, the more confident you are,” he said. “When you’re freaked out, nervous, scared and everything is moving so fast, then you’re trying to play catch up the whole time. If you can stop and mentally take that long deep breath, your body works better and your mind works better.”  When watching the higher levels of fighters, it’s more of a dance. “Each fighter knows what the other guy is going to do,” said Marshman. “They see moves coming, especially when it gets on the ground—the Jiu-Jitsu. They’re thinking two or three moves ahead. “It’s like a fast-paced, strong chess match.” Being in peak physical condition is a base. The strategy is in knowing what somebody is going to do in certain situations and how to capitalize on it.  In his training, Marshman is able to quantify what he is physically and mentally capable of doing by testing and proving it in sanctioned fights. “It’s good motivation in my day-to-day life to know that in two or three weeks I’ll be locked into a cage with another fighter and everything I know is going to be on the line,” he said. “My fitness has to be that much better. I have to know that much more. It pushes me.”  It doesn’t just push him to excel in fighting. “If I can get in more fights before the Marine Corps,” he said, “there’s no better way to stay in shape.” His plan is OCS, basic school after that, then flight school. He got involved in MMA by accident while trying to find a club wrestling team in college at Virginia Tech where he was a Biology major. During his first couple of weeks, he “kind of stood there and got beat up for a while,” said Marshman. “It seemed fun. So I kept trying it.”  He was not terribly interested in martial arts growing up and definitely was not interested in fighting for any schoolyard reasons. Marshman had never been in a fight outside of a sanctioned event in his life. “I’ve never thrown a punch out of anger,” he said. “Now, I walk around knowing that 99 percent of the people I meet wouldn’t be able to do what I do.”  His training routine intensifies when he has a fight coming up, but Marshman is regularly in the gym at least three times a week with two classes of MMA and one Jiu-Jitsu. Every class has a good half-hour to 45 minutes of pure cardio beforehand. At home he runs and lifts weights on his own.  The Northern Virginia Fighting Scene With the sport becoming more mainstream than a few years ago, the perception of it is becoming more legitimate with most promoters putting emphasis on pitting well-matched fighters against each other instead of setting up bouts that make for a rowdy show.  This growth has led to more gyms opening locally to accommodate those interested in MMA. Marshman recently started training at Evolution MMA, a new gym opened by his coaches Scott Howard and Siyam "Sam" Yousefi who worked with Marshman at his previous gym, FightWorks in Sterling, VA. There are fighting classes in different disciplines such as Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai or overall MMA as well as ones in conditioning, weight training and yoga. People can come in any time and work out on their own. At FightWorks and now at Evolution MMA, Scott Howard is the head coach, head of the competition team, and Marshman’s coach.   Howard, who also runs the sanctioning body for the area’s fight shows, is one of the main promoters in the area. He is the one who makes sure Marshman is matched up with someone of equal talent in his fight. “It’s an important job,” said Dan vonHerrmann, co-founder of the local MMA website, DCMMA.com. "A small percentage of promoters don't have the fighter's best interest at heart when making matches. The fighters need someone to make sure they are not being thrown to the wolves. Some promoters mistakenly think the crowd is just there to see big knockouts.”

Marshman sees his local fighting scene as better than other parts of the country. “We’ve got people coming to train with us from North Carolina,” he said. “We seem to be a little bit better up here. You see better quality fighters.” Howard’s work contributes to this. “Howard is very good at making competitive matches,” said vonHerrmann. “He understands there is too much talent in this area to need to artificially get the crowds going. The fighters can do it on their own."  Working towards legitimizing the sport in the public’s perception, Scott Howard established the Global Combat Alliance (GCA) to sanction shows, establish rankings, make sure everything is safe for the fighters, make sure the fighters are matched up well, and make sure the right doctors are there. “We put on good shows,” said Howard. “We put the best schools on these advisory boards.” They went from having only two to three schools participating to a 30-school network that they pool from for fighters.  GCA is a sanctioning body created to provide the serious martial artist the opportunity to compete in the styles of MMA and Muay Thai. The sanctioning and advisory body is composed of current/former fighters and coaches who want to see the sport grow. “We see its practitioners as the lifeblood and want to ensure that they are taken care of by providing the safest possible environment for their matches,” said Howard. “GCA prides itself on being able to guarantee fairness in all sanctioned events by using a majority vote system by its advisory board.”  Marshman attests to the safety of the matches and has been hurt much worse in practice than in a fight. “You’ve got professional referees and judges looking out for your welfare,” he said. “The second you’re in trouble, it’s over.” The officials don’t want fighters walking out with broken arms and concussions.   Supportive Surroundings With such a way of life in common, fighters see the best and worst of the people they train with. “I’ve made friends with people I’ve fought,” Marshman said. “It’s a good group of people. You don’t find a lot of jerks in the crowd. If there are, they’re usually not people who are really involved with it.”  Marshman recently took a job offered to him at Electric Motion Systems designing and building electric motors. Prior to this, he was a mechanic at Joe’s Auto Works where his boss, Joe Kriviski proved his support by sponsoring one of his fights. Fortunately for him, he didn’t have to deal directly with many clients. “You come in with black eyes and all beat up and nobody really looks twice at you,” he said.  Marshman’s girlfriend loves it and started to train at his gym for fitness. “She works the shows,” he said. “She helps out at the doors and with judging and time keeping. She’s really into it.” He won’t let his mom come to one of his shows though. “My mom is always worried but that’s a mom thing,” he said. “My dad is in Oregon but he’s supportive. He likes it, he’s been to one of the shows when he was in town.”   “I’m not a really big sports fan, which is kind of weird,” said Marshman. “But I have yet to see anything out there that can test somebody like this.”