South Florida amateurs take on a tough dream
Davie. “In boxing you’ve got a left and a right hand. In MMA there’s a left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot, left knee, right knee, elbows, submissions. There’s so many things that can go wrong, and I think that’s a big appeal to the crowd.”
These fighters may look like professionals, train like them and fight like them; the difference is they don’t get paid like professionals. In fact, they don’t get paid at all.
Essentially fighting for free, these athletes give everything they can for the chance of one day going pro and competing at the highest levels of combat sports.
Miranda Barber
Even though it’s fairly easy to become a pro in Florida, — just compete in a minimum of five amateur fights — most amateurs want to gain more experience.
“Amateur is all about learning, it’s all about making those sacrifices,” said Miranda Barber, an amateur MMA fighter from Deerfield Beach. “It’s about persevering, it’s about that grind. It’s about the heart and how bad you want it, because that money, you’re not gonna die with that.”
In a male dominated sport, Barber has more to prove than most. But that hasn’t stopped her from building up a tough reputation or garnering a fitting nickname.
“I remember when I was first starting off and I sparred against ‘She Hulk,’ and she hit me with a question mark kick and it rocked me,” said Thad Jean, an amateur MMA fighter from Oakland Park. “I never thought I’d get rocked during sparring — and by a girl. You’re a man; you have pride. You think ‘This girl isn’t gonna beat me.’ But she’s really good.”
The 23-year-old redhead has been training to be an MMA fighter since graduating high school, and she aspires to not only go pro, but also fight in the UFC. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest MMA league in the world and features the top-ranked fighters.
With such a small pool of women competing in MMA, the selection of training partners is typically one sided.
Sparring partners who judge her solely on her gender can be in for a rude awakening.
“When I spar with most girls I kind of take it easy. I don’t take it easy with Miranda because any given second she could really hurt you,” said Erikson Lopez, an amateur MMA fighter from North Lauderdale.
“She actually hurt me like last week. She hit with me with a spinning back kick, and I was walking around here breathing hard, man.”
Raiyan Anwaar
For Raiyan Anwaar, 20, being an amateur MMA fighter is his full-time job. He spends all his time training and preparing to fight.
The soft-spoken Pembroke Pines native is so committed that many people often ask him to smile more.
He attributes his serious demeanor to the fact that he’s serious about his career, especially his training regiment.
The exhaustive sparring sessions and late-night workouts all serve as a mental reminder that he is outworking his opponents.
“Since I don’t work, I train about three to five times a day. I train at different times. I’ll be training from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m., and I know for sure that the other person isn’t training at that time,” Anwaar said.
Many of Anwaar’s high school peers moved away to pursue college degrees or full-time jobs. He didn’t.
Anwaar lives at home with his family and works full time on his dream of becoming a professional fighter.
With such a demanding schedule, six days a week of varying drills and workouts, Anwaar admits that he does very little in terms of socializing.
“You don’t have time to hang out,” he said. “Once you start fighting you don’t really have friends. Your only friends are your training partners.”
Anwaar met one of his closest friends and training partners during a street fight, where they were squaring off against each other.
“He knocked someone out with a head kick in the middle of the street, so everyone else was afraid to fight him,” explained Ryan Kuse, an amateur MMA fighter from Pembroke Pines.
Kuse and Anwaar met at a house party and were in a hurry to prove who was the better fighter. After the fight broke out in the middle of the street, police showed up and Anwaar’s ride to the party had abandoned him.
Amid all of the chaos, Kuse picked him up. Ever since then the two have been thick as thieves, training together on a daily basis and attending each other’s fights.
Kuse recalls always starting fights when he was growing up, until he realized that desire could lead to a career. He credits Anwaar for getting him out of the street and into the cage.
“Just because you can fight in the street, doesn’t mean you can fight in the cage. It’s more tactical. You want to save energy. In the street you want to waste all your energy in the first 30 seconds, and the fight’s over. Here you gotta fight for nine minutes,” he explained.
Daniel Kay
Like Kuse, promoter Daniel Kay was introduced to MMA by one of his friends. Only Kay hadn’t been in touch with Aaron Rajman for years, until they happened to reconnect in 2010.
“We played sports together. He was a big kid. He was really made for this. He was made for this sport. I found out about it in 2010. We reconnected through MMA,” Kay said. “If it was not for him, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now.”
Kay currently runs an amateur MMA promotion, Xtreme Fighting Nation, out of his home office in Delray Beach.
Sadly, Rajman was shot and killed at his home in West Boca Raton last year. But before he died, Rajman helped Kay get himself into fighting shape through numerous training sessions in his backyard. Soon after, Kay was ready for his debut fight. Little did he know, he would only ever get to fight once and he would lose.
Disappointment became the norm for Kay as an aspiring MMA fighter. He would train and prepare, which requires a fighter to “make weight” in their particular weight class. This can mean shedding 10-20 pounds while maintaining enough calories to train.
Even though Kay would make the weight, his opponents would be disqualified for a medical condition, back out at the last minute or just never show up.
“One of my goals through XFN was to try and find a way to set up fights that didn’t fall apart last minute, because that’s what kept happening to me,” he said.
In one attempt, Kay showed up for a fight in West Palm Beach only to be told his opponent had backed out. Dead set on competing, Kay drove to Orlando that night to fight in a different show.
He was the first fight of the night. After being issued his gloves and shin guards, Kay was led to a handicapped bathroom stall. This was his warm up area to get loose for the fight.
While Kay was glad to finally be able to fight, his goal had changed. He decided to step out of the cage for good, determined to change the way amateur fights were run.
“When people go to watch an MMA fight it should look like the UFC,” he says.
That has been Kay’s philosophy in building XFN, which recently celebrated its 20th event. While other promotions focus on quantity, Kay focuses on quality.
“I just knew that there had to be a better way to put on these shows. They had to look better. You don’t have to walk into a smelly club where your friends and family have to stand moshpit style to be able to see the event,” he said. “It should look like the UFC. Cameras, stadium style seating, logos on the cage. That’s how I envisioned it, and if you look back as far as XFN 1 that’s how we’ve done it.”
For Kay, XFN is destined to go far beyond South Florida. His ultimate vision involves partnering with local promotions around the country, which would be similar to the way other professional sports are structured.
For now though, he is focused on putting on the best show he can and making sure that amateurs such as Miranda Barber and Raiyan Anwaar have a platform they can be proud of.
“One of my goals through XFN was to try and find a way to set up fights that didn’t fall apart last minute, because that’s what kept happening to me.” Daniel Kay, XFN promoter from Delray Beach
“I just knew that there had to be a better way to put on these shows. It should look like the UFC. Cameras, stadium style seating, logos on the cage. That’s how I envisioned it, and if you look back as far as XFN 1 that’s how we’ve done it.” Daniel Kay
“Once you start fighting you don’t really have friends. Your only friends are your training partners.” Raiyan Anwaar, 20, of Pembroke Pines