Peterborough martial artist goes pro on the Prairies
Harley King started his martial arts training in a friend’s garage in Peterborough and on Nov. 22 he made a victorious pro MMA debut in Red Deer, Alta.
Fighting on Havoc 14, King stopped Red Deer’s Ryan Williams, a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, by second-round technical knockout in a bantamweight (135 pounds) bout.
King, 28, grew up on Cameron Street and attended St. John’s Catholic Elementary School and Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School. While in high school he started training with classmate Kevin Henry, who was teaching Muay Thai kickboxing out of his garage. Henry later opened and now operates Kawartha Combat.
“I owe everything to Kevin,” said King. “He was training me for free in his garage in -15 C snowstorms.”
While training with Henry, King had two amateur kickboxing bouts.
In 2013, King followed his brother Brody to Edmonton where he got a job with the city driving a Zamboni. In his first three years out west his work hours weren’t conducive to training
In 2016 he wandered into the Hayabusa Training Centre in St. Albert where he started training under head coach Luke Harris who teaches jiu jitsu. K.B. Bhullar later became his striking coach.
“I didn’t really have any aspirations of fighting. I just loved the training,” he said.
Eventually his training partner, Neil Anderson, talked him into fighting. King competed in some jiu jitsu competitions and had four amateur MMA bouts winning two and losing a pair. It was after the second loss King decided it was time to really dedicate himself to his training.
“That loss left a bitter taste in my mouth because I didn’t get beat because of talent. It was more so I didn’t fight intelligently. That really motivated me,” he said.
There are a number of fledgling MMA organizations promoting pro shows in Western Canada and an opportunity was presented to fight on a Havoc show.
“It was tough because he was the hometown guy. I had all the cards against me. The crowd was really pro-him,” said King. “I was fouled twice, kicked in the groin and kneed in the groin, and no point was taken away. I knew that everyone was on his side.”
King’s striking made the difference as he knocked down his opponent several times before the referee eventually rescued his opponent.
“Fortunately, I was able to find the finish because I didn’t feel the decision was going to go my way unless I really made it convincing,” he said.
He has no defined goal at this stage of his career.
“My next fight is my goal. I’ll look at March and see if we can get the job done and go from there. I’m trying to change the narrative that MMA is a brutal, thuggish sport. I don’t like the term ‘fighter.’ I consider myself a martial artist.
“Getting away from that and being a positive role model. I teach youth MMA and try to give them the idea of what martial arts really is, it’s discipline and respect.”