MCF Celebrates Third Beatdown – Years ago, there was no MMA in North Platte. In fact, there were very few people that had even heard of the sport. And by a twist of fate, a fighter named Kelly Wiseman moved to town from Bettendorf, Iowa. He had trained, fought and taught for four years under five-time UFC champion Pat Miletich. Wiseman had decided to start North Platte in a different direction. He took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and started training and promoting fights and fighters in and around North Platte.
Some of those very same fighters would go on to have successful careers in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. One of North Platte’s best known MMA fighters, Luke Caudillo, fought twice in the UFC and twice for Strikeforce. The result of Wiseman’s work has been bringing mixed martial arts to the forefront of North Platte entertainment, and he has made North Platte a widely respected regional center for the sport.
Wiseman started the local “Midwest Championship Fighting” in 2006, after two years of planning. In November that year, he produced the first
MCF fight card, simply called “Genesis.” He produced two more MCFs in North Platte but the productions halted when he moved out of town in 2007. Happily, he returned to North Platte in 2009 and got back to promoting. First he co-promoted a Tri-State Cagefighting card at the D&N. As mixed martial arts came under regulations of the Nebraska Athletic Commission, he re-started MCF with Tad Hanneborg of the D&N. In 2010, Hanneborg and Wiseman hosted MCF 4 and MCF 5. Wiseman then approached Russ Jones, a long-time fan and supporter of mixed martial arts, and asked if he was interested in teaming up on more MMA events.
On Saturday March 21, 2015 Wiseman and Russ Jones’ Midwest Championship Fighting, will host the third annual “St. Patty’s Day Beatdown,” a 12 fight card. MCF set an attendance record for fights at the D&N Event center in 2013 and surpassed the national online e-ticket sales record on Cagetix.com that same year.
“This year’s event will be no different. North Platte is a great town for MMA fans,” says MMA Futures co-founder Nathan Rogers. “MCF was our first ever online broadcast and we are happy to be back to do it all over again. The fans in North Platte are great and we will have an online Pay Per View for all of them that cannot make it to the fights this year at www.mmafutures.com.”
When asked about MMA in North Platte, Wiseman says, “There is a new crop of talented fighters that could follow in the footsteps of the past great North Platte fighters and MCF is the perfect stage to showcase their talent.”