Illegal fight booked for reserve; Organizer holding Mixed Martial Arts event on Six Nations to get around ban
Posted By Susan Gamble
Posted 1 day ago
A controversial fighting event is planned for Six Nations next month despite being declared illegal in Ontario.
A Mixed Martial Arts championship - a full-contact sport that uses fighting techniques from boxing, wrestling, karate and kickboxing - will be held at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena on Second Line and Cayuga roads.
When the organizers held a similar event in November, more than 2,000 people showed up.
The Feb. 9 event will be much bigger, promises organizer Bill Monture.
hopes for sellout
"This time we'll probably sell out, which would be more than 5,000 people," says Monture. He added that people were leery to come out in November because the fights are banned in Ontario.
Now, he says, the VIP tables are almost sold out and the arena floor seating isn't far behind.
Monture, who has been promoting the sport for the last six months, portrays the event as a way of rebuilding community relationships that have been frayed by land claims issues and the events in Caledonia over the last two years.
Monture, his son, and a buddy, James Procyk of Hamilton, hatched the idea at a backyard barbecue of running a fight on reserve property to circumvent the Ontario ban.
"This is sovereign land," he explains.
Monture established the Grand River Athletics Commission and the Grand River Athletics Corp. The corporation organizes the event and the commission sanctions and oversees it.
Monture says the standards he's meeting are the same or higher than licensed events in the U.S. or in Quebec, where the fights are legal.
Fighters must have clean blood tests, for example, showing they don't have HIV or hepatitis C.
"Safety is the No. 1 factor," says Monture.
He went to the elected band council to ask for its blessing on the event but was turned down. Councillors wanted more information, uncertain whether they are willing to go to bat for the event if police should move against it. Many councillors want the community to make the final decision about whether extreme fighting will be sanctioned on the reserve.
band council has no authority
But Monture plans to go ahead with or without the council's endorsement.
"Who is band council? Just part of the federal government. Nobody has authority over us."
The 20 or so fighters who will be flown in for the Feb. 9 event will compete for a trophy and an undisclosed prize purse.
More than just a fight, the evening features a meal for those with tickets for the VIP tables, fights and sports projected on the giant high definition TV screens and sports celebrities from the area.
Monture says the event reaches out to the disadvantaged in the community and he has made donations to groups in need.
"It's not about the money but about what you can do with the money." Only one fighter from the reserve is on next month's card. Dwight Garlow has been training to bone up on the various techniques used in the sport.
Monture says that he and his group are now investigating taking the show on the road to other reserves. He is especially interested in hosting something at Casino Rama where they could fit 6,000 people into the venue.