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Article: All the rage: Youths flocking to `no-holds-barred' fights ; No state monitoring of mixed martial arts
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- April 6, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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FALL RIVER - One fighter kicked and threw a punch. The other
grabbed his opponent behind the neck. Tyler Benoit and Justin
Pereira were locked up now, a tangle of arms and legs, spinning
around and finally falling to the mat with a thud, as the crowd
watched, rapt.
"Push away, Tyler!" Derek Benoit shouted at his son. "Push away!"
Tyler is 7 years old, his opponent was 8. And their showdown one
night last week at Gillett's Mixed Martial Arts gym in Fall River
was just practice, just two children sparring, in padded headgear,
in front of their instructors - no strikes to the head allowed.
But plenty of Massachusetts youths are dreaming of becoming real
mixed martial arts fighters, where the ...