MHCC hosts MMA event Saturday in gym

Seven professional fighters will participate in SportFight 30 Limitless, a mixed martial arts (MMA) event that will take place and be recorded Saturday at 7 p.m. in the MHCC gym.
The fight will be filmed for a television pilot for the upcoming series “Takedown Fights.” The show will deliver live MMA fights from around the world on a weekly basis.
“Our expected attendance is about 1,800,” said Matt Lindland, one of the founders of Team Quest. “We have filled it up to about 2,000 seats at this venue before.”
Team Quest is an MMA training camp with six facilities in Oregon and Washington, with one of them in Gresham. Many MHCC students are involved in Team Quest and CrossFit Gresham, Lindland said. Lindland himself used to fight.
SportFight has been held at the Rose Garden where there’s been up to 7,500 attending, said Lindland, which is one of the reasons why they have moved away from the venue at MHCC for a few years.
But they brought it back to MHCC this year to film the fight, “which is also a good promotion for the college,” said Lindland.
Experience level of participants range from veterans to new fighters.
“UFC alumni Paul Kelly will match up against Team Quest member and WEC and Strikeforce veteran Ryan Healy in the main event, while Black House/AMC Pankration member and UFC vet ‘Super Mario’ Miranda will face local favorite and IFL vet Aaron Stark in the co-main event,” Scott McKendry posted about Sportfight 30 Limitless on the SportFight site.
McKendry is the manager of the Team Quest Gym in Portland, which is a home to many MMA champions.
More specific information about the lineup of fights can be found on SportFight.tv.
“This event has been held (at MHCC) two or three times, and the last time was a few years ago,” said director of communications Maggie Huffman in an email.
She also said the group putting on this event has hired 15 security officers. Chartwells, which will be providing refreshments, has also gathered about 10 people for security.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are available through TicketsWest.com. A direct link to the event on TicketWest is posted on the SportFight website at SportFight.tv. Prices range from $26.50 to $106 with reserved seating for ringside, second row, and reserved, and general admission seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.