A Greenwood and Drury basketball player turned Mixed Martial Arts fighter.
“There’s some similar things as far as footwork goes,” said Team Fusion/MMA Fighter Julius Walker. “In basketball, we kind of move our body in a lot of different ways.”
Walker began MMA fighting just a few years ago. On Saturday, Walker was one of many fighters in the Synergy FC 12 MMA event.
For headliner Austin Clem, a former Nixa wrestler, this event comes full circle.
“This is my 19 fight,” said Team Fusion/MMA fighter Clem. “My fifth main event spot I believe, so it started day one at The Shrine…We’ve been everywhere from The Shrine, to Dublin, Ireland, Memphis and now we are back at The Shrine headlining again.”
The atmosphere, the fans, and the anticipation: Walker doesn’t let that faze him.
“I could get super worked up in the lead up and get super excited and just be chopping at the bit all day long, but I am still going to get in the cage,” Walker said.
That mentality is vital, especially when it is time to fight.
“It’s 80 percent mental,” Clem said. “The hardest part is staying calm and just doing what you do and thinking through the process. There’s a lot more strategy. I don’t think people realize it’s not just going out there and slugging it out like a bar fight.”
Walker says that just like basketball, this sport is growing.
“It’s a newer sport so it has evolved a lot over the years. Over the next 20 years the fighters are going to be completely different than they are today. If you look at a sport like basketball in the ’80s and ’90s you’re not seeing a lot of three point shots. The whole team took about as many three point shots as Steph Curry does on a nightly basis. ”
And the sport is growing here in Springfield.
“A sold-out shrine, that didn’t use to happen every time,” Clem said. “I’ve been fighting for eight years, and over the last eight years it has grown exponentially in that time frame.”
