No kicking or hitting in the groin, spine, kidneys or back of the head. No eye gouging, no biting, no covering the mouth with an open hand or open-hand chokes. But pretty much everything else goes in mixed martial arts, also know as Ultimate Fighting - and that includes elbows, punches, chokes with the arm, kicking, punching and more.

Ryan Hass (below), 22, and John Halverson (right), 33, are mixed martial arts athletes - essentially a combination of boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, no holds barred and more - and promoters who are bringing the Midwest Cage Championship to the 7 Flags Event Center on Saturday, Feb. 11. Eleven fights will take place in a 20 foot-by-20 foot octagon with cages on the side, with athletes competing against each other with their only safety equipment being a nut cup, MMA gloves, a mouthpiece and an ankle or knee support, if needed. Though Ultimate Fighting sounds extremely dangerous, nobody usually gets injured too badly, Hass says. Nobody's ever been killed competing in the sport, either.

The Midwest Cage Championship will be Hass' professional debut, though he's been training and promoting in the Des Moines area for a few years now. Halverson will not be competing in this event, though his professional record is 13-3 over his five-year professional career.

"It's an action-packed sport," Hass says. "It's not about people getting the shit kicked out of them. It's more about the competition. A lot of us work 40-hour jobs and do this on the side. There are some people that are really into it, that live to fight, and they make enough money to make a living off of it. Most people aren't at that level, and for them, it's not about money. It's all about the sport and the competition."

Which is true for Hass and Halverson. By day, Hass is an electrician; Halverson is a portfolio manager for a local financial company, and he's also a mixed martial arts instructor. Halverson worked as an amateur boxer for seven years before an Ultimate Fighting Championships world champ approached him after one of his boxing matches and introduced him to mixed martial arts. Halverson has been training and competing ever since.

"It's fast-paced. It's exciting," he says. "It's different than boxing, because boxing is pretty much one-dimensional. MMA is more exciting because of the wrestling aspect and the kicking and the hitting combined. You get to have so many more skills and talents."

And they're skills and talents that the fighters are constantly cultivating, which mean workouts on a daily basis for both Halverson and Hass.

But it's when they're preparing for a competition that the real intensity kicks
in. To prepare for the Midwest Cage Championship, Hass has been lifting weights at 5 a.m. at 7 Flags, going to work from 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. five days a week, training at the Des Moines Mixed Martial Arts Academy from 6 to 8 p.m. five, sometimes six days a week, and in bed by 10 p.m. so he can do it all over again the next day. Halverson's pre-competition work ethic is similar. And like in wrestling, both Hass and Halverson usually have to shed some pounds starting a week or two weeks out from the competition, as MMA athletes are paired by weight.

MMA has been around since 1993, Halverson says, but within the past few years - fueled by a reality show on Spike TV and the MMA community getting more exposure - the sport has been catapulted into the mainstream.

"I definitely think it's going to be something that will overshadow boxing or any other competitive sport like that," Halverson says. "When I started training here there might be four to six guys a night that would get together and train, now I have at least 20 to 25 people a night in my classes. There are new people coming in to the gym all the time. There are a huge variety of people that come in for a variety of reasons, whether they want to get in shape or start competing." -Erin Randolph

The Midwest Cage Championship will be at the 7 Flags Event Center on Saturday, Feb. 11. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the fights start at 8 p.m. Ticket prices range from $20-$50. An after-party will be held at Crush. Weigh-ins will be held at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, when the public will have a chance to size up the athletes at Vieux Carre. For tickets call 240-3403. CV

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