Fight Club
Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge leads the mixed martial arts phenomenon into the Keystone State

For the uninitiated, mixed martial arts (MMA) is a combat sport that incorporates a variety of fighting styles, from karate, boxing and wrestling to Jiu Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai.

MMA has seen a meteoric rise in popularity over the past 10 years, due in part to America’s lust for brutality and an increasing number of fighters, organizations and television networks that have been eager to feed the appetite.

Popular MMA organizations include PRIDE, Strikeforce, World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and the undisputed champion of MMA, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which made fighters like “Rampage” Jackson, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz household names through record-breaking pay-per-view events and TV shows like the reality hit The Ultimate Fighter.

MMA matches, which are often fought in an octagon-shaped, cage-like structure, pit two fighters against each other in a nearly- anything-goes (i.e. no strikes to the groin) fight. Hands, feet, legs, arms, knees and elbows are all legal weapons and targets.

A match can end in several ways, including a knock out, technical knock out (the referee stops the match), submission (a fighter gives up) or a decision by the judges at the end of a designated number of rounds.

In 2007, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission began the arduous process of legalizing these popular MMA events in Pennsylvania. But first, the state needed to hammer out several important details – such as the rules for both amateur and professional fighters, as well as various safety policies – before the sport would ever see the light of day.

Among those with a front row seat to the legalization of MMA was Mark Jovich, a former high school teacher, Marine and martial arts instructor of nearly 30 years. Jovich’s martial arts school in Harrisburg was visited twice by the regulatory commission in an effort to study the various techniques of organized combat. And it was around that time that Jovich got an idea.

“One day, I said, ‘You know what? It would be cool to be the first [MMA] promoter of Pennsylvania,’” he recalls.

In February of 2009, mixed martial arts events were officially legalized in the state of Pennsylvania. That same month, Jovich was approved for a promoter’s license, and on April 19, 2009, he held the Keystone State’s very first MMA event at the Wisehaven Banquet Hall in York. The show, which was promoted under Jovich’s premier Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge (CPWC) banner, sold out 1,000 tickets in only two weeks.

In the past year, Jovich has promoted five MMA events, including two in York, one at Lancaster’s new hotel and convention center, one in the Poconos and a boxing/MMA hybrid show in Reading. Each event has drawn upwards of 1,500 people. Jovich’s sixth event (and fourth under the CPWC name) takes place on February 19 at the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square and is expected to have a crowd of nearly 2,500.

Jovich has culled the fighters for his 17-fight card from a list of nearly 700 fighters he has amassed from martial arts schools right here in Central PA and as far away as New York and Virginia. Fighters will be matched up based on their record, skill level, rank within CPWC and weight class, which ranges from flyweight (up to 125 pounds) to super heavyweight (265 pounds+).

Each card also includes a Warrior Challenge title defense in nearly every weight class, as well as both amateur and professional bouts. Amateur matches feature shorter rounds and showcase developing fighters who (among other specialized rules) must wear shin guards and are barred from kicking their opponent’s head. A pro match is held under rules similar to those of the UFC (i.e. almost anything goes) and fighters are paid anywhere from $500-$4,000 for their services. Most fighters – amateur and pro – still work day jobs; some are students.

Many of the matches on a Warrior Challenge card pit hometown fighters against out-of-town fighters, a tactic Jovich calls, simply, “good business.” It’s this good vs. bad scenario that made for an electric atmosphere when I attended the Warrior Challenge II event in York last July. Men, women, teens and children packed the Wisehaven Banquet Hall’s ballroom to cheer on the Central PA fighters.

Among the fans cheering on the hometown boys was Larry Novak, owner of Tattoo Fightwear and one of the many sponsors (including the likes of Apple Ford of Red Lion) that take a good chunk of the financial burden off of CPWC. His small clothing company, along with many other companies in Central PA, has benefited greatly from the business MMA has brought to the region.

Novak, a Harrisburg-area school teacher by day (and truly gentle giant), aims to promote positivity through his clothing line and sponsors several of the York-area fighters that he feels embody that spirit.

“A fighter doesn’t have to win,” says Novak, who provides his sponsored fighters with gear to wear before, after and during fights. “As long as they’re a great person and they put 110 percent into what they’re doing, that’s all that matters.”
Luckily, there’s no shortage of great people in the Warrior Challenge. Among Novak’s 15 sponsored fighters are Justin Scott, Jimmy Chappell, Chad Hoare and Duane Bastress. They are four of the best fighters the CPWC has to offer and, like Novak, aren’t the type of guys you’d expect to see involved in the hard knocks world of mixed martial arts.

Scott is a 20-year-old, 8-0 pro fighter from Dallastown. Jovich calls Scott, an accomplished former 105-win high school wrestler, “one of the finest 145-pounders in Central PA, if maybe not the whole state.” By day, Scott works in construction; at night he is, thus far, unstoppable in the octagon. When asked when he’ll get his title shot, he replies with a laugh, “Hopefully soon.”

Twenty-five-year-old Chappell – a 3-0 amateur – is the CPWC Lightweight Champion and one of Jovich’s favorite fighters. The Red Lion native began his combat training while serving in the Marines and has since added Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and boxing to his skill set. Also a self-employed construction worker by day, Chappell has proven to be a submission machine in the ring,finishing off all three of his opponents with an armbar. “He’s a very well-rounded athlete,” says Jovich.

Hoare, a 26-year-old York native and former Bloomsburg University wrestler, makes his pro debut this month when he defends his CPWC Light Heavyweight Title against Williamsport’s Lewis Rumsey. Hoare’s 2-0 record is nothing short of extraordinary considering that he underwent disc replacement surgery to repair a broken neck only two years ago. And his day job? “I actually sell medical supplies,” says Hoare. “It actually goes hand in hand. If I do get injured I’ve got everything I need to take care of myself.”

The emerging star of Warrior Challenge is the 26-year-old CPWC Middleweight Champion out of East Berlin, Duane Bastress. “We like to call him ‘The Specimen,’” says Jovich of the physically astounding 4-0 fighter. As a Division III wrestler at York College, Bastress won his last 65 college matches. Today, he is the activities director and life skills coach at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. Bastress faces a Middleweight Champion out of Virginia in the main event of this month’s Warrior Challenge IV event.

It would surprise most MMA outsiders to know that, not only are many of the CPWC fighters friends that often train together, but they are also extremely nice, friendly, polite and well-educated young men who support each other and practice good sportsmanship. There’s also the misconception that MMA is somewhat of an uncivilized blood sport that requires little to no formal training.

“Most of these guys are very technical, they’re very conditioned,” says Jovich. “Not [just] anybody can do it.”

Even so, Jovich admits that it’s still the brutality and appetite for destruction that will put many asses in octagon-side seats at this month’s Warrior Challenge and at MMA events across the state.

“People like to watch a fight,” says Jovich. “I don’t care if you go back to the gladiator days or move up through history. People like to see combative sports. This is the closest thing to an actual real fight that you’re gonna get without putting somebody in harm’s way.”
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Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge IV is February 19 at 7 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.) at the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square. Tickets are $75-$65 for VIP rows 1-6 and $35 for general admission.
For tickets or more info, call 250-8841 or visit www.warriorchallenge.info.