It’s been six months, so Ryan Vaughn is expected to get in a cage and fight someone again.
It might sound unfair, but as the current holder of the Capital Belt Heavyweight Title, it’s his responsibility to defend it.
“We always say, if you’re not defending a title, you don’t really have a title,” said Vaughn, a mixed martial arts fighter and a Lake Ozark firefighter.
Vaughn, and many of his teammates, will be competing in the 9th “Battle at the Beach,” a cage fighting event at Country Club Resort in Lake Ozark on Jan. 23.
It’s there that Vaughn will face Mike McCabe, the same fighter he beat for the belt who now wants a rematch.
Vaughn’s been a part of the Capital Punishment team, and Howard’s ATA school, for about two years now.
He first got into mixed martial arts because he was working standby with the Lake Ozark Fire Department at a cage-fighting event a couple years ago. He got talking to the coaches, Rob Howard and Jack Shepherd, and the rest is history.
Vaughn, like a few of the club’s other fighters, has been at it for awhile now. But there are a few others who are still very new to the world of cage fighting and mixed martial arts.
Carl Rogers is a high school student at Iberia who first fought in July of 2009.
According to Shepherd, he’s gone through drastic changes in that time.
“Some of his teachers are Tae Kwon Do students of mine,” he said. “And they tell me how great it is how much he’s changed.
“His own mother came to tell me how great it is – everything we’re doing with him. He was a kid who never really fit into one thing. He wasn’t the band kid, he wasn’t this or that. But now, this is Carl.”
And as he’s finding his niche with MMA, he’s also working on learning who he is as a fighter. He’s most comfortable, and effective, as a stand-up fighter right now, but it’s important for him to work on his ground game.
He’ll be challenged next weekend by David Jones at the bantamweight level.
He’ll be the first fight on the card, while Vaughn will be the next to last.
It’s an event that will feature 15 fights, but it’s more than that, according to coach and organizer Rob Howard — it’s an entertainment event, complete with a DJ.
Marc Diebold, who’ll be fighting in a welterweight bout, said it’s the best amateur-level event you could expect.
Diebold said he’s been to a lot of events, and short of a UFC fight, this is about as good as it gets, he says.
Diebold will be fighting Nick Hunt, in the bout right before Vaughn’s.
Howard said when they hold fights, they try to fill half the card with local fighters.
And even though the fights are intense and physical, it’s still just a sport to the guys from the lake area.
“I like the camaraderie,” Vaughn said. “Even with the teams we’re fighting, we’re in the back joking around.”
Vaughn said people often ask him how he can fight someone he’s not even mad at.
“I tell them, ‘Well, once you get hit in the face, you’re ready to fight them’.”
But after the fights over, it’s back to being friends again, he said.
“It really takes a man to handle that,” Shepherd said. “You get some guys in there who are jumping around and jawing at you, but they’re just wearing themselves out. We’re into it for the sport, and the guys here are all in it for that.”
