I've said it before, but I'll say it again. MMA is alive and well, and growing rapidly throughout New England. In my opinion the most exciting and well run MMA promotion in New England, is Joe Cavallaro's World Championship Fighting (www.wcfighting.com). I had the pleasure of attending WCF's third event on June 20, 2008.

It was an incredible night of fights, and I'll give you the results in a minute. First though, I want to profile one of the night's unlikely stars. Maybe I shouldn't call him an unlikely star, since he is representative of the majority of fighters in this great sport. His name is Dan O'Keefe, and he is a numbers guy for a large investment company, by day, as well as a licensed realtor. You might say that he is an ordinary young man, trying to make a living in corporate America.

As an athletic, goal driven man, Dan decided to begin MMA training two and a half years ago. He thought that it might be a fun and effective way to stay in shape. He began training with Bill Luff, now of Worcester, Massachusetts own Mixed Martial Arts Training Center (www.mmatcenter.com). As Dan, grew in his skills and his confidence, he decided that the next logical step to take would be testing himself, by fighting.

Coming into WCF III, Dan had fought four times, compiling an average record of two wins, with two losses. In this fight, Dan will tell you himself, that he was controlled, maybe even dominated by his opponent well into the second round. While Dan had spent most of the fight, defending and fighting from his back, a funny thing happened. Something clicked for Dan, and he managed to get up and start to bang with his opponent. He caught him hard, and then he caught him even harder. The crowd stared in disbelief, while Dan rocked his opponent! Then Dan dropped him and pounced on him, reigning down punches until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight! The crowd of over three thousand, was standing, screaming, cheering for Dan, and feeling the excitement of having just watched arguably the best fight of the night! Dan may wear a pocket protector by day, but he is quite the knock out artist by night. This is the stuff that MMA is made of, and the reason that it will continue to grow in popularity over time.

As promised, here are all the fight results from WCF III:

Official Results:

-Mike Campbell def. Rich Moskowitz by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 1:25, R1

-John Bermudez def. Chris Grandmaison by Submission (Armbar) at 3:46, R1

-Jon Jones def. Parker Porter by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 0:36, R1

-Dan Lauzon def. Brendan Hoxie by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 3:45, R2

-Ken Stone def. Ethan Keane by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 0:33 of R1

-John Benoit def. Travis Lerchen by Split Decision, R3

-Dan O'Keefe def. Garth Krane by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 3:26, R2

-Jamie Campbell def. Jose Valentin by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 2:28, R1

-Dan Bonnell def. Barrington Douse by Decision, R3

-Davin Wesinger def. Jose Lopez by Submission (Omaplata) at 1:01, R1

-Stephen Stengal def. Chad Hart by Submission (Guillotine) at 2:39, R1

-Chris Foster def. Scott Ledoux by Majority Decision, R2

-Kevin Corrigan def. Ruben Gonzales by TKO (Due to Strikes) at 0:49, R1

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