Two Sunshine Coast mixed martial arts fighters are gearing up for their first professional fights.
Jordan Manning, 17, a Grade 12 student at Chatelech Secondary School and 29-year-old Rick Peers will represent Team Denarius at the Battlefield Fight League on Oct. 15 at the River Rock Casino in Richmond. The fights will also be aired on the Fight Network.
Peers will be competing in the heavyweight division while Jordan will be fighting at 140 pounds.
Both fighters, new to the sport of MMA, have been training and learning their newly chosen craft under the guidance of Dustin Dickenson who recently opened up a non-profit MMA training centre (Phoenix Rising) on Wharf Road in Sechelt.
Dickenson, who has several pro MMA fights under his belt, has opened the doors to his new facility to anyone who would like to train.
He said he hopes to soon make a business out of it, but at this point his family and friends are helping to keep the doors open for their fighters and a number of local high school kids interested in learning the sport.
Besides Dickenson, Northwest Canadian heavyweight champion Marcus Hicks and pro fighter Dave Logan have been helping to train the fighters.
"Jordan hasn't been training for long, maybe five months, and Rick is also pretty new to the fight game," said Dickenson. "But I think they're both ready to jump in and take that next big step. Both of them have been training really hard, and we'll just see how it goes."
Dickenson said he is focusing all his energy into the new training centre and helping to grow the sport locally, but he's also not ruling out a return to action, possibly in November in Victoria.
"When I first started fighting, the sport was very low key and really underground, but now with UFC, it's a huge thing," he said. "This is a pretty big fight coming up next weekend, and to have it on the Fight Network is huge for these guys. I'm in great shape because I've been training with these guys and I feel I could be ready to go and jump back in the cage whenever the opportunity presents itself."
