Fusion Fight League teams with Montana MMA event in the Brick

In its dynamic and adaptable fashion, the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse transformed this past Saturday to house a six sided ring to host the Fusion Fight League. The night included four amateur fights and five professional fights, the first a kickboxing event and the next eight consisting of mixed martial arts (MMA).

According to Terrill Bracken, owner and CEO of Fusion Fight League, Saturday saw an exciting number of fights, and the pro fights uniquely represented Montana. “Tonight is the most pro-fights we’ve put on, and that is just a part of us growing, all five of the pros represented tonight are Bozeman fighters,” Bracken said. 

“We’ve grown from a state wide to a regional promotion. The main towns we want to focus on are: Billings, Bozeman, Missoula and Great Falls, so we plan to come back to Bozeman as much as possible,” Bracken said. 

Being out of Billings and promoting shows throughout the northwest, Fusion Fight Leagues has a unique relationship with the Montana MMA company. They have a good working relationship with gyms in the area and specifically Bryan Deats who is the owner of Montana MMA. 

“I’m really big on trying to create competitors versus fighters,” Deats said about the goals of Montana MMA. “If it’s their goal to fight, I have some things they need to do before then. They need to do some jiu jitsu tournaments first to make sure it is for them, and make sure they are competitors because it’s not easy. As you can see in MMA, it’s unforgiving, you make a mistake, that’s all it takes for the fight to change,” Deats explained.

Deats and Bracken expressed excitement about being back to putting on an event at MSU. The league has plenty of fights in other parts of Montana but coming back to Bozeman was special, Bracken said. “We have a lot of support in this town and in this state so it was good to get everyone here to see our guys compete,” Deats said. 

The amateur fights were uniquely electric with the most exciting being the third one between Aspen Naylor and Colton Rue-Zindeel. The fight only lasted 51 seconds with Rue-Zindeel beating Naylor by technical knockout. 

It wasn’t until the pro fights when people really started cheering for individual fighters and the evening ramped up. The hometown favorites caused the most applause and cheers with fans around the fieldhouse. The crowd noise was at its highest for fighters: Tommy McMillen from Great Falls along with Christian Wallace and Tyler Kaiser who are both from Bozeman. 

Both McMillen and Wallace won their fights by technical knockout and standing rear naked choke respectively. Kaiser lost in the final fight of the night when his opponent Josiah Simpson knocked him out. The crowd showed overwhelming support for the Montana fighters which also included Branden Brisbo from Butte and Erik Teer from Bozeman. 

“This is competition, a lot of people get excited, like I’m gonna see a fight, but I want to put competitors out there because when we compete we learn to compete for the things we want and compete for our future,” Deats said.