Kalispell fighter makes pro debut
Kalispell's Jacob Oyler will step into the ring for the first time as a professional ultimate fighter at tonight's Missoula Mayhem mixed martial arts event.
The 155-pounder is set to compete outdoors in the FightForce event at Ogren Park where the Missoula Osprey minor league baseball team plays. There are 11 fights scheduled on the card, with Oyler's being the only professional bout.
The 23-year-old is the latest success story to come out of the emerging Straight Blast Gym, which recently moved across First Avenue into a building seemingly twice the size of its predecessor.
Travis Davison, who runs the high-ceiling, two-room gym with his wife Kisa, trains fighters of all ages with the hopes that they will be right where Oyler finds himself today.
"For me, seeing Jake being 23 years old, as good as he is now and to see how much he's progressed in the last six months, and now to see him start getting paid to do something he loves, I'm really excited," Davison said.
Oyler accrued a 9-2 amateur record, but he is the first to admit that won't mean much now that he's in the professional circuit.
"It'd be nice to be 1-0 and not 0-1, so that's the plan," Oyler said.
Before Oyler's fight, another SBG standout, 28-year-old Zach Dickson, will defend his 145-pound amateur title belt, which he won back in April at the FightForce Kalispell Kombat event.
When both men take the ring in front of an expected crowd of over a thousand, they'll have Davison and local professional boxer Phillip Moore, who co-runs Flathead Boxing, standing in their corner.
In an effort to broaden SBG's training scope, Davison recently added Moore and local chiropractor and former Division I wrestler Kevin Wilmot to the staff as instructors.
As a result, SBG is producing a budding group of well-rounded fighters like Oyler.
"I've added what I consider to be probably the best boxer and the best wrestler in the valley, maybe in the state," Davison said.
"Considering what a small place we're from, we're really turning this place into a pretty phenomenal MMA gym."
Davison isn't a backseat coach either. Recently, one week shy of turning 35, Davison competed in jiu-jitsu at UFC's Grapplers Quest in Las Vegas. It was his third appearance at the event and, in his mind, perhaps his last.
"I'm 35 this week, I got four kids, and I thought, well this would be my swan song," he said. "But the funny thing is, I went down there and I did better than I've ever done in any major tournament."
Davison brought home three medals - a gold in the Brown Belt division, a silver in the Lightweight Advanced No-Gi and a bronze in the Absolute No-Gi. Fellow Flathead Valley fighter Kevin Moore placed fourth in the Masters Absolute division as well.
"I think it motivates the guys to see me in here bustin' my butt and sweating with them," Davison said. "And then they also see me put my ego to the side and get out and take big risks."
NOTES - Eureka's Jacob Blackmer of Team EFC is scheduled to fight in the 185 pound bout today.