In 1998 Frank Shamrock (Pictures) ruled the UFC middleweight class. Tito Ortiz (Pictures) was climbing the ladder. Bas Rutten (Pictures) yearned for the heavyweight title. And PRIDE was in its infant stages, with Rickson Gracie armbarring Nobuhiko Takada (Pictures) for a second time.
The story of the man behind RITC begins in the projects of Los Angeles.
After playing football and earning All-American honors at El Camino Junior College, Sarria found himself in need of an athletic outlet. That's when he turned to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which he studied with Rickson Gracie, who ran an academy in West Los Angeles in the early '90s.
Upon moving to Arizona in 1996 and before becoming a fight promoter, the Cuban-born Sarria worked various odd jobs to make ends meet and to support his martial arts gym.
Two years later Sarria blended his passion for BJJ with his talent for promoting nightclub events.
Reflecting on the nine years since he founded RITC, Sarria said he has seen both the peaks and the valleys of the brutal MMA business.
"Many times I thought about shutting the whole thing down," he said.
Even though RITC drew more than 8,000 fans to a 2005 event and had become in early 2001 one of the first MMA promotions to receive a blessing from a state boxing commission, Sarria continued to work outside the sport to support his MMA venture.
"From 2003 to 2005, I worked as a telemarketer," he said, noting he worked security as well. "It's been really hard because I don't have any investors -- it's just me. It's something I chose to do. It's a really difficult business."
With alumni that include current UFC headliners Keith Jardine (Pictures) and Joe Stevenson (Pictures), along with Arizona-bred products such as Jaime Varner and Joe Riggs (Pictures), RITC has produced monthly shows despite the migration of its roster.
Sarria doesn't blame his former fighters for moving on to bigger promotions, but surprisingly he doesn't feel that the current mainstream explosion of MMA has necessarily helped local promotions.
"I have mixed feelings about the whole MMA mainstream explosion," said the RITC founder. "Initially it helped us out a lot in terms of introducing people to the sport that had never heard of it. I think now because you see it so much on TV, people say, ‘Nah I don't want to go to a live show -- I can just see it on TV.' It's not a novelty like it once was. That's just my personal opinion."
With 99 shows in the books, this MMA entrepreneur is already looking at new ways to separate himself from the competition, including franchising his gym, starting his own local martial arts magazine and securing a home on local television for his RITC events. Never a man to rest on his laurels, Sarria is not ready to give himself a pat on the back just yet.
"I actually was expecting it to be bigger by now," he said. "One of the reasons I haven't gotten where I wanted to is because I didn't bring the right people into my business. Luckily, over the last six months, I have done some tremendous things. In 2008 you can expect RITC to go back to a couple of large venues. The sleeping bear is waking up."
Ludwig back at Ring of Fire 30
MMA returns to the Broomfield Event Center in Colorado on Saturday when Ring of Fire hosts its third show of 2007.
Local standout Duane Ludwig (Pictures) will look to get back on the winning track. The talented striker from Denver has had a rough time lately, losing three of his last five bouts. Opposing Ludwig in the main event will be German submission fighter Mario Stapel.
The undercard is highlighted by upstart heavyweight Shane Carwin (Pictures). Fighting out of Greeley, Colo., the relative newcomer amassed a 5-0 record before succumbing to an injury in late 2006.
"I had surgery in October to repair a torn bicep tendon," Carwin said. "However, it tore again immediately. In November they repaired it with a cadaver hamstring tendon. Rehab was certainly a long and tedious process, but I wanted to be sure I was fully recovered. I am certainly now 100 percent."
Carwin walks around at 280 pounds, but he is not your typical plodding heavyweight. Rather, he is a natural athlete whose accolades include three-time Division II All-American honors as a wrestler and two-time All-American honors as a football player.
Carwin says his training has changed dramatically since he began working under the tutelage of Christian Allen (Pictures) at High Altitude Martial Arts.
"I love this sport, and training at this level is amazing," Carwin said. "I've been working on all aspects of the game and focused a lot of time on technique. My cardio is great and with that my weight has come down to heavyweight [265 pounds]. I look forward to a career in the heavyweight division."
Reality TV's Watterson joins Jackson's
Michelle Watterson, a cast member of the Oxygen Network's reality show "Fight Girls," will step back into the MMA ring on Saturday, also at Ring of Fire 30.
The Denver native garnered national attention on the show as one of the women training to be full-contact Muay Thai fighters. With production wrapped, Watterson has turned her attention to MMA.
In fact, she has joined the epicenter of MMA camps in the Southwest, Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting. Watterson is now a full-time member and will look to translate her stand-up skills to MMA.
"I've grown leaps and bounds since I've been here," she said. "They treat you like family. Coach Jackson welcomes you with open arms, and I couldn't be more grateful to him."
The question is whether her newfound fame has helped or stunted her growth as a fighter.
"I think I'm a stronger person coming off that show," Watterson said. "I was a little naïve. I know I'm a fighter. Coming off of the show, I realized I was too doubtful of myself, which is the worst thing a fighter could be."
Watterson, 1-1 in MMA, will have her toughest test to date when she squares off with veteran Jaime Cook on Saturday. After going through a Greg Jackson-run training camp and making improvements in her jiu-jitsu and wrestling games, Watterson is not short on confidence anymore.
"I see the fight being on the feet for the majority of the time," she said. "But if I feel like taking her down, I'll take her down."