Here’s an interesting article that we came across while doing some other research–the Matt Lindland owned regional promotion SportFight has had some very entertaining shows at the Rose Garden, but we weren’t able to trek out to the Spirit Mountain Casino for their most recent show due to a conflight with a Fite Nite event from Costa Rica. From the sound of it, that was a good thing–here’s a local writer talking about his experience at the event:

I’m a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts and I really think that an event like Sportfight in Oregon could get some real traction and be something significant, but there are no short cuts. Throwing together an event run by a casino who knows nothing about MMA or really entertainment isn’t going to further the cause. If Sportfight is ever going to be relevant they’ll need good match ups with fighters beyond Team Quest and put together an evening of real entertainment (there’s no excuse to not even having fighter intro music). Although it’s on a much smaller scale I think the Rumble at The Roseland, which is considered amateur MMA, is much more successful and relevant. Next time around I’ll save myself the long drive and just head down the street to the Roseland because I can’t see how anything at Spirit Mountain is going to be worth the trip.

A promotion like SportFight could be a good option for some of the lower card Affliction fighters. According to the article, they may be running another show in September–hopefully that’s the case and hopefully it’ll be back here in Portland.

Spirit Mountain Casino delivers a KO to SportFight @ On PDX