Loyola’s Mixed Martial Arts club came out successful with two silvers and one bronze at their first tournament.

These wins came as the club competed in their first tournament on Saturday, Oct. 10.

Diego Gisclair, vice president and a founder of the club, attended the tournament for support. He expresses how the tournament will affect the club in the future.

“Now we are able to gauge our own skill, we are able to see what we need to improve on, we can start having more competitions now and people start acknowledging us as capable fighters, as a serious club. People will hopefully start taking us more seriously” Gisclair said.

The tournament was separated into age groups and by weight class. However, the tournament ended up merging the weight classes. Rafael Polanco talks about his first tournament experience.

“It was fun, it was interesting, and they had a lot of good fighters of all ages. Entering I was very nervous and kind of scared cause I was imagining fighting a 6’10” guy, and I went up against a guy my size and I gave him competition,” Polanco said.

The tournament was open to people around the state and attracted a crowd. Alonso Aguilar, someone who is interested in watching Mixed Martial Arts, expressed his excitement to see a live match.

“It was exciting to feel the energy of the competitors and see how into the matches they were,” Aguilar said.

With the tournament being a success, Gisclair said he was proud to see the club he help start get attention.

“Dontai and me were here since the beginning. We worked with them, we tried to show them as much as we could, as much opportunity as we could and they finally went. They really made me proud,” Gisclair said.