Record Crowd Flocks To MMA Event At Forum
By EDDIE DANIELS The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Beneath the punches and kicks unleashed with bad intentions and hopes of drawing blood Sunday evening, fighters
competing in the "Salute to Our Armed Forces" MMA event inside the St. Pete Times Forum had one goal: honoring America's troops
on Veterans Day.

"I'd rather do this than anything," said former Army Ranger Damian Stelly, who is a combative (hand-to-hand) instructor for the
Army at Fort Benning, Ga. "I've been deployed to Afghanistan three times and as much as I enjoy the deployments, this is what I love
to do."

The crowd, tallied in excess of 11,000, broke the Florida attendance record for an MMA event. The former record, according to event
officials, was estimated at 4,000.