Photo courtesy of steve hadsel
ADVANTAGE HADSEL. Tacoma’s Steve Hadsel will try to stay undefeated in MMA competition this week at the ShoWare Center.
Steve Hadsel isn’t your typical computer jockey. When this guy leaves his job at Forona Technologies, a web-hosting business, he heads straight off on his mission to conquer Strikeforce – no, not a computer game, but an all-out assault, mano y mano, full contact combat sport.
Strikeforce Challengers is the event that Hadsel and other mixed-martial artists will be competing in at the ShoWare Center in Kent June 19.
Hadsel, from Tacoma, feels pretty confident entering his fight this week largely because of his collegiate wrestling experience at Central Washington University. He says that his conventional wrestling experiencing has aided his development in Mixed Marital Arts (MMA), a sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, including striking and grappling.
This kind of competition has brought together an interesting collection of fighters from different backgrounds, but Hadsel contends his college wrestling (2004-2007) gives him a leg up on the competition.
When Hadsel fights Taylor Roberts at Strikeforce, it will be just his second professional fight. He won his first and was 3-0 as an amateur.
“I’m probably favored to win it,” says Hadsel, sitting behind a computer in his office last week.
He had a slight training setback when he had a little accident on a Seadoo Bladerunner on American Lake last week, but he says he’ll be fine.
“I didn’t plan on getting into MMA, but I tried it and now that I’ve had a few fights I am going to see what I can do.”
Doors open at ShoWare at 5:30 p.m., and the first preliminary bout begins at 6 p.m.
Besides Hadsel, Bonney Lake’s Cory Devela will be featured against Luke Rockhold in a middleweight fight.
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