Illinois State University’s mixed martial arts (MMA) team, Redbird MMA, held its second annual Rage in the Birdcage tournament at Kingdom City Boxing Saturday. Redbird MMA has partnered with Kingdom City Boxing, a faith-based boxing gym in Normal, multiple times in the past. There were 15 fights throughout the night in four brackets: jiujitsu, boxing, kickboxing and MMA. “It’s going to be loud. If you have something you want to say to us or to the fighters, you need to yell,” said emcee and promoter Braden Beasley before the fights began. Jiujitsu Freshman business major, Tyler Dahlstrom, fought in the jiujitsu bracket. “I started training jiujitsu about a year before I came to ISU,” Dahlstrom said. Dahlstrom said he is glad Redbird MMA can continue training on campus in spite of health and safety risks. “There’s really no risk of injury. If you think about MMA and you think about UFC, people are getting bloody, but nobody gets bloody when we train,” Dahlstrom said. Freshman physical education major and Dahlstrom's opponent, Jose Aviles, reflected on his loss in the jiujitsu match . “I let the adrenaline get to me. I wasn’t able to think clearly to escape the position I got in,” Aviles said. “I want to get good at everything, but I do wrestling the most,” Aviles continued. Jared Gahm was the referee for the jiujitsu fights. Gahm is also the owner and operator of the partnering gym, PSF Legacy, in Bloomington. “This year, there’s a lot more people doing jiujitsu, and you can see that the level of it has increased. It’s a lot more exciting than last year,” Gahm said. Gahm said he trained about three-quarters of the jiujitsu fighters and that it was difficult for him to be a referee; he couldn’t coach his students simultaneously. Boxing “Just this semester I decided to join Redbird MMA and I thought a boxing match like this would be a great first experience,” said freshman actuarial science major Cyrus Czyz. Czyz won his match in the boxing bracket. “I’ve only been boxing for about two months with Redbird MMA,” Czyz said. “I wish I would have worked on my conditioning more. My opponent and I were both pretty gassed.” Emcee Braden Beasley quickly changed out of his formal attire and into athletic gear to fight in the boxing bracket, as well. “I think it could have gone better, but it definitely could have gone worse,” Beasley said. “This was my first time doing boxing by itself, so it was a new art for me. Overall, it was a great experience.” Beasley said he sprinted, ran and lifted weights almost every day to train. Beasley said he hopes to have the third “Rage In The Birdcage” tournament on ISU’s campus next year. “Braden Auditorium is the goal, of course,” Beasley said. “With 'Rage' being a big charity event, I think it would be better to have it closer to the school so more students can be there. I would also expect there to be more fights and better fights.” Kickboxing Freshman anatomy major at Heartland Community College, Gus Schreiber, used an aggressive kickboxing style during his match. “I did football for 10 years and then I wrestled—including freestyle and Greco-Roman style—for seven,” Schreiber said. Schreiber said he trains at PSF Legacy currently. “PSF is a great place; they accept everybody. [Gahm] got me out of a bad place—at least mentally—and he is great,” Schreiber said. Junior business major and Schreiber’s opponent, Mikael Cedeno, said he was originally supposed to fight someone different. “I was actually in camp for this fight to fight MMA against an opponent from [University of Illinois], but he ended up dropping out about a week ago,” Cedeno said. “So entering the ring—and obviously Gus and I talked about how we’re going to approach it—we knew that we were going to go in there, go to war [and] try to take each other’s heads off. I would be disrespected if he didn’t try to.” Cedeno praised Schreiber on his skills. “He was a wrestler in high school, so his cardio was really good,” Cedeno said. “So I knew I had to try to take out his base for sure. From what I remember, he was very good at baiting my punches and countering.” MMA President of Redbird MMA, Logan Bennett, fought against Treasurer Aidan Pinto in the final match of the night. “I tried to build myself up for this fight,” Bennett said. While Bennett was the winner, there were things he wished he had done differently. “I should have worked on my cardio. He’s a better grappler than me,” Bennett said. Audience members had similar reactions to the fights. “I love MMA. If I had to pick second, then jiujitsu,” said freshman elementary education major, Liv Purcell. Another freshman elementary education major, Nola Carr, also said the MMA bracket was her favorite. “I really like watching MMA; I think it’s really cool,” Carr said. “I love Logan…I also had some money on Mikael.” Redbird MMA will have a field day on the ISU Quad on April 25. “This is really one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. I can’t recommend it enough,” Beasley said.