In a night of firsts, Fight to Won Pro, a professional Jiu Jitsu league, hosted Reno's first ever professional Jiu Jitsu event at the Reno Ballroom Friday night.
Seth Daniels is the CEO for Fight to Win Pro, and said they host a little more than 40 events a year across the country, and that they're excited to bring pro Jiu Jitsu to Reno.
"Hopefully we turn the people sitting in the crowd into white belts and beginners into the gym tomorrow," Daniels said.
Fight to Win Pro is set up to pay competitors for their fights. Daniels said most competitions require fighters to pay an entry fee, so their formula allows fighters more flexibility to travel for a fight. Plus, they can also bring the sport to more people across the country.
Traditionally, a Jiu Jitsu match is scored through takedowns and keeping opponents down, but the fight to win format is a battle to submission, until one 6 minute round is over.
Tonight, Fight to Win Pro put on their first ever para-match, a match between two paraplegic fighters. Shannon Kitchen, one of the paraplegic fighters, came form Kentucky to compete in tonight's event.
"It's first ever para-match on Fight to Win," Kitchen said. "So hopefully there will be many more to come."
David Tallent is from Reno, and took on Kitchen in tonight match. Tallent lost the fight by unanimous decision after there were no submissions in the six minute round, but says it was a wonderful experience.
"Anybody with a disability can do anything they want if they want to do it bad enough," Tallent said. "We hope to expand the sport to others, no matter what you're disability is."
While both athletes say Jiu Jitsu is a great way to stay in shape, the sport does a lot more for them than give them a good workout.
"It's helped me a bunch," Kitchen said. "It's given me confidence every way in my life, so I don't know where I'd be without it. So I'm just glad I found it."
