Two local fighters compete in weekend MMA event at Diamond Joe – Albert Lea Tribune

By Ayanna Ekblad and Josephine Petersen

This Saturday, fans of mixed martial arts, wrestling, boxing and other combat sports will have a chance to watch two athletes from Albert Lea compete in a local event called “Midsummer Mayhem.”

Midsummer Mayhem is a professional and amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) event produced by Valhalla Combat Sports and Dream FC and hosted by Diamond Joe Casino. According to Diamond Joe Casino's Facebook page, up-and-coming fighters from across the Midwest and Canada will compete for an amateur lightweight title, a featherweight No. 1 contender bout, and a professional MMA bout. The event begins at 5 p.m. Saturday at the casino.

James Clark is currently the owner of Valhalla Combat Sports in Rogers. He opened the MMA gym in 2008. Clark is a former MMA fighter himself and still participates in wrestling and jiu-jitsu.

Clark said there will be 27 bouts in total, which will take place in an octagon-shaped cage set up on a stage, and will include two wrestling takedown matches, six mixed martial arts matches, numerous jiu-jitsu matches and kickboxing bouts.

Clark said Albert Lea fighters Faustino Moreno and Santana Acosta have both been competing in MMA for 10 to 12 years.

Moreno will compete in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu bout on Saturday, while Acosta will compete in a grappling match and a boxing bout.

Moreno has been fighting since 2008.

“I've done mixed martial arts, Muay Thai and kickboxing,” he says. “As for jiu-jitsu, I've only started recently, I think in 2021.”

He developed an interest in martial arts and combat sports because he grew up in a rough neighborhood with violent family members. Moreno also had family members involved in martial arts.

“My dad was a boxer growing up and so was my uncle,” he said.

Moreno said he had some doubters when he first started martial arts, but “everyone kept telling me, 'You can't do this, you can't do that,' so I just started doing martial arts. So I guess I started proving the doubters wrong.”

After years of battling cancer, Moreno competed before tapping out and took home the gold medal, just one of many accomplishments in his career.

Despite struggling to find a good place to train in Albert Lea, Moreno hasn't let that stop him. He went out of town, found a gym that worked and has continued to train. He has spent the last few months preparing for this event, training at camps and keeping up to date on his training. Outside of martial arts, Moreno also plays semi-pro football for the Albert Lea Grizzlies.

Acosta, who has been fighting for eight years, was inspired by an experience he had when he was younger.

“I come from a wrestling background and my brothers wrestled a few times back in the day,” Acosta said.

He has won multiple “Fight of the Night” awards throughout his career, but this is just a small part of his many accomplishments.

The only thing he struggled with over the years was not getting proper training in Albert Lea.

“I think being a small town was my biggest downfall,” he said, “not having a real team behind me. Albert Lea has always produced good players, but we just didn't have the right equipment.”

Nonetheless, he has been preparing for the event with the help of his family and friends.

“I actually have two nephews from Albert Lea who are wrestlers and help me train here and there, and then Faustino Moreno and Justin, so I train with them,” he said.

Acosta had been training for about a month to take part in this event on short notice. Acosta had previously played semi-professional soccer, but had taken some time off and was hoping to return.

“More people should get involved in martial arts because it requires a lot of respect and discipline,” Acosta said of the importance of martial arts.

Training includes learning different types of professional fighting arts such as boxing, jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai wrestling.

“I think wrestling is the foundation of mixed martial arts,” Clark said. “They say boxing is like a game of chess, but mixed martial arts is like playing chess on four boards at once. There are so many things to worry about. There's a lot of strategy involved.” He explained that having good strategic skills gives fighters a competitive advantage in these events.

Clark said he hopes the event will be a success and that Diamond Jo Casino will be open to hosting it again in the future.

“We'll see how this show goes,” Clark said. “This is the first time.”

Tickets can be purchased through the Diamond Jo Worth Casino website at tickets.diamondjoworth.com/ordertickets , with VIP tickets priced at $50 and general admission tickets priced at $25.