MISSOULA — The sport of mixed martial arts has always been seen as niche, underground and taboo for the majority of its existence because of its violent nature.
The creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship has brought it into a more mainstream cycle, and with it, the rise of Montanan Sean O'Malley to world champion.
"I think the newer athletes were what was needed in order to bring it into the mainstream," Missoula Kickboxing assistant coach Matt Powers said. "The days of, you know, just taking somebody down and pounding on them, that loses entertainment in a hurry. You could see that on a Friday night at a pub. Now, you have athletes that could have competed in any other sport, and they're doing this sport.
"So you actually have true athletes mixed with the true fighter in them, and now we have a super athlete, or in this case, fighter 2.0."
Powers has been around since the early days of Montana MMA and has seen the sport grow globally and locally.
"I think a lot of the older coaches, especially in my generation or older, have a hard time realizing how much the sport has truly advanced, and as a result we get in our own way," Powers said. "The younger coaches were athletes more recent. They're exposed to the newer techniques, body positioning, angles, level changes. All of this now is such a vital part of the game, whereas before it was just everybody was doing the same thing."
Powers was a longtime coach of Tim Welch, a Great Falls native who is O'Malley's head coach and best friend.
Powers mentored and cornered Welch for years and has seen him grow into one of the rising and more influential voices in MMA today.
"I hear a lot that a father is the only one that can look at his kids and not feel a jealousy for their successes," Powers said. "I went down there and all I felt was joy because he worked for it. It's not like he woke up in the morning and it happened, he had years and years of putting in the time for them to get where they're at now. So it's a great story."
Recently, the two reconnected at Welch's gym in Arizona, where Tim asked if Matt's son, Conall, could come and spar one of their up-and-coming talents in Great Falls native Tommy McMillan, who is undefeated as a pro MMA fighter and was slated to fight on the Dana White's Contender Series.
So just a few weeks ago, the duo headed south to see how Sean and Tim make the magic happen.
"The whole experience was kind of surreal," Conall said. "I grew up watching this guy on television. Tim, I always looked up to like an uncle. You know, he was always around when I was younger, and to see what they're doing with the sport, to get the UFC title, and then just being in that atmosphere, it was like a dream, truly."
While the Powers have been a staple in Montana's MMA community, the sport's popularity has been growing rapidly in the Treasure State.
Missoula Kickboxing, of which Conall is head coach, is a first-hand example.
"There's been a huge surplus of people coming in," Conall said. "To see some kid from Montana achieve the best achievement that you could accomplish in the sport come right out of Montana, it makes people realize that you don't need super special coaches or anything. You don't need to be in a big city. You just need a good group of people and a vision and just relentlessly chase it."
Even in O'Malley's hometown of Helena, at the re-named Last Chance Grappling Club, which is one of the gyms where O'Malley got his start, those who compete look up to the Montanan and what he's accomplished.
"It went from trying to inform people what this is, like, you want to do this because you learn self defense, but you also learn how to submit people," Last Chance Grappling Club member John Smigaj said. "You learn discipline, then to them coming to you and being like, I want to do that. I already know what it is, which is a big change."
"I always have good memories of Sean," added Will Collins, whose father, Jim Collins, coached O'Malley in grappling early on in Helena. "He was always nice to me, really nice to me as a kid. I remember going to his fights when I was little. Just seeing what he does in the cage is amazing. I mean, he's extremely creative, very creative fighter, and it's very inspirational to see his come up."
Montanans often feel they just need a chance, and O'Malley and Welch proved that once that opportunity is presented, maybe the best talent truly does reside in the 406.
"People in Montana, before where it was just like we're fighting and wherever, you know, some rodeo or whatever," Conall said. "Now, it seems you can taste the UFC, you know, if you're actually good. There's a real avenue for athletes to make money nowadays."
"We have a lot of kids that have come in that probably wouldn't have come in if it weren't for seeing Sean," Matt added. "And to combine that with another person from Montana being his coach, and now these two are at the top of the top of the game, they should take a lot of pride in the fact these guys are from Montana."
