A crossroad in the cage

This may be one of the final chances to see Jackson resident Kyle Newell in a mixed martial arts event in Missouri.

After tonight's card, presented by the St. Louis-based Devastation Fight Club at the Brase Arena in Cape Girardeau, Newell said he may step away for a while.

And eventually, if his schedule permits him to devote more time to training, he may look at the professional side of things.

"This is a hobby," Newell said Friday night following his weigh-in at Buffalo Wild Wings. "I've got to take a break from it after this one and get some things ironed out. I'm married now with a family, so I don't get as much time to train.

"If I had time, I'd train real hard and fight professionally and make it worth my time."

Newell, 23 and about to celebrate his first anniversary on Sunday, is a Jackson native who moved back to the area last April. He served in the Army, including a one-year deployment in Iraq that ended in November of 2005.

"We saw some stuff," said Newell, who was an infantryman based in the city of Mosul.

He was injured in 2004 when the vehicle he was riding in was the target of a suicide bomb,

"After being in Iraq, this stuff is not scary at all," Newell said in a manner that was a lot more down-to-earth than tough-guy. "I look at this as a competition, not a fight. I look at it as a sport."

Newell became involved in hand-to-hand combat during his Army training in Washington, where he said mixed martial arts events are prevalant.

"Around here, you can drive a 100 miles and find a rodeo every weekend," he said. "It's like that with fighting in Washington."

He lost his first decision back in 2003. He has avenged that loss as part of his personal five-match winning streak. The streak included a pair of wins in January when mixed martial arts events returned to Cape Girardeau on back-to-back weekends at the Cape Eagles and with Devestation Fight Club's first card at the Arena.

Those opponents had four previous fights combined and were no match for Newell, who has been competing on and off for four years.

This time, Newell is pitted in a DFC title fight at 155 pounds against a foe who reportedly has a 10-3 record. His bout tentatively is scheduled near the end of a 19-fight card.

"This will be a step up in competition," Newell said. "This will be a good test."

Of course, that's if the match comes off as scheduled. Newell has seen last-minute card changes.

He nearly withdrew from this card if not for some good recent training sessions with Justin Welker, a Cape Girardeau resident who will make his mixed martial arts debut tonight.

Newell has been around enough to know fighters use pseudonyms and other methods to disguise their backgrounds.

What he'd like to see is the sport become sanctioned as a professional event in Missouri. Currently, only amateur events are legal in Missouri.

"If you had a good sanctioning body, you'd have a lot better fights and safer fights," he said.