Striding to the ring, each step cool and measured, his square-jawed expression exudes confidence. His vision narrows as the sound of a thousand screaming fans becomes silent, drowned out by his intense focus. He is there for one reason. Following the ever-shortening walk, he arrives ringside. Removing his black Tattoo Fightwear hooded sweatshirt, he unveils a chiseled torso – an impressive sight indeed. Stepping into the cage, a raised mat surrounded by chain link, he turns on the proverbial switch.
Round one begins with the customary clang of the bell. He emerges from his corner and touches his gloved hand with that of his opponent – a welcome sign of sportsmanship in mixed martial arts, one of the world's fastest growing sports.
The chiseled one is Duane Bastress '06, of East Berlin, Pa., a former York College wrestling standout and a current assistant with the Spartan program. During his time with the Green and White, Bastress was nothing short of sensational. He captured not one, but two NCAA National Championships, winning the title in both 2005 and 2006. He compiled an incredible 97-6 record as a Spartan, including a 40-0 mark as a senior, in an athletic career that is arguably the best in York College history.
"After I walked off the mat my senior year in wrestling I was fulfilled, but there was an itch to find something competitive," Bastress said. "I love flag football, but that didn't scratch it."
As it turns out, mixed martial arts (MMA) does. Modern MMA competition emerged back in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a promotion company commonly referred to as the UFC. The sport has also seen increased popularity on pay-per-view and cable television.
MMA pits two people in what amounts to basically a fight, yet one that is extremely technical and calculated. It combines aspects of various disciplines including wrestling, boxing, judo, kickboxing and ju-jitzsu, all in an effort for one person to, in effect, beat up the other.
Professional fighters don shorts, groin guards, a mouthpiece and small open-fingered gloves, while amateurs also sport padded leg guards and slightly larger mitts. Fights are grouped by weight class and usually consist of three to five rounds that last five minutes each. Winners are declared in a variety of ways, including knocking out an opponent, referee stoppage due to consistent fighter dominance, judges' decision or submission in which the opponent "taps-out" by physically tapping on the opponent or the floor or verbally announcing their wish to stop the fight.
"I have noticed a lot of people think MMA is like two guys just going in there and beating the snot out of each other," Bastress said. "And you are trying to beat up someone else, that is the goal to win. But it's not as brutal as people think. You might have blood and cuts, but when you are not defending yourself intelligently the ref stops it.
"It's hard to explain to people," Bastress continued, "until they watch it."
And thus far, the people who have watched Bastress' six fights, including four as an amateur, have not been disappointed.
Bastress, a Dallastown, Pa., native, currently owns a flawless record and sports a 2-0 mark as a professional, winning his most recent fight on April 15 against Robert Morrow at the York Fairgrounds, in essence his backyard. The 185-pounder unleashed a flurry of punches in the first round, leading to a referee stoppage just 2:47 into the contest.
But yet it is not the winning that Bastress enjoys most. It is the intense preparation that draws him.
"I love the training part," Bastress said with a smirk. "Granted, sometimes it's the worst time in the world. But getting ready by preparing myself both mentally and physically for battle, makes me feel better. I feel healthy. It's like, 'Okay. I have something to train for.' "
And to Bastress, training is nothing short of intense. He trains five to six days per week, often grinding out double sessions. He lifts and does specific cardio exercise at least three days each week while working on his stand-up and ground games four to five times throughout a given week.
So driven is Bastress, that one could find him training at nearly any time of the day.
"I have always enjoyed running at night," Bastress said. "While you are relaxing, I'm out doing the extra.
"But I'm a morning person, too," Bastress noted. "As soon as the alarm goes off, as soon as I wake up, my feet hit the floor and it's go time."
And his intense work ethic has not gone unnoticed.
"I haven't met anyone that works as hard as him," affirmed Chad Strawbridge, a professional MMA fighter himself and a top trainer for Bastress. "If something is a weakness one day, it's not the next. He makes it look so easy because he works so hard at it."
And Bastress looks to instill those traits into the York College wrestlers he mentors. As the top assistant on head coach Tom Kessler's staff, Bastress takes a "hands-on" approach to his coaching style.
"Not every program can have a National Champ on their staff who still works on the mat with the wrestlers and is still in better shape than probably all of them," Kessler beamed. "You cannot beat that hands-on, one-on-one work."
"It's hard for them to realize I was right where they were as incoming freshmen," Bastress said about the wrestlers he coaches at York. "I wasn't anything spectacular. I wasn't the greatest wrestler coming out of high school. It was what I did…the extra, which is what we preach to the guys. We try to get each of them to buy into what I bought into personally and what we established here as a program."
But spectacular he would become, as he now looks to take that same focus, that same energy and drive to the MMA circuit – for as far as he can.
"No doubt in my mind he could be in some of the big shows like Strikeforce or UFC," Strawbridge said. "It's exciting being around him because of his potential."
And when Bastress himself was asked if he wanted to join UFC someday, a slight grin crept across that square jaw.
"My fiancé asked me the other night, 'So how long are we planning on doing this MMA?' " Bastress said.
His response, "Hopefully, until we're a world champion."
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