Zachary Gehl, resident of Esterhazy, fought in a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) match in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 18th against a 31-year-old opponent named Ricky Story. Gehl described his opponent as “a very experienced fighter with the reputation of knocking out his past opponents”.
Zachary was able to train with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters to prepare for the bout. “With such a huge step up in opponent ability, my parents took me to Phoenix,Arizona to train with UFC fighters to prepare for the test” Gehl trained for 10 days and left feeling very ready to face his opponent.
Planning a strategy is a highly important part of the sport. Ryan Gehl, Zach’s father, watched some of the opponents past fights in order to help game plan for the fight. The duo noticed that Ricky, the opponent, was more of a brawler who throws very hard strikes and likes to set the pace.
Gehl explained, “Our plan was to start fast and hurt him to set the tone. The very first 5 seconds of the fight I landed, as planned, a head kick rocking him. I never took the foot off the peddle and kept attacking. I ended up landing 79 strikes to his 17 in a mere 1 minute and 58 seconds. He went down and stayed down, and just like that, all that preparation, travel and anticipation was over and I won. With that, I also won the ‘knockout of the night’ from the promotion company.”
Zach recently returned home and is excited for what the future has in store for his fighting career. “I have received 2 fight offers for the USA Today based on that big win. I will have to wait and see what the border rules state in the coming months, but I will be ready to continue my progress. Eventually, I hope to get a title fight somewhere.”
The MMA fighter set a world record in August of 2020 for sparring in Yorkton when he went 150 consecutive three minute boxing rounds. This is the equivalent of 10 hours straight.
Gehl has gone on to stand on the podium 153 times all over North America; he holds two world medals and five title belts.