The training to become a professional fighter in mixed martial arts is done to prepare the combatant for any situation they may face inside the cage. Countless hours are spent inside the gym in order to ready the body and mind for the conflict to come, and success on fight night is determined by the fighter's ability to put it all together under the bright lights.

Brandon Bushaw and Amos Collins have plenty of experience when it comes to mixing it up when the cage door closes, but past experience will do little to help them on Saturday night.

Competing under the "Warrior Brigade" banner, the duo will face the team of Ace Samples and Joey Mullins at the X Gym Sports Mall. There has been no shortage of verbal artillery traded between the two camps, and Bushaw and Collins can't wait to cut loos in front of a packed house on Saturday night live on FloCombat.

"Unfortunately for them they can't bring their keyboards into the cage with them," Bushaw told FloCombat. "They can talk all the sh*t they want leading up. We don't mind and we'll go back-and-forth and hype this fight up. If we had it our way they'd stand right in the middle of the arena and stand and bang with us to see who the better men are. Let's see if the young boys can run with the old dogs.

"These guys have been running their mouths and I think they are underestimating our striking skills," Collins added. "That's fine with me. Let them find out the hard way."



Team MMA Battle will mark the second time Bushaw and Collins will not only compete on the same card, but fighting side by side at the same time. Furthermore, the promotion's debut event on FloCombat will come with much different surroundings and take place on a literal landscape that could very well determine victory or defeat.

The Myrtle Beach representatives will be looking to put on a show, and hold down the home turf in front of a favorable crowd who has come to admire their respective tenacity and determination inside the cage.

"We have been training together and cornering one another for the past five or six years," Bushaw told FloCombat. "When you are cornering your friend there is a moment right before they step in and you are more nervous than your friend who is fighting. You're almost helpless because your heart is racing and there is nothing you can do about it.

"Because of that we always used to say how awesome it would be if we could just go in there and wreck shop together. When the opportunity to do so popped up we took it.

"The first time it came to me I wanted nothing to do with it," Collins added. "Brandon called me the next day and really pushed to do this 2-on-2 thing and it goes back to what he said about the conversation we had one night in Maine. That night we said how cool it would be to fight together at the same time, and the time is almost here."



The thing that makes any fight in mixed martial arts worth watching is the uncertainty that comes with competing in a sport where the slightest mistake can turn the tides. Punches thrown with the worst intentions can do significant damage with only four ounces of padding between the bone and target, just as a rear-naked choke will sink deeper if panic sets in and the wrong turn of the body is made.

When you add in another set of fighters and put an obstacle course inside the cage with them, anything can and most likely will happen.

"People don't realize how insane this is," Bushaw said. "I have 16 fights under my belt and Amos is in the 20's, but this is the craziest thing either of us have done inside the cage. MMA is complex enough when you come from a wrestling background. You have to factor in kicks, knees and strikes, then you add in the threat of another guy who can't see all the time there has to be a bond there. I don't think I could just pick a random teammate and do this because that friendship and the 'I got your six' attitude.

"You have to have a strategy to this," he added. "It's not about who are the toughest two fighters or who has the best stand-up or grappling. This thing is a melting pot of all those things topped off the the camaraderie necessary to win."

Collins certainly agreed with his teammate in terms of the mayhem involved in Team MMA Battle, but doubled down on the importance of bringing and implementing a sound strategy.


"This thing is a mixture of cage fighting and street fighting," Collins said. "The first time we did this I'd fallen off the wall and really didn't know where Brandon was for about 35 seconds. Somehow he got loose off a takedown and came all the way around and blindsided my opponent. I look up and the guy who is chasing him I smash from the blindside as well.

"It's like a bar fight but you aren't fighting some drunk who doesn't know how to throw a jab. You are fighting two people who train hard and possess skill. You really can't afford to let your guard down at all."

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