The Resurrection Fighting Alliance is coming back to the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel for their 40th event on Friday, July 15, 2016. RFA 40 will be televised live on AXS TV and is set to feature local talent including Lindstrom native, Marvin Blumer in the co-main event, Dan Moret and Ben Locken.
The Minnesota Sports Report caught up with Marvin Blumer earlier this week and had some time to get to know this Minnesota native who is going to be competing in his 17th professional fight on Friday.
Blumer, talking about how he got into the sport, has always been “fascinated with martial arts in general.” It has not always come easy for him. He and his twin brother, Melvin, were born six weeks early and the twins had many complications including collapsed lungs in their early years, but through the struggles they have come out stronger on the other side and now teach MMA together in a gym near Lindstrom, Minnesota.
A concrete layer by trade, during a slow time in the winter a few years ago, Blumer accepted the invitation to train with a friend at his gym and found a natural “knack” for the sport and six months after his first MMA class, entered the ring for the first time at the age of 24. The rest, as they say, is history. He had two amateur fights before, alongside his brother Melvin, the Bash Brothers went professional in February, 2010.
When asked about how he talks to the public about his sport, he recounted a story of explaining to a young girl who asked what he does:
“I practice various forms of martial arts…I don’t practice one martial art. This (competing in events such as RFA 40) is the best way for me to test my skills versus another professional mixed martial artist…Now I can test my skills in a gym, hitting a bag as many times as I want but I am never going to find out if I am the best in the world without competing against other people that think they are the best in the world.”
“This is my dance competition” Blumer said to the girl. “You practice dance and do it five days a week, you’re doing it and that is great, maybe you’re the best in your school…but the only way for you to see if you are better than other people at other schools is by doing competition.” Blumer passionately defends his position that MMA is his way of measuring his competence in the sport. “By no means do I want to injure this other person, I just want to go out and show that my martial arts skills, and the things I spent all these years honing and training for are better than the next person, and that’s all I’m trying to do.”
Blumer has been married for 18 years and has two boys at home. After providing for his family, it is clear to see his passion for perfecting his disciplines and bringing the sports to new levels. “I feel I can be the best in the world at, so this is the platform I have to show that I am the best in the world.” Bloom went on about his thoughts on the violence in competitions, the aspect that draws public criticism, saying “forms don’t punch back…doing the motions doesn’t make me the best in the world at em, it makes you the best in the world at doing the motions.” That is why he competes in the ring.
In his role as a teacher, how does he see young participants at his gym benefiting from martial arts training? He recounts how shy kids who come in have blossomed by being stretched out of their comfort zone through training and building their self-confidence through success in the gym. It has an equally beneficial result on the “hyper kids” who are able to put that energy to a discipline and “hone that energy…learn how put that energy to a positive way by self-discipline, self-defense, Brazilian ju-jitsu, Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai, and Kick Boxing” “by letting them kind of get some of that energy out in a positive manner of learning how to defend themselves.”
In his gym, and in the training that he teaches, he stresses that the benefits of training and being a good person of good moral fiber. “Martial Arts is not about who’s tougher, who’s stronger, it’s about having good moral fiber, being a good person inside the gym and outside the gym.”
“I hope the first thing they say, when people bring up Marvin Blumer and the Bash Brothers…is that ‘I have not seen more exciting fights than when I watched them guys fight.’” Was his response when asked about what legacy he wants to leave, and the importance of finishing well. “I want to win you bet, I train to win, but win, lose or draw, what I really want, I want the fans to be happy, I want them to have an exciting fight that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
Marvin Bloom will be fighting in the RFA 40 Co-Main event on Friday, July 15, at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel. If you have never been to an MMA event, it is worth the cost of admission to take a look at this sports through a new lens, the lens that sees the competitors not as gladiators, but as athletes at the top of their game, looking for a venue to showcase and test their talents against a competitor who can test them.
Stay tuned to The Minnesota Sports Report for news and updates from RFA 40. For Blumer and the rest of the competitors, Friday night will be the pinacle of the training mountain and they will be able to test what they have learned in front of the RFA 40 crowd at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and the live TV audience on AXS TV.
By Matt Blewett
RFA 40 to showcase Marvin Blumer and other Minnesota Talent The Resurrection Fighting Alliance is coming back to the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel for their 40th event on Friday, July 15, 2016.
