A couple of years ago it was a new trend to see college wrestlers graduating to become MMA fighters. Just hadn’t been done that often.

It’s only been in the last 5-10 years where this has really become an option. Now it’s not shocking to hear people like former Penn State star Phil Davis and Arizona State stars Cain Velazquez heading into MMA. And you know about the dearth of former Oklahoma State kids in the game.

But after talking to Harrah High wrestling coach Bryan Miller, there might be another trickle down effect: MMA might be saving the high school wrestling game.

For those that don’t know, Harrah is a city about 20 minutes away (give or take) from Oklahoma City and is the home of MMA fighter Matt Grice, who is fighting on UFC 100 on July 11.

Anyway, Miller brought up to me that more and more younger kids are willing to stick with wrestling now because they know there is a future that goes beyond the Olympics or becoming a coach.

I had never thought about it in that respect, but it’s a valid point. I always say the great heavyweight boxers aren’t out there because they’re playing football. That’s where the marketability and visibility and $$ is at.

But if you’re on the fence about staying in wrestling, something like MMA is a saving grace.

And that leads us to a unique event Saturday night at Harrah High. It’s a fund-raising event for the wrestling team via MMA bouts.

There will be 14 bouts (five professional, nine amateur). The event starts at 6:30, with the doors opening at 5:30.

I’ve done a little bit to try to help out Miller in promoting the event, but it sounds like word has leaked out.

He told me Tuesday that all the floor seats are sold out. I guess there have been radio spots that have made people interested. That’s great.

He said there are plenty of $10 general admission seats remaining. And I’m not done with my hype job of the event.

Tomorrow, I will post the entire 15-bout card here on the blog and Saturday’s paper will have a story about some of Harrah’s finest wrestlers coming back home to help out.

There are a lot of familiar names on this card for anyone who has followed the Oklahoma high school wrestling scene in the last 10 years. Grice will be one of the judges, and I plan on doing a nice Q&A with him for his fight coming up.

For more information, you can contact Harrah coach Bryan Miller at (405) 640-0006.

***

We’re not totally devoid of any fights this weekend as HBO will have a bout featuring Victor Ortiz. I won’t bend over backwards for that one.

But there is also a very intriguing MMA bout between Bob Sapp and Bobby Lashley.

Sapp, believe it or not, actually helped re-introduce the Boneman to MMA a few years ago after I had kinda forgotten about it after the dark days of the UFC.

He had the look of a mega-star. It never really panned out that way, but Sapp has done well for himself.

And you know I’ve talked about my love of Lashley before. He just seems to be someone with his head screwed on straight. He “gets” it. He knows what he has to do and is willing to put in the work.

Back tomorrow with the Harrah card.

I’ve always been a big fan of these when other writers do them. We’ll see if I can create that same type of magic.

- I’m torn on how I feel about Shane Mosley vs. Ricardo Mayorga. Five years ago, this was huge money fight. Now? Eh, I don’t know. While Mayorga is always entertaining, I think Shane walks over him easy. And I hope I’m not proven wrong on this one.

- Word on the street (what street?) is that Showtime is interested in purchasing Elite XC? As I’ve said before, Elite XC is down to its final days despite having some quality fighters and fights. That’s just the state of the business. Nobody can compete with the UFC right now. If this is a long term investment by Showtime, it’s got my interest. What could Showtime do with the rights? What would it change, etc? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

- I just want to get to October. I really want to see the Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver fight for the light heavyweight title. And for trainwreck appeal, Samuel Peter and Vitali Klitschko has got me as well.

- Tito Ortiz is supposed to announce where he is ending up here shortly. I’d like to see him fight again before I make a judgment. I did, however, see The Dog Problem last night on Showtime, one of Ortiz’s movies. While he doesn’t have a speaking part, I did enjoy the flick. He was just a big bodyguard/enforcer.

- I can’t stress enough how great it is that Oscar Diaz is alive and well. A two-month struggle no family ever wants to have to go through. One person who is as excited as the rest of us is Delvin Rodriguez, Diaz’s opponent. Hopefully, Diaz can recover and we’ll see him back around the fight game. He was a professional, and you can’t say that about everybody in boxing.

- Carson Jones looked good Saturday at Cox Convention Center. He said stomach cramps didn’t allow him to do what he normally does. The eighth round was by far the most exciting. Just when it appeared Donovan Castaneda may have found some footing, Jones turned it up and it was good night. That cut was the worst cut I’ve seen live. Take that for whatever it’s worth because I haven’t seen a ton of fights live. But it was a bad cut under that left eye.

- Can’t say it enough, always a treat to see Oklahoma legend Danny Hodge. The amateur and professional wrestling star was at Cox as well. One of these days, it would be great to pick his brain.

- Liked the environment at Cox. I think a lot more can be done, and the crowd was really sparse. So maybe even though I like the environment, you don’t necessarily think boxing when you think Cox Center.

- My family once again has power, yay. My mom had to throw out about $500 worth of food, but other than that, all is well back home in Ohio.

- As you know, my primary responsibilities are in the high school realm. A cheap plug for a story from last Friday about Canton football coach Rob Davis. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. And check out the correponding video, too.

- What’s on your mind? Throw any questions out there. I may not have the answers, but I’ll sure try to act like I do.

Doesn’t it always happen that way? That one time you say something that’s kinda nasty and is followed by something tragic?

That was Tuesday. A day removed from basically gloating about Chuck Liddell getting KO’d, you get news like Tuesday.

I didn’t know Evan Tanner, and I didn’t know Heather Harkness, so why am I so sad today? Why am I so sad about two people I didn’t know passing away?

Am I allowed to be sad about it? All I know of Tanner is what I saw when he was in the Octagon in the UFC. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. He had overcome a lot to get to where he was.

He wasn’t the most recognizable name out there. He wasn’t the biggest name out there. He just did his job and carried himself with respect. Here’s the article.

At 37, Tanner’s best days as the UFC middleweight champ were long gone. He was found dead in the Palo Verde mountain area of the southern California desert. He was just on an adventure, how do you explain that?

He ran out of gas and tried to walk back to civilization and collapsed in the triple-digit heat. What do you make of that? I don’t know, but the MMA world lost a great one this week.

For Bout Blog fans, Heather Harkness is neither a boxer nor an MMA fighter. No, she was an Edmond Santa Fe volleyballer.

She died Tuesday morning during the course of an appendectomy. This one hits me a little bit harder. She had her whole life in front of her.

I didn’t know Heather, don’t know what she looked like, what she liked, etc., but I remember my high school days.

My senior year in Springboro, Ohio, I had a classmate die from a car accident. It shook the entire school. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know Karol Stegemoller that well until senior year, it was one of the few times where there were no cliques. We were all just getting through something together.

And I remember the very next day was the start of the state basketball playoffs where we were supposed to advance pretty far. We got trounced in the first round, but I don’t think anyone cared.

I still have a bunch of mementos from that week, remembering Karol. I’ve moved a lot since 2002, but they’re always going to be with me. There was a Memorial Auction for Karol in June back home, good to know she’s not forgotten.

I don’t know how the ESF volleyball team will continue this season. I don’t think I could. My personal opinion is that all Edmond athletic events should be postponed this weekend, including Friday’s Edlam football game with Edmond Memorial and Edmond Santa Fe.

I don’t know, I just think the kids should be allowed to grieve. Everyone has their own way of doing so, and I don’t think you should force the kids to go out there and hit each other.

I felt this way last year after Rush Springs’ freshman Justin Barney died right before the Rush Springs/Washington game last season. It’s just not easy to turn that switch back on.

Life goes on and eventually everyone will start to feel like themselves again but don’t rush it. School has to be hard enough to not see your classmate there. Give ‘em a rest and let them do whatever is necessary to cope.

It’s not to say that some of the bigger sports don’t have that community feel, but the top volleyball players and coaches all know each other. Not just from newspaper articles and jersey numbers and shaking hands after a match.

The girls are a tight bunch whether it be on the school team or the club team. But they really get to know each other, really build those relationships.

I’ve been reading tonight on various message boards where people are trading their favorite Heather stories. From places all over the state, not just Edmond. Sounds like we all missed out on someone special.

I’m keeping her friends and family in my prayers as I’m sure all of you are. I hope they can find the strength to get through this difficult time.