‘A good track record’
Isaiah walked out of the cage after his first victory, and after being checked by a doctor, he took off his headgear and shinguards and grabbed his phone. “Finals, baby!” Isaiah said to himself as he dialed his father, Eddie, who stayed back in Miami.
As the day progressed, school-age fighters shuffled in and out of the cages, accompanied by joy and disappointment. At one point, Frank positioned himself near one cage and pulled out his phone to film the championship fight between two of the best 155-pounders in the world, Adrian Lee and Kris “The Arm Collector” Arrey.
The two collided with each other in the cage as soon as their bout started. After each fighter delivered body blows - one of Lee’s punches dislodged Arrey’s headgear, sending it flying to the canvas - Arrey grabbed his opponent’s leg for a submission hold. Lee tried to twist out of it, and Arrey’s coach screamed that they saw him tap out. The official stopped the fight. “I did not see a tap. You have it on video?” he asked Frank, who showed his phone to the judges.
The fight restarted and, after two more rounds, Lee was declared the winner. One of Arrey’s coaches ran over to protest. “That’s bulls---!” he yelled, and after the judge tried to explain, the coach screamed, “I don’t want you around me if you’re going to cheat!”
Even as the sport has continued to grow - the first youth MMA world championships were held in 2019 in Rome, featuring more than 250 fighters - the pandemic disrupted the USFL’s momentum. Frank, who said he does not make any money off the league, had to get part-time jobs and lived in a camper van to keep the organization alive.
There have been controversies. After holding a non-state-sanctioned event in Austin in January, Frank said the state athletic commission notified the promoter of a complaint and youth MMA events would not be allowed in the state. Frank said the complaint came after multiple fighters suffered injuries.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation said amateur youth MMA competitions are illegal for anyone under 17 in the state, with the exception of events conducted by an organization of the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games or Pan American Games. “As the USFL is not part of an Olympic-sanctioned sport, there is not an exception that would allow children under 17 to compete in an event,” the statement read.
The USFL is required to report injuries to the California State Athletic Commission. In 3,416 athlete exposures over 1,573 bouts since 2014, there have been 40 cases of athletes who were injured and had their eligibility suspended pending medical clearance, according to the USFL. One fighter lost consciousness because of a submission. Four injuries occurred because of illegal strikes to the face, including one concussion. Two other concussions occurred because of “scrambling for position on the ground,” according to Frank.
“It’s safer than it was when I first saw it,” said Andy Foster, the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, who acknowledged he is still lukewarm about kids fighting. “The USFL has maintained a good track record on safety.”
The call to the cage
Fighting runs in Isaiah’s blood. His father, Eddie, was an amateur boxer and a fight coach for years. Eddie’s father was a boxer, and so was his uncle, who competed for the Cuban national team. When Eddie put his boy on the mat to train in jujitsu for the first time, Isaiah was 2 1/2 years old.
“I had my pacifier and my blanket. I was just a little baby,” Isaiah said. “Once I got on the mat, I just felt some kind of feeling that I was going to go in there for a long time and that I was going to stay there forever.”
As jujitsu became the foundation of his training - “His ground game is his bread and butter,” Eddie said - Isaiah’s parents were more apprehensive about him sparring in other combat disciplines because of potential brain injuries. What has put the family at ease, Eddie said, is that in youth MMA head strikes are banned, along with the quality of officiating that enforces the rules and the improvement of headgear.
“That’s probably what allowed my wife and I to be a little bit more forgiving and allow him to do it,” Eddie said. “It makes things easier - it really does. Because he’s a little boy. You don’t want him to get brain damage.”
Families join the USFL for different reasons. The USFL has given rise to young fighters with ambitions of competing professionally - including from the Lee family, which is considered a dynasty in the sport back home in Hawaii. Former USFL fighters Angela and Christian Lee now fight in One, Asia’s largest martial arts promotion, and their youngest sister, Victoria, became the youngest fighter signed by the company at 16.
“Now Adrian starts his journey,” said his mother, Jewelz Lee, a two-time Canadian world taekwondo silver medalist who trains young children in MMA outside Honolulu. “It definitely prepares them for life. The more important thing than the competition and winning the competition is the journey, going through all of the trials and tribulations, the mental discipline, the physical discipline, the emotional discipline.”
There were first-timers at the California event, including 8-year-old Parker Pham and 10-year-old Aaden Pham, brothers from Orange County who spend their time outside school training in jujitsu and wrestling. Their father, Thanh, entered them in classes after he went to pick up Aaden from day care one day and learned his son had been tied up with a jump rope by two older kids.
He wanted to teach his boys self-defense, but the sport quickly became a lifestyle. Thanh began training in jujitsu himself and has used the sport to spend more time with his kids every day at the gym owned by Frank’s son. Thanh’s children pushed him to compete in amateur MMA fights, and once Parker turned 8, the two sons signed up for the national championships.
“My only hesitation is, unless you’re a Conor McGregor, this isn’t going to be your career. You’re not going to grow up and do this and retire from this,” said Thanh, who watched as Parker won the national championship for his age group. “My wife - obviously all mothers - are concerned about their kids getting hurt; there’s always that concern from a parent’s perspective. But in this environment, it’s a controlled environment, it’s a safe environment.”
‘Congrats, champ’
As adult spectators and tournament officials towered above him, Isaiah walked calmly to the ring for his final fight while Vileforte, his trainer, steadied his phone’s camera behind him, hoping to capture every moment of a national championship. Isaiah is a pint-size showman, drawing from Eddie’s time in the fight game and his mother’s time as a hip-hop dancer in New York.
His father has bought him more than $7,000 in outfits and suits to wear to fight events - he’s currently trying to get a custom fit for his son from McGregor’s suit company, a reward for Isaiah making fifth-grade honor roll - and Eddie often calls Isaiah “Little Conor.”
Before entering the cage, the rules were laid out - “You can do ground strikes, okay? But no knees, no leg locks, no anacondas, no guillotines, all right?” the ref leaned down and said. The 10-year-old nodded. Isaiah stepped inside the ring, bowed on the mat and prayed.
“Let’s go!” a referee yelled to signal the start of the fight. Isaiah danced with his opponent and avoided a takedown - then took the fighter’s back and mounted him to the ground. “Stay heavy! Don’t lose position!” Vileforte screamed as Isaiah’s opponent wiggled underneath, desperately trying to get out of a submission. Isaiah eventually elevated his body and saw an opening for an arm-bar. He pulled as hard as he could before his opponent tapped out, tossing his hands up and beginning to cry in frustration.
Isaiah eventually threw his arms up, too, and within the hour he had taken his place atop the podium for his third MMA title. He held up the belt and mimicked an announcer’s voice - “Isaiah ‘The Natural’ Triana!” he roared - before eventually retreating to a day-care room attached to the gym. He FaceTimed his father. Eddie told his boy he was proud of him before starting to cry.
“Thanks, Dad,” Isaiah said. “I love you, too.”
Isaiah will fight in the International Sport Karate Association World Martial Arts Championships later this month; he said he will attempt to become a “Triple Crown” winner - competing in boxing, kickboxing and MMA. Two of those competitions allow head shots, but Eddie believes headgear is safe and his son is skilled enough to avoid any substantial blows.
First he was going to celebrate this championship. “I’m going to sleep with the belt under my pillow,” he said, joking that he hoped the tooth fairy wouldn’t steal it. “Or the belt fairy.”
Isaiah slung the title belt over his shoulder. “Congrats, champ,” a parent told him as he walked out of the gym. Isaiah looked back and smiled before climbing into Vileforte’s rental car. Isaiah needed to stop and get something to eat with Vileforte’s family at a Japanese steakhouse down the street. He was weeks away from his next weigh-in, and he was starving.
“A lot of people say I inspire them for MMA. If people are getting inspired by me, it just means a lot,” he said. “Because a lot of 10-year-olds, they don’t do this stuff.”
Legal and regulated in some states and banned in others, youth MMA is growing in popularity
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