Being physical and aggressive in sports has always been a part of life for Steve Arens. Friday evening at Mosaic Place will be no different for the Moose Jaw native as he competes in his third Mixed Marital Arts fight.
“I find fighters are a different kind of people to willingly jump into a cage and put yourself in that position to fight,” he explained.
Arens was a 2005 Riverview Collegiate graduate before playing with the Regina Thunder of the Prairie Junior Football Conference from 2005 – 2009) before going to the University of Regina in 2010. He was a conference all-star with the Thunder in 2009. After finishing football, Arens has some trouble getting excited about being an athlete, until a friend got him involved in MMA fighting.
“After my football season was done with the Rams, I had fell into not being an athlete and I didn’t really like it much any more,” stated Arens. “I decided I was going to give MMA a chance. One of my army buddies had asked me if I wanted to do a fight in Regina with the UMC (Ultimate Marital Arts Championship), but that one ended up falling through, but got me really interested in it, so I started training and got really involved in it.”
Arens got his first start in the MMA lifestyle with Hard Knocks Fighting. This will be his third MMA fight in his career, after winning his first fight in Estevan in March, but lost his second fight in June.
“It happened quickly for me and some of the guys were surprised at how quick things have gone for me,” he said.
He will be looking to win his next fight against friend Damon Steadman from Humboldt on Friday. They met through Hard Knocks Fighting.
“I’ve very confident and very happy to get an opportunity to fight in front of the hometown crowd. That means a lot to mean,” said Arens.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
