Mania the women's fighting gym are to have three fights on the K-1, held 30 July at Trust Stadium. Dixon McIvor, organizer of the K-1 recently visited the women of mania at their gym in Auckland. While he was there he watched two members of the team fight, and invited Mania to put on three fights at the next K-1.

This is huge for Mania as they are currently building on a fan base and showing the public that women are as entertaining to watch fight as men. When asked how he would describe Mania's fighting style, Dixon said it would be best billed as modified MMA. This style of fighting has long struggled to find a label that adequately fits and most of the fighters feel this is one they can be proud of.

As the event manager of Mania's shows I was very pleased for the girls and hope that at the K-1 we impress both the organizers and the crowd enough to warrant being included in other big fight events.

For the future I hope to include other styles in our shows and continue to find ways the Mania fighters can be challenged. I am hoping also that eventually we can have buses coming from the Waikato area to our shows (as we seem to have a lot of people travelling from there to our events).

Mania has had great support this year by a heap of people who believe in the team:

• Dale at Miada has provided us with great sponsorship and on lots of occasions gone way beyond the call of duty, offering us business and event advice.
• Fight Times I can't thank-you enough you have been a fabulous tool for people to hear about what we are doing, and our fan base is growing because of your support.
• "THE ROCK" has been "THE BOMB" and has helped bring us to the public………and if you want that bus to start rolling in from Hamilton, give them a call and perhaps they will help.

If you would like to sit with the Mania team at K-1, send me an e-mail as I have got one hundred tickets to sell to Mania fans who want to cheer for and sit with the team.

See You There!
Belinda Dunne