Palmer’s Jake Heun made quick work out of an accomplished fighter with a first-round TKO victory over Satoshi Ishii in a heavyweight bout at Rizin FF 20 in Saitama, Japan. The fight lasted 72 seconds – his third-fastest win of his 24-fight MMA professional career. Heun, of Palmer High fame, improved his pro record to… Read more »

Ninilchik’s Austin Vanderford won another MMA fight to push his professional record to 9-0. The 29-year-old earned a unanimous decision over Russian Grachik Bozinyan at Bellator 234 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Vanderford, of Ninilchik High fame, used a fabulous final-round effort to escape with a win over a fighter who came in with a 10-3… Read more »

A step up to middleweight didn’t slow down professional MMA fighter Austin Vanderford of Ninilchik. The 29-year-old bloodied and battered previously undefeated Joseph Creer of Georgia to win by second-round TKO at Bellator 225 in Samford, Connecticut. Vanderford improved to 8-0 as a pro, including 2-0 in Bellator. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Alaskan beat the 6-foot-4,… Read more »

Eagle River’s Lauren Murphy won the biggest fight of her professional career with a third-round TKO of Italy’s Mara Romero Borella in a fight between top-20 contenders at UFC Newark in New Jersey. The 36-year-old veteran fighter improved her career record to 11-4, with eight wins coming by knockout. Murphy’s win was incredibly impressive in… Read more »

Palmer’s Jake Heun used a devastating elbow blow to end in the third round his mixed martial arts fight with Russia’s Vitaly Shemetov on the Rizin 17 fight card in Japan. Six of Heun’s 14 professional wins have come by knockout, but this one may have been the biggest as Shemetov hadn’t lost a fight… Read more »

In need of a win in a bad way, Jake Heun of Palmer moved up to heavyweight to face an opponent who had lost just once in the last eight years. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a fearless fighter like Heun. His bravado was rewarded in a big way as the 31-year-old scored a… Read more »

Just because he has a championship background in wrestling doesn’t mean MMA fighter Austin Vanderford of Ninilchik prefers that method of operation in the octagon. But it sure comes in handy. The 28-year-old has won three out of his last four fights by submission, including a first-round tap of Cody Jones as part of the… Read more »

Ninilchik’s Austin Vanderford earned another win by stoppage over another solid opponent, helping the 28-year-old mixed martial arts fighter move to 6-0 for his professional career. The former NAIA wrestling champion out of Southern Oregon University knocked out Brazil’s Edmilson Freitas in just 98 seconds on the undercard of FFC 32 in Las Vegas, Nevada…. Read more »

Palmer’s Jake Heun has been cleared to fight again and is wasting no time getting back to work. The 31-year-old brawler is set to make his return in the Japanese mixed martial arts organization Rizin Fighting Federation next month at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Heun (11-7) hasn’t fought since his devastating flying-knee-to-the-head knockout… Read more »

Austin Vanderford’s extensive background as a champion wrestler paved the way for the 28-year-old from Ninilchik to win his fifth straight pro mixed-martial arts fight. The former NAIA national champion and two-time state champion earned his second consecutive win via rear-naked chokehold as he got Angelo Trevino to tap midway through the second period. The… Read more »