As mixed martial arts has grown over the years, dozens of fight promotions have popped up around North America. Some are great and some are, well… not so great. It has almost come to the point when a new promotion comes on the scene I don’t even bother to get excited anymore. I mean most events don’t even make it to their second show. Further more some are little more than tough man competitions with some “ok” MMA bouts thrown in as an after thought.

Being the skeptic that I am I didn’t even bother to go to the first two Total Combat events in Tijuana Mexico, which is really sad considering that I live only twenty miles away in San Diego. On May 30th I decided to give it a go. I’ve been to and covered all sorts of events in my almost three years writing for Sherdog. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I must say without hyperbole, that Total Combat 3 was one of the most exciting and enjoyable events that I have been to in a very long time. The venue, Baby Rock nightclub, gave a sense of sophistication to the event that is missing from a lot of promotions.

The feel of the club is very unique with synthetic natural rock formations built right into the walls. Picture the Ghost Bar owned and built by the Flintstones. There were four levels of seating with every audience member seated at a small comfortable table on small cushioned chairs. All four levels wrapped around the ring so no matter where you sat you had an excellent view of the fights. They served food and drinks and they even had a free shuttle running people from the boarder to the club. However, for between five and ten dollars (depending on your negotiation skills) you can just jump into one of the many taxis that will be waiting for you as soon as you step onto Mexican soil. Ten dollars paid for five of us to get to the club and we only paid six dollars coming back.

Of course what really matters in any event are the fights themselves. Well there were ten bouts and every single one of them was competitive and action packed. Now, were there any big names on the card? No. However there were no “fish and shark” type fights either. Everyone on the card had good skills. I don’t want to call them “B” level fighters because most of them were young guys just starting their fight careers. A new class of MMA fighters that has yet to be tested. Some of these guys will be “A” level later in their MMA journeys. Right now they are young and hungry and I don’t remember one instance of stalling or clock riding in any of the ten fights.