Today before the bell, The Fight Zone announced that Robert Drysdale, winner of the Abu Dhabi championship and virtually every other jujitsu championship in the world, has turned to a professional career in MMA. He has coached former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir on Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter” and is the head Brazilian Ju-Jitsu instructor at UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture’s training facility, XtremeCouture.

Lloyd Vickers, President and CEO of The Fight Zone, Inc., commented, “We expect Robert to become a dominating force within the world of mixed martial arts. We see few fighters that will be able to match his grappling skills. We welcome him to the professional ranks of the world’s fastest growing sport.”

Skip Kelp, Executive Director of The Fight Zone and Robert Drysdale’s coach, stated, “For the past few years Robert has almost completely dominated the world of Ju-Jitsu. His

The Fight Zone Inc., a company focused on the development and promotion of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports and its athletes on a global basis, announced today that Emerging Growth Research, LLP has published a research report highlighting investment opportunities within the rapidly growing market for mixed martial arts. The report covers specific reasons why MMA is one of the fastest growing sports worldwide as well as The Fight Zone’s potential within the industry.

“MMA is grabbing the attention of young male teenagers before they are able to develop an interest in traditional ’stick and ball’ sports. While the NBA dominates urban youth sports culture, MMA is beginning to dominate suburban youth sports culture. Purchasing power among American suburban youth outpaces that of their urban counterparts to a significant degree. This accelerating trend has advertisers and clothing companies especially excited,” commented the report’s author

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has been enjoying a flourishing birth here in the United States and The Fight Zone, Inc. is on the threshold for capturing such an engaging audience. If you aren’t familiar with MMA, you soon will be. Mixed Martial Arts has been covered by 60 minutes and has a wide pay-per-view audience with the highly prized demographic of men 18-34.

Although it’s not a sport for everyone, it’s certainly much more civilized then previous incarnations of the sport in the mid-90’s. These days, there are 31 fouls, and the fighters don’t come at each other bare-fisted anymore. They’re required to use special gloves with a little bit of padding over the knuckles. No kicks to the groin anymore, no stomping your opponent once he’s down. The octagon itself is 30 feet across. There’s padding under the fighters’ feet, and they put