A Dakota Fighting Championship event was held at the Bismarck Civic Center this weekend, and I got to run a camera at the event. I alternated between ringside and top camera with another operator, so we both got to have the fun of being right up next to the action. I have to tease the director and replay guy by pointing out that they didn’t predict the right guy to win out of ANY of the night’s eight matches! It was a pretty interesting evening, to say the least.

This is the only way I’m ever entering the Octagon: with a camera. During the matches I shot through the cage, which is basically just chain link that’s rubber coated. At one point the two ENORMOUS fighters going at it threw each other into the side of the ring hard enough to stretch the side out a few inches, making contact with the lens hood of my video camera! Aside from getting my viewfinder pressed up against my face a little tighter, it wasn’t a big deal. Actually it was pretty cool to be right up in the action!