Boy among men a 15-year old gets his night in the cage on the fringes of MMA
To get to Great Falls from Missoula you take Highway 200 going east across Montana, out past where the bighorn sheep congregate on the road alongside the Blackfoot River, out past Potomac, with its lone bar/restaurant/gas station, out toward that open expanse of high green prairie along the Rocky Mountain Front, where golden eagles ride stiff air currents looking for roadkill and mountain ranges sit distant and shimmering with melting spring snow on either side.
Then you drift through the town of Lincoln, which, if it is known at all, is known only for being the base of operations for Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Then it�s Simms, with its abandoned cars. Then the lazy Sun River, where roadside signs advertise little aside from a faith in God and country and a deep mistrust of government.
When you get to where the Missouri River cuts sharply to the north before resuming its journey east and south to St. Louis, you know you�re there.
It�s a three-hour drive, empty and breathtaking on a clear April day, and at the end of it waits the city of Great Falls, home to an Air Force base, about 150 nuclear missiles, and at least for tonight, an arena with a cage inside it.
Conall Powers has made this journey with teammates and coaches so that, in the spring of his freshman year of high school, he can fight a grown man whom he does not know in a mixed martial arts bout that wouldn�t be legal or sanctioned in many other states. In Montana, for several different reasons, it is legal without being in any way sanctioned. And for Powers, it�s just one more weekend with his dad, doing the thing they�ve been doing in one form or another for about as long as he can remember.
To get to Great Falls from Missoula you take Highway 200 going east across Montana, out past where the bighorn sheep congregate on the road alongside the Blackfoot River, out past Potomac, with its lone bar/restaurant/gas station, out toward that open expanse of high green prairie along the Rocky Mountain Front, where golden eagles ride stiff air currents looking for roadkill and mountain ranges sit distant and shimmering with melting spring snow on either side.
Then you drift through the town of Lincoln, which, if it is known at all, is known only for being the base of operations for Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Then it�s Simms, with its abandoned cars. Then the lazy Sun River, where roadside signs advertise little aside from a faith in God and country and a deep mistrust of government.
When you get to where the Missouri River cuts sharply to the north before resuming its journey east and south to St. Louis, you know you�re there.
It�s a three-hour drive, empty and breathtaking on a clear April day, and at the end of it waits the city of Great Falls, home to an Air Force base, about 150 nuclear missiles, and at least for tonight, an arena with a cage inside it.
Conall Powers has made this journey with teammates and coaches so that, in the spring of his freshman year of high school, he can fight a grown man whom he does not know in a mixed martial arts bout that wouldn�t be legal or sanctioned in many other states. In Montana, for several different reasons, it is legal without being in any way sanctioned. And for Powers, it�s just one more weekend with his dad, doing the thing they�ve been doing in one form or another for about as long as he can remember.
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