Fast first fight for Nolte
Gus Nolte of Kalispell, right, and Teddy Shaw of Butte fights in the first round of their match up on Friday at the Kalispell Combat event. Nolte won in the first round by verbal submission.
Will Barnhart of Kalispell, bottom, wrestles with Jarod Milko of Canada during the first round of their championship bout on Friday at the Kalispell Combat event.
Gus Nolte put in 14 long months of training and 45 seconds is all he got.
Sporting two pink mohawks and a stoic look of courage on his face as he stepped inside the ring, the 6-foot-6 fighter didn't waste time winning his first official amateur mixed martial arts match on Friday as family members cheered from the background.
The Bigfork native bloodied his 185-pound opponent with one punch after another before a verbal submission ended the fight in Nolte's favor and gave the hometown crowd of roughly 800 plenty to cheer about inside the Expo Building of the Flathead County Fairgrounds at Fight Force Kalispell Kombat on Friday.
"I wish it would have went longer so I could have seen how I could do. But maybe next time," said Nolte, who trains out of the local Straight Blast Gym in Kalispell.
Nolte's older brother TJ watched from afar and didn't even have time to let his nerves settle down.
"He's my baby brother and I'm glad he kicked some (butt)," TJ said. "I was nervous but I'm glad he came through."
"I figured just keep it simple," Nolte said. "This was nothing compared to our (competitive) team (practices) so I had the mentality going in there that this was going to be a piece of cake."
Nolte was the lone local fighter to come away victorious out of nine bouts.
Both Duran Flaget and Will Barnhart, who train alongside Nolte at SBG, fell short of winning title belts.
In the main event, Ryan Mulvihill of Spokane, Wash., stuck Flaget on the mat and never let the Flathead High graduate up. Mulvihill, 24, locked up Flaget with a clean submission and earned his fourth belt.
"I knew I had good jiu jitsu, that's my strength so rather than wait for him to start punching me I just went to him and brought him to my world, you know what I mean. And it worked out," said Mulvihill, who hiked his record to 9-2.
In what started out looking like the fight of the night, Columbia Falls' native Michael Hader had a hard-luck knee end the excitement.
The University of Great Falls wrestler attacked Deer Lodge's Brad Cain with stiff left-handed punches before body-slamming his to the mat. But then Hader unloaded a knee square between his 160-pound opponent's eyes which opened up a gash as wide as a finger. Head referee Dennis Bain ruled Cain was not fit to fight and handed Hader the disqualification.
"That's just the unfortunate stuff that happens," Bain said later. "I know that Michael didn't mean to, he was trying to shift him and jerk him back into the ring but when he came over to trap his head he just caught him right in between eyes. You know, it sucks but it will be a good rematch."
After storming out of the ring upset, Hader, a fan-favorite, returned and received the microphone before apologizing to the crowd.
"I'm sorry to all my fans out here. A rematch is on for sure," he said.
The two fighters left the ring on good terms and agreed to another meeting in Missoula on July 23.
"Knees aren't even in my arsenal, they were just there and I was throwing them to the body," Hader said afterward. "I went to throw another one to the body and as I went I pulled him to me and I just caught him right in the face."
Fight Force Kalispell Kombat
Expo Building, Flathead County Fairgrounds, Kalispell
June 11
160 lbs. - Skeet Archer, Montana MMA of Bozeman, wins by TKO over Brady Meekhof, Team EFC of Eureka (2:27)
185 lbs. - Tyrell Phillips, P4P Jiu-Jitsu of Billings, wins by TKO over William Bailey, freestyle, Kalispell (1:42)
185 lbs. - Gus Nolte, Montana Straight Blast Gym of Kalispell, wins by verbal submission over Teddy Shaw, Streets of Butte (0:45)
165 lbs. - Joey Murray, Streets of Butte, wins by unanimous decision over Travis Lafountain, freestyle, Great Falls
135 lbs. - Jon Hiltz, freestyle, Deer Lodge, wins by submission over Lance McMarrel, Team EFC of Eureka (3:56)
Heavyweight - Alex Calvi, GFW of Great Falls, wins by TKO over Dallas Sluder, P4P Jiu-Jitsu of Billings (1:54)
Welterweight (170 lbs.) amateur title fight - Jarod Milko, PFA of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, wins by unanimous decision over Will Barhart, Montana Straight Blast Gym of Kalispell
160 lbs. - Brad Cain, freestyle, Deer Lodge, wins by disqualification over Michael Hader, GFW of Great Falls (1:30)
Featherweight (145 lbs.) amateur title fight - Ryan Mulvihill, Icon Gym of Spokane, Wash., wins by submission over Duran Flaget, Montana Straight Blast Gym of Kalispell (7:10)