St. Charles OKs MMA fight

In a rematch vote to bring mixed martial arts fights back to St. Charles, city officials decided the events involve both a legitimate sport and business.

Two previous votes by city council committees in the past couple weeks made it appear MMA would be newly shunned by aldermen as not conducive to a “family friendly” atmosphere. But those votes denying MMA events came without the full city council present.

With all alderman accounted for, the city approved an MMA event at the DuPage Expo Center on March 12. An international team of fighters will come to the city that night for a card that will feature at least 10 matches at a 21 and older show. One of the teams will be from Ireland, a convenient occurrence as the city's St. Patrick's Day festivals will occur earlier that day.

Aldermen Betsy Penny, John McGuirk, Jim Martin and Jo Krieger voted against the event, citing the sport's inherent level of violence.

“My decision to not support this was not a knee-jerk reaction,” Penny said. “I have done some studying of this. I've watched some videos. I talked to other people. The people opposed, in their opinion, do not think it fits with the values of St. Charles.”

Martin and Krieger were expected to vote against the event no matter the nature of the programming as alcohol sales will be involved. The pair consistently vote against anything to do with alcohol. To partially soothe some of the concerns about drinking and over consumption, event promoter Rob Zbilski agreed to cut alcohol sales off two fights before the end of the card.

After the vote, Zbilski said he could see St. Charles becoming a magnet for MMA events, at least when he's involved, as the location is convenient and the facilities at the DuPage Expo center are top notch. He expects the March event to sell out, bringing 1,500 MMA fans to the city's eastern border.