Update: LA Boxing Vs. Throwdown Battle Over
May 15th, 2009
A Victor Emerges to Claim Mixed Martial Arts Dominance in Utah Valley
by Jacob Hodgen
This article is an update to previous coverage. View the previous article about LA Boxing and Throwdown Elite here
Last week, Utah Stories reported on the contentious struggle between Orem's LA Boxing studio and the new Throwdown Elite training center. Each facility offered kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, and mixed martial arts training. The problem was that the competing businesses were located directly adjacent to each other on the same block. Though I promised that I would not be the one to declare a winner in their financial struggle, Adam Legas, the owner of Throwdown Elite has contacted me with an update to our previous story.
He writes, "LA Boxing went out of business before [the earlier story] was even published." Apparently, two days after I conducted my interview with Damon Willis, the owner of LA Boxing, he shut his doors for good and placed a sign out front stating he was closing for "financial reasons." Mr. Willis could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Legas is pleased to have won the block and claimed Utah Valley for his business. However, he has mixed feelings, since he knew Damon personally. "It is too bad that it had to come to this, but I wish him nothing but success," Adam tells me.
This battle over, Throwdown Elite is now gearing up for a major event on June 6th, which it is hosting at the E Center in Salt Lake City. The event is called "Border Wars" and will feature American fighters pitted against Latino fighters in mixed martial arts combat.
Visit Throwdown Elite at 1640 South State State Street in Orem
Check out their website here
Reader Comments
Roberto Scoca
i tink throwdown is a ego place they dont have the experiance for make real fighters if you check the last throwdown event on comcast you are going to see what i'm saying they cheat so bad people get so mad plus if you are not 1 of ther cheap stars they dont really care of the members. they care of the money and the ego in the place. la boxing i went to the la boxing and all the people was really nice and personal training, and the guys was really good, the training was a real training not a show of ego, all the time the i have a question they help me so bad they close i hope damon open 1 more time
