Tye McEntire, the mixed martial arts fighter from Ootsa Lake, has a chance at winning the world amateur championship title later this year.
It’s a notoriously tough style of fighting, and the competition will be intense. But for now, McEntire is focussed on something else: he’s learning to fight wildfires.
The 20-year-old fighter was in Merritt, B.C., was attending bootcamp for his first season as a firefighter, when he spoke to the Lakes District News.
The endurance demanded at bootcamp — it involves “a lot of running,” he said — will come in handy at the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation’s championship.
The competition is slated for this November in the tiny nation of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf.
It’s a long way from Ootsa Lake, where McEntire grew up on a cattle farm — and where he learned to fight early. His father, Doug, served as a local boxing coach, and got him boxing at the age of nine.
In high school, McEntire’s sport was rugby — he was team captain at Lakes District Secondary School — and he got into wrestling when he moved to Prince George in September 2015.
But then he discovered MMA. “I fell in love with it, and didn’t go back,” he said.
Though he lost his first match, which took place in Terrace in June 2017, he’s been unbeaten ever since.
In March, he triumphed at a Battlefield Fight League match at the Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam. “That was the biggest venue I’ve ever fought at,” he said, as he described a dazzling scene — a lot of lights and a lot of people. “It felt really official.”
The latest bout took place in Lethbridge, Alta., in April, where he beat his opponent in the second round with a technical knock-out. His rival tried to choke him out, but McEntire was ready for that technique. “I ended up on top, he rolled onto his belly, and that was pretty much all she wrote,” he said.
When the wildfire season wraps up in B.C. this year, he’s planning on relocating to Montreal, QC., to train at the Tristar Gym, a facility known for its roster of internationally recognized MMA instructors.
The welterweight fighter said he expects tough competition in Bahrain. But if he loses, it’s just a great chance to take a vacation. “There no real losing scenario, in my mind.”
