They nurse you to health, deliver your beer and fix your plumbing. One's a senior in high school. Another's joining the Navy. A third is a father and husband.

At a glance, these ordinary guys don't have much in common. Yet when the hour comes to lace up the gloves and step into the ring in front of 1,300 beer-drinking fans, fighting a good fight becomes their common goal.

This Saturday night, as members of the Hel-Town Hybrids and Proven Grounds enter the ring, they'll set out to kick, punch and choke their opponents into submission. It's mano a mano, combat style, where losing has consequences and the bragging rights go to the victor.

"It's more technical than just a street fight," said Casey Kelly, a former Helena High School wrestler who turned pro after nine amateur fights. "It's a competition."

Kelly will fight his third professional bout in mixed martial arts, or MMA, taking on Hollis Higgins in the 155-pound class. Higgins represents Bad Boyz Boxing out of Bozeman and will certainly arrive in Helena with plans of his own.

"This gives me something to compete in," Kelly said, feeling confident at practice last week. "I like the feeling of winning."

Unlike the movie "Fight Club" where Edward Norton's alter ego, Brad Pitt, tells inspiring members that fights will go on as long as they have to, the fights at Helena Havoc IV, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds, will last eight to 15 minutes.

It may not seem long, but eight minutes in the ring, or 480 ticks of the clock, can seem an eternity, especially when there's nowhere to hide and you win or lose on your own merits.

Preparing his fighters for eight minutes of MMA competition, Hel-Town Hybrids coach Brett Hamlin has turned conditioning into something of a mantra by which his fighters live. Even so, it doesn't hurt to toss in a little incentive now and then, such as holding workouts alongside the Big Sky Dance team, like they are this night.

"At this level, conditioning is what wins fights," Hamlin said, stepping from the mat to watch his fighters complete their "Extreme Fit" training class. "Conditioning can make a wimp out of anybody."

Getting ready

After the dancers take their long hair and good looks into another room, Hamlin's flat-nosed fighters enter the second phase of tonight's training, moving from aerobics to sparring.

It's a chilly night out on the streets of Helena, but down in the gym, the action is fast and furious.

Fighters pair up like all-stars ready to tango. Instead of stepping to a Latin beat, they throw jabs, hissing and spitting as they move in circles and aim for their partner's gloves.

The team has come a long ways since Hamlin moved three years ago from San Luis Obispo, Calif., where he worked as the strength and conditioning coach for Chuck Liddell, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight champion known as the "Iceman."

Hamlin's training ties to the Iceman may be akin to training a lighter version of boxing's George Foreman or James "Buster" Douglas. In other words, when Hamlin arrived in Helena and his connection to the Iceman was discovered by local Ultimate Fighting aficionados, word began to spread and Hamlin's phone began to ring.

That's how it started -- a few guys gathering in Hamlin's basement, fighting, grappling and boxing. Down in Bozeman a year later, the statewide organization Fight Force was born.

Montana had officially entered the MMA fighting ranks. Helena fielded two teams, giving athletes a chance to test their bravado in the ring.

"I have two brothers and my dad, and we're just kind of a rough family, so we wrestle around a lot," said Levi Peasley, a recent Capital High School graduate with a boxing background. "I've always loved fighting because of that."

Peasley, fighting this weekend at 155 pounds, plans to join the Navy next year and vie for acceptance into SEAL school. He thrives on the adrenaline of hand-to-hand combat -- one man testing his skills against another.

"It's just nice knowing how to fight," Peasley added before returning to the mat. "It's my hobby and it keeps me active."

Picking your fight

With its thick walls and stark arrangement, this downtown studio has drawn a page from Mighty Mick's Gym of Rocky Balboa fame.

The men working here tonight have walked off the streets looking to improve their fighting skills. More times than not, they bring their own talents with them.

Some prefer fighting on their feet. They spend their evenings improving their boxing skills, ducking and dancing and throwing jabs. Others, planning to take their opponent to the mats, work to perfect their wrestling and jujitsu.

"You're trying to outthink the guy in both aspects of the fight," said Kenny Hollinbaugh, a 31-year-old beer distributor in Helena. "You have to be able to think on your feet and take a pretty hard hit. On the ground, you have a little more time to rest, as long as you keep your limbs in."

With its mixed martial arts, the sport is attractive to accomplished wrestlers like Kelly, a 2004 state champ from Capital High, and Zack Deffinbaugh, who finished third in state for Great Falls in 2007.

While viewers often debate on which skill (wrestling, boxing or jujitsu) is more important and serves a fighter the best, the guys who enter the ring may say wrestling nearly every time you ask them.

"On the ground, you have a sense of control," Deffinbaugh said. "If a guy isn't a wrestler, you have a big advantage because you can control him, unless he's a real experienced jujitsu guy, but most at this level aren't."

A nursing student at Carroll College and a member of the ROTC program, Deffinbaugh plans to drop 14 pounds of "water weight" to fight this Saturday in the 170-pound class.

At 19 years old, he doesn't think twice about sacrificing food and drink for 14 pounds. While he plans to start Saturday's fight with a clean series of strikes in true Liddell fashion, he hopes to spend most of the fight on the ground.

"I miss wrestling a lot, and this is an opportunity for me to do a similar workout at a similar level of competition," Deffinbaugh said. "If I'm focused on something like this, it helps me focus on school."

Fighting isn't a young man's game, something Hollinbaugh knows well. Going on 32, he's the team's oldest member. He's also the father of two, who brought his family to Montana from Kent, Wash., for a change of pace.

After moving, Hollinbaugh fought with Club Boxing in Butte in the 190-pound class. He also tried his hand as a 260-pounder with the Helena Titans semi-pro football team.

Given his past, he can weather a few kicks and punches just fine. He'll fight this weekend at 185 pounds, and he's going into it feeling strong.

"I take a few lickings here and there, but I actually recover pretty quickly," Hollinbaugh said. "It takes me about a week to get rid of any bruising in my face. There are days I go home and I'm a little sore and tender. But my day job, being a physical job -- delivering beer and lifting kegs -- you kind of work through it."

Saturday's fight also includes the debut of 18-year old Helena High School senior Ryan Fuss, who will represent the team as its youngest competitor this Saturday at 135 pounds.

Fuss began training two years ago and is working on his strategy, hoping for a first-fight win.

"I used to think I would be good at something like this," said Fuss, recalling his days watching Ultimate Fighting on TV. "It's pretty intense and harder than I thought it would be."

Click here to see the fight card for Saturday night's mixed martial arts bout.

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston@helenair.com