It was high-paced action at the CasaBlanca Event Center on Saturday, May 20 when Mesquite Gaming, in partnership with Barry Meyer’s World-Famous Tuff-N-Uff, The Future Stars of MMA, held its mixed martial arts amateur fighting championship event Mayhem in Mesquite XI.

This was the eleventh MMA Tuff-n-Uff amateur fighting championship Mesquite Gaming has brought to town and nobody does it better than they do. The event continues to draw a crowd of more than 1,000 people to the event tent.

The card boasted the brightest prospects in MMA from Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and even as far as Cleveland, Ohio.

Former Mesquite resident Kaige Caswell is prepped for his fight. Coaches prepare the fighters’ faces with petroleum jelly to help curb blood flow under the watchful eye of MMA officials. Photo by Teri Nehrenz

The night began with two debut fights the first fight going to first time fighter Jaylon Bates as he took down opponent Daniel Guzman just 32 seconds into the first round.

The second debut fight included a former Mesquite resident Kaige Caswell an independent, now out of Las Vegas, who lost his debut fight by a TKO 47 seconds into the first round.

The ladies came out hitting hard in fight number seven. Crystal Vanessa from Cleveland, Ohio forced her opponent Andrea Amaro rom El Paso, TX to tap out just 59 seconds into the first round. Photo by Teri Nehrenz

Las Vegas fighter, Dominique Edwards TKO’d opponent Michael Beals from Brigham, CO 1:28 into the second round.

Fight number 4 was a split decision between debut fighter Morgun Colledge from St. George, UT and David Loureiro from Las Vegas, NV.

Fight number five went the full three rounds with Ambrose Vigil from Albuquerque, NM and Oscar Herrera from Brigham, CO. Vigil was the winner by unanimous decision.

Cody Hamm from Las Vegas is a name that’s appeared on the last three fight tickets. Hamm won his fight by unanimous decision against Drew Oatgen from Las Vegas also after a full three rounds.

The ‘Main Event’ fighters came out hard hitting and almost finished less than a minute into the first round when the crowd thought Connelly’s left hook to opponent Hunter Vargas was a sure TKO but the judges thought differently and ruled that the fight would go on. Photo by Teri Nehrenz

The ladies came out hitting hard in fight number seven. Crystal Vanessa from Cleveland, Ohio forced her opponent Andrea Amaro rom El Paso, TX to tap out just 59 seconds into the first round.

The main event was a title fight for the welterweight championship between Hunter Vargas from Phoenix, AZ and Ryan Connelly from Houston, TX.

The fighters came out hard hitting and almost finished about 15 seconds into the first round when the crowd thought Connelly’s left hook was a sure TKO. The referees thought differently and the fight went on but it wasn’t much longer before Vargas tapped out at 1:09 in the first round giving Connelly the win and the belt.