A standing-room-only crowd of over 1,100 fans and interested onlookers roared their approval as exciting MMA action returned to Merritt with UCL 17: King of the Valley on Saturday night at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

The weekend event came eight months after Kamiah, Idaho promoter Jesse Eller and his Unified Combat League staged a highly successful debut in B.C. and Canada with UCL 15 at the Merritt rodeo grounds on Sept. 8, 2012.

Saturday night’s mixed martial arts card featured no fewer than 15 bouts. It highlighted a number of new and returning local combatants as well as fighters from Kamloops, Vernon, Chilliwack, Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, Lillooet and McBride.

The first bout was almost an hour late in starting due to some unforeseen complications, Eller said.

“We had a few things go wrong at the last second. There was some miscommunication with the medical people we had lined up, and there were a few issues surrounding the taping of the fighters’ hands. It had me running around in circles for a bit.”

Once the glitches had been rectified and the lights were dimmed, it didn’t take long for the enthusiastic audience to warm up to the action in the cage.

The second bout, between Chilliwack’s Josh Morgan and Nathan Hagan from Kamloops was a beauty. It went the full distance (three 3-minute rounds) with both fighters exerting every ounce of their energy before Morgan was given the nod in a narrow judge’s decision.

Not long after, first-time local scrapper Dustin Voght electrified the hometown crowd with a guillotine submission of fellow Merrittonian Justin Clark. Eller was suitably impressed.

“You don’t usually see the guillotine pulled off in the heavyweight class. That was pretty amazing,” the promoter said.

In the only female bout on the card, a game but overmatched Veronica Charters from Merritt came up short in her fight with Jessi Dalton out of Vernon.

“Jessi is a very tough girl,” Eller said. “When she got Veronica down on the mat, it was pretty well over.”

Eller went on to add, “I think Veronica has a good future in the sport. To do that well against someone as well-trained as Jessi is impressive.”

The final bout of the undercard saw a spirited tilt between a pair of Merritt bantamweights, with Adam Bangsund prevailing over Les Bara.

After a brief intermission, a six-pack of maincard fights lived up to their advanced billing. Ryan Stephens prevailed over Delton Mosley in another all-Merritt bout, while local favourite Devon Brown was edged out by Vernon’s Skyler Mobey.

In a very technical contest that saw almost the entire bout fought at ground level, Revelstoke’s Derek Markus narrowly prevailed over Salmon Arm’s Marcus Blair.

“We’re going to see both of those guys at the pro level at some point,” conceded Eller. “It may have been their first fights, but both of them have years of training under their belts already.”

The crowd was up and out of their seats for the final three bouts of the night, each featuring at least one local contestant.

Merritt’s Joe Aspinall and Michael “Polar Bear” Heppner went “fist-to-toe” in their scrap with the former throwing bombs and the latter unleashing a devastating series of sidekicks. It was Heppner who was declared the winner, although not without some controversy. As the first round came to a close, Aspinall connected with a couple of hard rights, and the ref stepped in, motioning as if the fight was over.

“It was an unfortunate mistake on the part of an excellent ref (Tony Williamson),” Eller explained. “He started waving his arms above his head as if the bout was done, when really he was just trying to wave off the final few punches that were thrown because the round was over. It confused everybody.

“I think that we’re going to do a rematch with these two guys [sometime in the future]. They both deserve to put the controversy behind them. Both are excited about it.”

There was no debate about the next bout’s outcome as Deven Nagata rebounded from a loss to Stephens in UCL 15 to defeat fellow Merrittonian Chris Alderson with a newly-acquired move.

“It was a key lock or Americana,” Eller said. “Basically it’s a shoulder lock. Deven had just learned it and pulled it off.”

Local favourite and MMA prospect Ty Edenoste closed out the evening with a powerhouse display. He picked up his second UCL win in as many outings with a TKO of Cass Young from Kamloops. It was a devastating uppercut by Edenoste that put Young down and out on the mat, and whipped the audience into a final frenzy.

“The crowd went crazy,” said Eller, who has grown to love Canadian MMA fans.

Eller hopes to see his Unified Combat League back in Merritt once more this summer, probably in early to mid-July.