Two North Vancouver-trained fighters are co-headlining the Final Fightdown, an amateur mixed martial arts event taking place Friday at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.

The main event will feature Vancouver's Tak Sasaki, fighting out of North Vancouver's Wolfes Den MMA, against Jason Rivera out of the Wand Team from Las Vegas.

Co-headlining the West Coast Promotions 12-fight card is Burnaby's Sarah McLeod who got her start in the sport training in North Vancouver with Team Denarius MMA. McLeod will try to maintain her undefeated amateur MMA record against Surrey's Cheryl Chan. Rami Kadi, another Wolfes Den fighter, will also see action on the card.

At the end of the night, however, all eyes will be on Sasaki in the main event. The 32-year-old sports a 4-2 record as an MMA amateur and is considered one of the most promising fighters in the province. He has been training with North Van's Wolfes Self Defence for the past year. Sasaki says headlining an MMA event is a surreal experience given that he only got into the sport as a way to stay in shape. Fights soon followed, however, and now he is a rising star.

"I'm grateful," Sasaki says. "Sometimes I really and truly catch myself, like 'wow, is this really happening.' When I first started out I never really expected to jump in the ring and take on this journey that is unfolding in front of me. As I walk this journey (people) have seen potential in me and hope in me and they've given that time to me and in return I've done my best to give that back by staying committed and training hard and staying focused."

Sasaki knows he is just starting out in the sport but is thankful to get opportunities like this Friday's event where his name is on top of the bill.

"Today when I stand there and I see that, sometimes I'm speechless. I know it sounds kind of corny but I get a little teary eyed. I get teary eyed because it's like wow, through this journey I've conquered a lot of demons, I've conquered a lot of fears -- things that held me back in life."

Sasaki began training for MMA in Nanaimo and moved over to Wolfes Den last year, drawn there by the company's history that included training stints with fighters such as UFC star Dennis Kang and kickboxer Michael McDonald.

"Wolfes has been around a very long time," says Sasaki. "They have that history and that expertise."

Sasaki is also involved in the fitness industry -- he owns a 30 Minute Hit franchise, a company that got its start in North Vancouver -- and a big part of his approach in the cage is being in great shape and wearing down his opponents, he says. Nicknamed Tsunami, he describes his style as "relentless."

"It's just non-stop. Having that background of being well conditioned really helps and I'm able to keep pushing the pace."

McLeod is another fit athlete -- when she's not fighting she competes in fitness bikini contests like the 2010 B.C. Championships scheduled for July 24 in New Westminster. Training for bikini shows is actually what led to MMA, she says.

"Training at the gym all the time to get the bikini body I got incredible strength," she says. "I feel like MMA is a challenge. I mean, a couple of bruises or whatever, it's not the end of the world."

McLeod only started training for MMA competitions in January, using North Vancouver's Top Rank Martial Arts as a starting point for her career. She is now moving on with her training partners to a gym in Aldergrove.

MMA has gained a lot of mainstream appeal recently but it still is a controversial sport as recent city council debates in Vancouver and North Vancouver have shown. Sasaki got a close-up look at the inner workings of the sport at the professional level when he helped run the Chuck Liddell-headlined UFC event that hit Vancouver June 12. Sasaki was in charge of inspecting the fighters' gloves and wraps.

"It was interesting to see from that point of view and to see how that works," he says. "I saw how safe it was and I saw how seriously they take it. . . . I feel that the sport is definitely gearing towards safety. They're not trying to promote people getting hurt and getting career ending occurrences. They're definitely pushing the issue of safety, pushing the sport to be a sport, not as a thing seen as brawls or bloodbaths or something like that."

Sasaki says MMA has changed his life for the better."I was able to find commitment, I was able to find discipline, I was able to find humility. I also found spiritual grounding through the sport. And yeah, there are guys out there who make it look bad -- I'm not going to say that there isn't because there is. But you can say that with anything in life, with any kind of career or any kind of job or occupation, anything in history you see that there's always the good and the bad -- people that give it a bad name and people that give it a good name."

aprest@nsnews.com