Combat Sports Club returned to the Santa Ana Star Center on July 28, 2012, for the Combat Sports Expo 2012 and Southwest Grapplefest 7.

The event featured not only the regular regional grappling championships for men, women, and children of all ages and skill levels in both Gi and NoGi; but also showcased its first CrossFit competition, Westside Power Gym's Strong Man demonstration, and a mitts exhibition by Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA fighters Isaac Vallie-Flagg, Buddy Roberts, Tim Means, Travis Marx, Diego Brandao and Jodie Esquibel, with assistant striking coach Brandon Gibson.

Combat Sports Club's declared core purpose is "to facilitate the safe development of its athletes and to foster camaraderie and sportsmanship through fair competition." Grapplefest participants included not only area Jiu Jitsu schools like Santa Fe BJJ, ABQ BJJ, Gracie-Barra BJJ, Flow Roller BJJ, Alchemy BJJ, but also mixed martial arts gyms like Team 4Corners, Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA, Mean1 MMA, FIT NHB, J5 MMA, Lovato Total Fitness, Fitness Kicks, ABQ Kickboxing, Bio Dog MMA, and Judgment MMA.

Josh "Pitbull" Torres won a hard-fought victory over the more experienced Joe Gomez after six rounds of action as the main event at Chavez' Promotions "Warehouse Rumble 2: Friday Night Fights" at the YDI Wool Warehouse, on July 27, 2012.

Torres (8-2-1 of Team Tapia in Albuquerque) easily took the first and second rounds, landing overhands and hooks followed by uppercuts on the taller opponent, but Gomez (18-7-1 of Bloomfield, NM) landed his own fair share of jabs and body shots.

The second and third rounds saw more bodywork and hooks landed by Gomez, while Torres spent more time defending. Torres came back in the fifth round, using more angles, landing a few big left hooks, but Gomez chin was solid, and countered nearly every shot, though not with the same power.

Rosales Karate's Jacob Hawks became the new IKF New Mexico State Atom Weight champion on Saturday, July 14, 2012, when he defeated Mean1 MMA's Slade Ring by decision, after five rounds.

The match started off with a bang, as each fighter straight-kicked the other's chest. Hawks won most rounds, scoring headkicks in two of the rounds, but this did not put Ring down.

They two battled to the end, and although Hawks won most rounds, Ring (cornered by his father and brother) was in the entire fight, staying inside and keeping pace, and may have even won the last round. However, it was a little too, late and Hawks took the match by unanimous decision.

Saturday night, the city of Longmont, Colorado hosted it's first ever professional boxing card at The Boulder County Fairgrounds. In the main event hometown favorite Raul "Chino" Carrillo (10-1), took on Albuquerque's Josh "Pitbull" Torres (7-2-1).

A decent sized crowd of about 500 was heavily in favor of Carrillo but a small contingent of Torres fans made the seven our drive up north from Albuquerque and made sure they were heard.

Fighting out of Team Tapia in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this would be the first time Torres stepped in the ring since the passing of his trainer 5-time, five-time world champion, Johnny Tapia.

The XFC middleweight division has been put on notice by Reggie Pena after his come from behind win over John Salter in the main event of 'Music City Mayhem' live on HDNet.

After being dominated by Salter for most of the first round the Florida native caught the UFC veteran in a guillotine forcing him to tap just 36 seconds into the round. With the win Pena improves to 4-0 in the XFC.

"Reggie Pena is a warrior and I'm very happy with his performance at XFC 18," XFC President John Prisco said. "John Salter is one of the top 185ers in the world and Pena submitted him after clearly losing the first round of the fight."

Albuquerque's National Guard Armory played host to SWMMA: Massacre, an amateur MMA event, which took place June 23, 2012, outside on a warm summer night.

Teams from around New Mexico and Texas were represented such as Takai Mine Karate (Albuquerque), Bushido MMA (Arlington, TX), J5 MMA (Grants), Gracie-Barra (Albuquerque), Clube de Jiu Jitsu Pitbull (Albuquerque), and Bio Dog MMA (Gallup).

There were five fights, and the main event featured Bushido's Armando Rivas against Takai Mine's Kevin Smith. Smith started the action with a couple jabs then shot for a takedown, but the two clinched against the cage until Rivas scrambled around and got the takedown. They battled for dominance the rest of the round, with Rivas attempting a triangle to finish the first.

Holly "The Preacher's Daughter" Holm (31-2-3) showed Albuquerque and the world why she has been and continues to be known as arguably the best female pound-for-pound boxer in the world, when she defeated Anne "The Ace" Sophie-Mathis (26-2) at Fresquez Productions "The Reckoning", which took place on Friday, June 15, 2012 at Route 66 Casino Hotel Albuquerque.

The win brought back the title belts for three organizations: IBA Welterweight, WBAN and WBF. The event, attended by a sold-out crowd of about 3000 onlookers, was a rematch of Holm's one loss in the last seven years, which occurred last December 2, by knockout in the seventh round.

The crowd went from deafening cheers as the hometown favorite danced into the ring, to near silence, after introductions and anthems, as the first bell rang. The first round was eerily like the last fight, as Mathis took the lead, with Holm firing back and dancing away, Mathis using her reach and long legs to try and cut off the angles.

Donnie Liles showed up for the main event of Jackson's MMA Series VIII in top shape and with a clear game plan: take Joey Villasenor down and pound him out. And it worked to perfection for the first round. Unfortunately, there was a wrinkle in Liles' plan.

Villasenor, a veteran of nearly 40 professional fights that has fought in almost every major organization since earning his first pro win in April of 1999, knew just how to stifle his opponent's attack.

Liles was able to enforce his game plan in the first round, but in the second and third frames Villasenor used his excellent takedown defense to keep it standing where he patiently outscored Liles.

Saturday May 12^th several Albuquerque fighters made their way to the Inn at the Mountain Gods on the Mescalero Apache reservation, High in the mountains of Ruidoso, to take part in the Mescalero Warrior Challenge 2. The fight promotion is a collaboration between Mescalero’s favorite son Coty “Ox” Wheeler and Jackson’s Gym General Manager Ricky Kottenstette. This was their second sold out show which provided exposure for several fighters from neighboring states alongside those from the 505.

Hundreds of grapplers came out to Rio Rancho High School on Saturday, April 28, 2012, to take part in Southwest Grapplefest VI, a double-elimination tournament for Jiu-Jitsu practitioners of all ages, weights and skill levels.

The matches began at 10:00am, with the children's brackets, continuing to the Gi then NoGi competitions, with contestants not only from all over the State of New Mexico, but also from surrounding states of Arizona, Colorado and Texas, both teams and individuals.