Once you’ve been to one cage fighting show, you’ll keep going back for more, says up and coming Kent promoter and pro fighter Cameron Else. Jo Roberts put the theory to the test.

If cage fighting conjures up images of too many blokes, beers and bruises, then you’ve got the wrong idea.

So says the young entrepreneur behind Killacam, one of Kent’s fastest-rising fight promotions which aims its shows at a family audience including children as young as five.

Cameron Else first had to convince the Margate Winter Gardens that he could guarantee a professional, trouble-free event with a family-friendly vibe; six successful shows later at that venue, and Killacam’s fight nights are becoming a favourite fixture on the mixed martial arts scene.

“Cage fighting used to be known as a brutal, barbaric sport. It carried a bad image,” says Cameron, 25, a former soldier turned pro fighter who was raised in Margate and now lives in Broadstairs.

“Now it has entered the mainstream and it is respected as producing great fighters and great shows.

“The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) organisation in America opened it up, but in the UK it was so slow going forward because shows just wanted to make quick money – they would just bang up a cage and it would get as bloody as possible.

“I wanted to bring a different show to the UK scene. It took a year of talking to the Margate Winter Gardens before they took it up. It’s not lairy or aggressive; we have kids as young as five in the audience so it’s very calm, friendly and family-orientated. We’ve never had any trouble. Once people come to one, they’ll come to more.”

Cameron, who has never yet fought at one of his own Killacam shows because he is so busy organising on the night, says the safety of the fighters is paramount.

“I personally pay for a doctor who works on the mixed martial arts scene to be in attendance and we have an ambulance on-site – safety comes first,” he stresses.

“There will always be the possibility of blood but a fight would never be allowed to get to the extent where both fighters aren’t intelligently defending themselves.”

Cameron says that the referee is more cautious even than the crowd, and would always step in to break up a fight before it got to the point where the audience were wincing.

“There are less injuries in mixed martial arts than in boxing,” he adds.

Cameron’s passion for professionalism is perhaps linked to the drive and discipline instilled in him as a soldier.

“When I came out of the Army I needed something to keep me going.

“I found a gym in Swanley doing mixed martial arts and started training, and since that day I’ve never looked back. I asked myself what I wanted to do as a business, what was my passion, and that was how Killacam started.”

The main fight of the night when the Killacam show comes to Margate Winter Gardens on Saturday, March 22 is Kent’s Ben McGonigle versus France’s Pierre Berillon for the Killacam lightweight title.

The show is being recorded for broadcast on the Active Channel, Sky 281. It starts at 5.30pm. Tickets from £20. Call 01843 292795.