Spike, the cable television network, has been described as having a target audience of men ages 18-34.

Count Joshua Montoya, 23, as a big fan – and, soon, as a target for that audience.

Montoya, a Santa Fe bantamweight (135-pound) mixed martial arts fighter, is scheduled to face Ed West of Tucson on Thursday at the Santa Ana Star Center. Recently, Montoya learned that his fight has been elevated to the televised portion of the Bellator MMA card on Spike.

	Thursday MMA: Christian M’Pumbu vs. Attila Vegh, Holly Holm vs. Katie Merrill, eight other bouts, Santa Ana Star Center, 6 p.m. TV: Spike. Tickets: $25-$90, santaanastarcenter.com

The opportunity to fight for Bellator, the second-largest MMA organization in the United States, was exciting enough.

Now, he says, “I’ll be viewed by a million-plus people, right?”

Yes, possibly. Bellator’s Feb. 14 card, originating in Charlotte, N.C., averaged a reported 719,000 viewers for its live telecast on Spike. A replay, aired immediately after, was watched by another 313,000.

The career-advancement potential for this fight is certainly not lost on Montoya.

But, he says, it would be a colossal mistake to focus on that and not on West – an experienced Bellator fighter with a 17-7 record.

“He’s super tough,” says Montoya (10-7), noting that West lost by split decision to Brazil’s Eduardo Dantas, the current Bellator bantamweight champion. “… He’s fought some tough guys.”

It also would be a mistake, Montoya says, to build the combination of West, Bellator and Spike – while offering a tremendous opportunity – into an overwhelming task.

“Honestly, it’s just another fight for me,” he says. “It’s what I do, and it’s what I’ve been doing my whole career, fighting tough guys.

“I’m just really thankful to be fighting at all.”

In fact, Montoya has fought just once since December 20011 -a victory by submission over Frank Morris last August on a King of the Cage card at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino in Pojoaque.

After losing three consecutive fights in a three-month period in the summer of ’11, he has won his last two.

He credits his coach, Scott Marlowe of Judgment Mixed Martial Arts in Rio Rancho, for much of the turnaround.

“(Before), I was basically fighting with no coach,” Montoya says. “I was training myself. Now I have a coach, and now I’m on a two-fight win streak. My record (the past losses), that doesn’t mean anything to me.

“I’m a totally different person. I have a different motivation.”

Some nine years ago, Montoya says, his motivation for taking up jiujitsu was a teenager’s lack of confidence and self-esteem.

“Growing up as a kid, I had a lot of anxiety issues,” he says. “I didn’t like to be around people; I didn’t like to be in confrontations with people. I really didn’t like to speak out loud, and stuff like that.”

Self-expression through the martial arts, he says, turned out to be exactly what he needed.

“It progressed, and then I just said, ‘If I can fight in front of thousands of people, then I guess I can get over my anxiety.’ It was just a way of building my confidence.”

The 23-year-old Montoya is confident enough to run his own school, Alchemy Brazilian Jiujitsu, in Santa Fe.

He expresses confidence as well, in analyzing the matchup against West.

“Style-wise, (West) throws a lot of kicks,” he says. “He likes to score points. It’s not like he’s trying to finish the fight standing up.”

Montoya twice has fought as a professional boxer. He lost both fights but says improving his striking for MMA was a greater goal than victory.

“I’ve come a long way in my striking,” he says, “and I’m gonna try to go out there and finish (West). I’m trying to go hurt him and make a statement. This is it.

“I don’t want to go and be another decision on his record. I want to finish him. I want to go out and fight.”
Santa Fe’s Montoya excited about TV exposureThursdayMMA: Christian M’Pumbu vs. Attila Vegh, Holly Holm vs. Katie Merrill, eight other bouts, Santa Ana Star Center, 6 p.m. TV: Spike. Tickets: $25-$90, santaanastarcenter.com

MMA
— This article appeared on page B4 of the Albuquerque Journal