The cold stillness of the January night was broken by the faint pitter-patter of mitt work outside Octagon MMA. Upon entering the resort-style fight club, visitors are immediately met with a dense layer of humidity that rises off the steaming mats covered by sweat and students. Octagon Mixed Martial Arts has been quietly producing and refining some great local talent and has a full dance card this month with fighters competing at the pro and amateur level, including a staggering five fighters on the Xtreme Knockout (XKO) 9 card Jan. 29.

The competitors are hand trained by Sayif Saud, a confident former professional fighter who is an encyclopedia of martial arts knowledge. He began training Karate and Judo as a child and trained for a number of years at the world-renowned Jackson’s Submission Fighting and MMA camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His classes are run to push all students to exhaustion but are also tailored for those with fights on the immediate horizon.

While most fighters Saud is training for the upcoming XKO 9 card are veterans to the professional fight world, one, Eli Tamez, will be making his professional debut. Tamez is 5-0 as an amateur with four wins coming by submission. Of the workman style group that is training for the upcoming XKO card, Tamez stands out immediately under a very trendy haircut. It fits perfect for an undefeated, flashy 25-year-old.

He will be competing against the very quick Kashiff Solarin. Tamez feels confident against the much smaller Solarin, saying that he is, "real scrappy, [but] I’ll probably be stronger than him."

Tamez started training in Jiu-Jitsu three years ago at North Texas MMA in Flower Mound but had to discontinue training there as the 40-mile, one-way drive was too tolling. He took his first fight after one year of training and has not looked back.

The XKO card was a perfect transition for the submission artist to turn pro as he will benefit from the parallel preparation with four other Octagon MMA fighters on the same card. "We’ve got five fighters all pushing each other to train," said Tamez. He continues about the upcoming event, "We have half the card, so we feel like we have to put on a show."

Quaint Kempf, a relatively new face on the pro circuit, will also be representing Octagon in Arlington. His last fight at XKO 8 was followed by a huge and raucous, pro-Kempf constituency. Of the hundreds in attendance, at least a third were close followers of the pugilist, and many donned his likeness on their shirts. "I have a big family," said Kempf.

After dropping two fights, Kempf turned pro in 2010 and tore off a pair of victories, including a second-round submission win at XKO 8. "I lost two fights before I turned pro. I lost by decision and it was crap," he said, referring to decision losses that Kempf felt were incorrectly called.

"I started at Octagon about three months before my first [professional] fight. [It] gets you motivated when everyone’s winning." He adds that what differentiates Octagon from other top regional camps is, "Better training, better partners, better wrestling."

His opponent at XKO 9 will be Steven Peterson, a fighter known for Pettis-esque flashy strikes and a large Superman tattoo across his chest. "He seems real wild, and young," observed Kempf.

Kempf shared space on the XKO 8 card with Roy Spoon, who lost in a title match against Chris Jones, who caught Spoon in a very slick submission. Spoon will be competing on the XKO 9 card and also trains at Octagon. The heavy-handed fighter will be taking on Michael Craycraft, a dangerous fighter that has not lost since 2008.

Oddly, the ghost of one of Spoon's losses will not leave him in peace. Jarrett Jones, who defeated Spoon in late 2009, marches under the Octagon MMA banner and will proudly fly its colors later this month on the same card as Spoon. When pressed for a recap of the Spoon fight, Jones simply states that it was, "sixty seconds and an arm bar." Jones assures that he and Spoon have no animosity towards each other.

The heavily bearded Jones also competed against Chris Jones and stated of the decision loss that "It was a very controversial loss. It could have gone either way."

His opponent at XKO 9 will be Chris Pecero, who is 1-1 professionally. His plan is to go to what he believes his strengths are. "I think my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is my strong point," but further goes on to admit that he is just as comfortable in punch fest. "I’m going to punch and punch and punch."

Jarrett makes the roughly six-hour trip heading east on I-20 from the former oil boom-town and cattle water stop of Odessa to train at Octagon. He initially trained at West Texas MMA and started training four days apart from Clay Hantz, who eventually relocated to Dallas.

"I usually crash on Clay’s couch or blow-up mattress," speaking to his accommodations while traveling. A flexible work schedule allows him the freedom to train so far from home. He and Hantz’s friendship is how he frames his time in the sport. If lightly pressed, Jones will tell stories of the two fighters breaking each other’s noses.

Hantz is perhaps the most seasoned of the fighters on the Octagon team competing on Jan. 29. He recalls his early days of training with teammate Jarrett Jones in Odessa, "First day we did ground and pound. My face never hurt so bad."

Hantz comes from fighting stock. His uncle is a South Dakota golden glove boxer. He says of his uncle, "He’s the baddest dude in the state. I come from a tough family."

While he played college football in South Dakota, his true athletic love pre-MMA was track. Hantz claims to have run a 47.4 second 400 meters. When he compares college football to the rigors of mixed martial arts, he states, "I hurt every day when I played football. I was never in this condition. I now have a resting heart rate of 38."

The dangerous Chris "Kyo" Gregoire is the only thing standing between Hantz and victory. His opponent defeated teammate Jarrett Jones in 2008.

As technique training begins to wind down, the students and competitors at Octagon MMA participate in live simulations for those with upcoming competitions. The goal is to recreate the atmosphere and set up of each fighters' match. They walk out from the dressing room and are met by the cheers of their teammates and training partners. Their opponents are mimicked in the cage by a rotating cast of students. In between rounds, Sayif jumps into the cage to advise his fighters. One of his younger fighters began a sentence with a clear inflection of a question to which he was immediately interrupted with, "No questions in the cage." It seemed fitting.

Information on Octagon Mixed Martial Arts can be found at www.octagonmma.com. XKO 9 will be held Jan. 29 at the Gym in Arlington. Doors open at 6 p.m. and down beat is at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at www.thegym.org.