“The fighters don’t like to get hurt, and there’s a lot of people who don’t want to see the blood. They want to see good competition, they just don’t want to see the violence,”
Athletes participated in the ring in Florida, turning pillow fight into a professional combat sport. The Pillow Fight Championship has crowned its first-ever champions in an event that turned a children’s sleepover activity into a professional combat sport.
At Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Florida, 16 men and eight women competed in a bracket-style competition until a champion emerged. The majority of the people had backgrounds in mixed martial arts and boxing
This was not a pillow fight between your younger sister and you. Participants wore mouth protection and used specially made pillows to whip one other with hard blows.
PFC has all the excitement of hand-to-hand combat without the gore of mixed martial arts or boxing, according to Steve Williams. The guy who dreamed of converting childhood horseplay into a professional combat sport.
“The fighters don’t like to get hurt, and there’s a lot of people who don’t want to see the blood. They want to see good competition, they just don’t want to see the violence,” Steve Williams says on the organization’s official website. He is also the chief executive of the Pillow Fight Championships.
The Pillow Fight Championships have “quickly evolved into a very popular sport-based showcase complete with all the strength, stamina and strategic skills of the other more brutal combat sports but with a massive amount of fun”, the website says.
FITE, a sports streaming platform, will broadcast the three-round contests.
Brazilian Istela Nunes defeated American Kendahl Voelker in the women’s final. Then, American Hauley Tillman defeated countryman Marcus Brimage in the men’s final. Each winner took home a title belt and also $5,000.
