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Steamboat Springs — For the past 13 years, the Tennis Center at Steamboat Springs has hosted the Steamboat City Mixed Doubles Championships, but Jim Swiggart has never seen a draw this large.

Swiggart, the Tennis Center's director, said that this year's championships, which start Friday and run through Sunday, will bring together 70 doubles teams.

"We have one of our largest and strongest draws ever," Swiggart said. "Plus, with the new facility, we have courts to guarantee each team three matches and still have courts available for public play during the weekend. Even if someone isn't playing, I hope everyone can come see some great tennis and our new complex."

The popular and growing tournament enables players to combine their National Tennis Rating Program skill sets and allow brothers and sisters, juniors and adults and husbands and wives to play together.

Combined skill level teams ranging from 6.0 to 9.0 will kick off play at 5 p.m. Friday, then run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday for the finals matches.

Court times will be available after 4 p.m. on the weekend days.

Admission to the Tennis Center's final tournament of the year is free for spectators.

Call 879-8400 for more information.

Cage fighting arrives

Mixed martial arts events are experiencing explosive growth nationwide and the Yampa Valley now is feeling the ripples of the sport's boom. Karrie Booth, co-owner of Holistic Health & Fitness in Craig, said she already has more than 20 people from Steamboat Springs to Meeker signed up for Saturday's debut of Ultimate Cage Fighting, an amateur contest in Craig that she hopes will grow into a regional championship series.

"It's the first year we've had it - we planned it when we opened our gym and we put in a cage room behind chain-link fence to have MMA training here," said Booth, who hopes to host an event in Steamboat before the end of the year. "We're planning to do enough (regional) events to have a point system that ends in a championship."

Saturday's event will feature five weight classes of single-elimination fights lasting for three, two-minute rounds (or shorter). Booth said organizers will accept fighters (ages 18 and older) until Saturday. Grappling gloves will be provided.

Advance tickets cost $25 for general admission or $35 for "cageside" seats in the first four rows with tickets prices increased $5 apiece at the gate - which opens at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Fights start at 8 p.m. at the Moffat County Fairgrounds Pavilion, 640 E. Victory Way in Craig. Call 824-4700 for more information.