SPANAWAY, Wash, -- Students from Spanaway Lake High School have been engaging in a "fight club" at random spots around Pierce County, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

The students engage in hand-to-hand combat surrounded by crowds of cheering kids.

Following KIRO's broadcast of the story, members of the club said the fights are being blown out of proportion.

Josh Wilcox, a junior at Spanaway Lake High School, saw the report about the fights on KIRO 7, and said he felt inclined to come forward.

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"I think that it kind of portrayed us like dumb kids that just like to fight. We don't want to make it look like we are all troublemakers at all," said Wilcox.

In an e-mail to KIRO, Wilcox said he was the originator of the club as well as a participant.

According to Wilcox, the fights are modeled after professional ultimate fighting matches shown on TV that are a form of mixed martial arts. He said the student fighters use gloves and put Vaseline on their faces to lessen the impact of the punches.

Another participant said that each match has a designated referee.

"It is a sport. We feel like if football can be a sport, and that you can play it at a park, then we should be able to do this at a park or something," said Wilcox.

Wilcox said he believes that what they are doing is no different than many organized athletics in comparison to the risk of getting hurt.

Mark Wenzel with the Bethel School District disagreed.

"I don't really buy the argument that this is the same as playing football out there. We would encourage kids who have this type of energy to do organized athletics," said Wenzel.

The kids said their ultimate goal would be if they could have their fights at a community center so they wouldn't have to sneak around.

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