Formidable Force

Pop. Pop, Pop. A man in the corner punishes a punching bag. Another takes swings at air as though it robbed him of something. Then there s 16-year-old Nickie Eustace, a junior at Western High School, the youngest fighter working out this night at former MMA veteran John De La O s Jiu Jitsu Training Center in Stanton. Eustace, dressed in all black and beat-up Nikes, with the top half of his hair in a short ponytail and the bottom half shaved, warms up in the boxing ring. He s earned dozen of medals in mixed martial arts, wrestling, boxing, Pankration (a combination of wrestling and boxing) and Jiu Jitsu. This night he ll train by fighting a 17-year-old and a 32-year-old for two minute increments. Within seconds Eustace tackles his first opponent. Eustace, who will join Team USA in Eboli, Italy, at the seventh WPAF World Pankration Championship in November, shuts down his second opponent , The boys like to call it man strength, De La () said. er since he was 5 years old, Eustace said he s hungered to be a UF< fighter. By 9, he was competing at the state level. Now, ho competes at the national and international levels. Last week he was at the UWW World Pankrationt championship in the Georgian capital of Tb