Wednesday, May. 14, 2008

Sharon fighter goes pro with FD fundraiser

By Adam MacInnis

Enquirer Herald

SHARON -- Last year, Kelly "Bear" Bradham got in a ring to fight with pro wrestler "The Masked Assassin," so the Sharon Fire Department could pay for a new truck.

He was an amateur fighter then and still won his match.

"It was exhilarating," he said. "It really didn't take a lot out of me as much as it did the other guy I wrestled. He called me the next morning and said 'Bear, you left bruises all over the left side of my head.'"

Since then, Bradham has earned his license to wrestle professionally with the Carolinas Wrestling Association. Saturday, he'll get back in the ring for his first official fight with other professional wrestlers including Al Snow, of World Wrestling Entertainment fame, to raise money for the fire department.

The event will be held at the Sharon Community Center at 3717 Woodlawn St. and will include a steel cage fight and a six man tag team fight, among others. Advance tickets are $8 and tickets at the gate are $12. Children 5 and younger get in free. Proceeds will help buy equipment for the new truck.

Bradham, who is 5-feet, 11-inches tall and weighs 245 pounds, has been a fire fighter for about 20 years and said it's important to have fundraisers like this so the department can be properly equipped.

"The public really doesn't understand what it actually takes to run a volunteer fire department with all the equipment and training and just keeping up with the trucks and stuff," he said.

He couldn't think of a more exciting way to help out the department.

"This thing here is going to be basically a dream come true because I always wanted to be a professional wrestler," he said. "Now I get my shot."

He's particularly excited that Snow will be there.

"I look at him as being a famous icon of wrestling," he said. "I think with him coming here that's really going to be a big thing."

Bradham doesn't know who he'll be fighting this year, but thinks he'll be part of a tag team fight.

His mother Kay Bradham, who also is a member of the fire department, will be there to watch, but said she won't worry about her boy.

"He's a pretty good size. He can handle himself," she said. "I may stand back and kind of laugh a little bit."