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• Fox and Hound English Pub and Grille

Patrons are densley packed near the TV screens at Fox and Hound. (Amanda Mauer for The Star)

Courtney Nicoson, 26, and Jay Howard, 26, came to cheer screen action. (Amanda Mauer for The Star)

Eric Marasco, 34, came for the football but took a few appreciative glances at the mixed martial arts, too. (Amanda Mauer for The Star)

Screens, action draw fight fans

10:15 p.m.

It's standing room only inside the Fox and Hound. Many sets of eyes are trained on the football game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Many more are focused on the two men standing inside a steel cage on the large projection screen in the center of the room. Ultimate Fighting Championship 79: Nemesis is broadcasting live from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and this bar is one of only a handful in the city showing it.

Mixed martial arts -- or "ultimate fighting" as some still call it -- is America's fastest-growing sport. A blend of kickboxing, Olympic-style wrestling and submission grappling, the sport has outgrown its early days as a vilified sideshow and has become entrenched in our popular culture. It doesn't have pro football's market share, but it has established its niche.

I associate sports bars with people bumping into me while I am subjected to loud, uninformed commentary on whatever action is featured on screen. It's not an experience I enjoy, but I wanted to watch the fights and didn't want to spend 40 bones on Pay Per View. Sports bar, here I come!

10:49 p.m.

The screening room at Fox and Hound features dark carpet, wood paneling, and dramatic spot lighting. Tasteful Christmas lights remain from earlier in the week.

I ask one couple if they are here for the fights or because it's simply the place to be. "A bit of each," says Jay Howard, 26.

His lady friend laughs. "I'm here because of him," says Courtney Nicoson, 26.

Howard's no Hoosier. There's a bit of Brit in his voice; he confirms that he grew up in London's East End.

I ask Howard how he feels about the recent Ricky Hatton fight in which the English underdog moved up a weight class to take on Floyd Mayweather in a losing effort.

"Don't talk to me about that," Howard says, still stinging from what he and many other fight fans felt was a snow job by referees who wouldn't let Hatton work in close.

I ask Howard how American fight fans compare to those in his native country. According to Howard, Americans are "nowhere near as passionate" about sports as their Brit counterparts.

He says that fight fans in particular would be singing and shouting throughout the night, while the mostly quiet crowd here might as well be "watching a soap on TV."

11:06 p.m.

"We're here to see the Patriots lose," says Eric Marasco. The 34-year-old Chicago Bears fan has never watched mixed martial arts before, but "it's actually kind of cool." We discuss the danger of the fights and that of professional football, and Marasco thinks MMA compares favorably. "The fights are actually less violent; it's a little more controlled," Marasco says.

11:44 p.m.

My note-taking has slowed down as the Pay Per View show reaches the co-main events: a light heavyweight match-up years in the making between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva and a welterweight clinic pitting Georges St. Pierre against Matt Hughes.

The match-up between Liddell, a former UFC champ, and Silva, a longtime champ in the now defunct Japanese promotion Pride FC, was years in the making and largely lives up to the billing. The rubber match between former UFC champs St. Pierre and Hughes highlights two dominant fighters -- the French-Canadian just entering his peak and the Illinois farm boy apparently leaving his.

Those two fights are entertaining enough to justify standing at close quarters for a couple hours, and entertaining enough to convert first-timers into fans.

Marasco walks over, leans in and says, "Goodbye, boxing; hello, UFC."