After a professional soccer career in Switzerland didn’t pan out, former Fort Lewis College goalkeeper Ryan Wirth found himself at the bars more often than he wanted.

The 2011 national champion felt a competitive hole in his life that couldn’t be filled with playing city league soccer.

“I needed some sort of competitive edge,” Wirth said.

His brother, Kevin, had been practicing martial arts and fighting inside the ring for a while, and he suggested Ryan give it a try.

Ryan Wirth wrestled in high school and kept in shape with some mixed martial arts training during the soccer offseason, so he went for it.

“It was fun to be bad at something again,” said Ryan Wirth, a two-time national champion at FLC. “I just came in and started training, and the more I did the more I started to fill that competitive need.”

He has been training seriously since last August and will be one of five local fighters from the Durango Martial Arts Academy fighting Saturday at Ute Mountain Casino in Towaoc for a King of the Cage card.

“It’s really big for us,” Durango Martial Arts Academy owner Matt Young said. “We have six people, which is the most people we’ve had on one card before.”

Saturday will be Ryan Wirth’s first organized mixed martial arts fight.

Bayfield native Steve Hanna will join him on the card in the main event and is the only local professional on the card.

Kevin Wirth is fighting for the 135-pound KOTC amateur title against Farmington’s Robert Herrera, while Durango natives Caden Rezek and Marc Mendoza will fight as well.

The local academy’s sixth fighter is Chinle, Ariz., native Nicco Montanyo, one half of the only female bout.

All six fighters completed a six-week training camp leading up to the card that included hill sprints, improved nutrition and “circles,” which entail fighting a fresh opponent every round for three rounds.

“You basically get the crap kicked out of you,” Ryan Wirth said. The whole regimen is about “preparing the body for battle,” Young said.

It also brings the fighters closer together.

“It’s hard to run a whole camp by yourself,” Kevin Wirth said. “When everybody’s focused, it brings the whole level up.”

Having so many fighters training at the same time allowed them to help with specific needs. There isn’t much information on opponents for fighters to study, so they focus on improving their own techniques and where they need to improve.

“Maybe you’ll be lucky and there’s some grainy cellphone footage of your opponent,” Young said.

Kevin Wirth has an advantage in that, going for a title, he has some idea of who he’ll be stepping in the ring with, calling Herrera a good wrestler.

Mostly, though, the fighters have to depend on each other.

“We’re not just a bunch of meatheads that show up and beat each other up,” Hanna said. “We’re a family. We take care of each other.”

Saturday will be a showcase event for both Wirth brothers, Hanna and the Durango Martial Arts Academy, but for the fighters it’s just a chance to stay in shape and work at a sport they love.

“Me, (Kevin) and Steve Hanna all grew up together. We used to box in the basement with snowgloves when we were 10,” Ryan Wirth said. “It’s more of an intense version of that.”

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com