From Weigh-Ins to Fight Night: Valhalla MMA - Mafia Family Business Fight Event

Valhalla MMA The Mafia Family Business Fight Event took place on February 28th, 2026.

For this fight event, I was back to Valhalla MMA and to the same venue as Valhalla Valhalloween 7 at the Venezia Resort in Venice, Florida.

Venezia Resort in Venice, Florida

This fight event featured some of the returning fighters from the previous in October as well new fighters. And it featured boxing, kickboxing and of course MMA fights.

For this Valhalla MMA event, I did both the weigh-ins the day before and the fights themselves the following day.

So, let's get into what happened and what I captured.

The Weigh-Ins

The weigh-ins always take place 24 hours before the fight. So this was Friday, February 27th. The weigh-ins were at the same venue as the fights. It was actually in the same room.

As the weigh-ins were happening, they were building the cage and setting up the room. I got to see how everything was set up and see the room before it had the cage and had all the seats. And how much the vibe of the room and the venue changes once everything is set up.

I always look at the weigh-ins as important pre-fight ritual. But for Valhalla MMA, they were treated a bit differently. There was a time between which the fighter had to show up, check in and make weight. If your opponent was also there then you did the face-offs.

Randy Alverez vs Gaelen Przybylowicz

If they weren't, then they would fill out the paperwork, step on the scales, make weight and then leave. There would be no face-offs.

Oz Dangler

I captured all the face-offs that I could and for the rest of the time I was documenting behind the scenes. Such as fighters arrival, making weight, hanging out and group shots.

Cody Daniels vs Austen Bemowski

Alrey Handrich with Zion Stafford

After a couple of hours I was done and headed back home as the weigh-ins were just the beginning.

I had to upload the pictures, go through them and edit all the shots in few hours so I could post them before the day was over. Because once the weigh-ins are done and it's fight day, no one cares about the weigh-ins.

So there's a very short window of time for me to edit and post them to help build up the anticipation and promote the fights with the pics that I took.

Fight Day

On the fight day, I always arrive early. And the first thing I wanted to see was the contrast of the room from the night before and day after.

Jerry Lee the Referee

I always love documenting fight events before the doors open and as the fighters arrive. You can feel the tension - the silence before the violence.

Within couple of hours all the fighters arrive, check in and get cleared by the doctor.

Chris Borba

Cody Daniels

Zion Stafford and Joshua Bautista

Then it's to the rules meeting in the back room with Jerry Lee the Referee and all the fighters.

Rules meeting in the back before the fights

After that the doors open and people begin to slowly pour in and fill up the seats.

Then the fights begin!

The entire fight event flowed very smooth. I figured out where I wanted to be. I shot through the cage before. I've also shot some of these fighters before. So, I knew what to deal with and what to expect.

The fight event started off with a few exhibition matches.

Exhibition match before the fights

Then the first 3 fights of the vent were finishes.

Eder Elbujar vs Dana Rollings

Gabriel Bernal vs Hunter Clarkson

LJ Corey vs Oz Dangler

It's great to see violent finishes because usually a lot of amateur fights tend to go to the distance. And having the first 3 finish very quickly meant I needed to be zoned in and never miss a beat.

There were a total of 15 fights and here are some fight highlights.

Brian Delgado vs Calvin Sullivan

Austen Bemowski vs Cody Daniels

Marcus Diaz vs Ashton Freeman

The Settings I Used

This now being my 5th fight event, I have gotten more comfortable with using Canon R6 Mark II.

And being back to the same venue, same lighting situation I've experienced before and for same fight promotion allowed me to focus more on the artistic side of documenting the event.

Angel Calderon gets his belt

All prior fight events I shot in Shutter Priority. But this time I switch to Manual Mode.

The only auto setting I used was ISO.

F-Stop: 4.0 (lowest I could go with Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens).
Shutter Speed: 1/1000s for fights and 1/250s for in-between fights.

I varied my Shutter Speed depending if I was shooting the fight or in-between.

For the fights themselves, Shutter Speed was anywhere between 1/800s to 1/1000s in order to freeze the motion and capture the action.

Gaelen Przybylowicz vs Randy Alverez

But the walk-in shots, the in-between round shots and after the fights, I lowered my Shutter Speed to 1/250s.

Kevin Prevo after his big KO win

The ISO varied and was chosen automatically depending on my Shutter Speed. With Max ISO being at 25,600.

This is now my new favorite settings for shooting fight events. I only have to worry about choosing my Shutter Speed depending with F-Stop being set at constant 4.0 and ISO being chosen automatically.

I also switched to shooing with AI Servo. This allows the auto-focus to track the subject of my choice.

You half press the shutter to begin tracking then when I'm ready, I press it all the way down to take the shot.

And I also enabled Continuous Shooting Mode. So with the full press of the shutter, it starts to take constant shots with the focus that was set during AI Servo.

With this, I was able to track the subject, maintain it in focus and when I was ready to take my shots, I press it all the shutter all the way down and it would start taking multiple shots, one after another.

Conclusion

My 5th fight event Valhalla MMA Mafia: The Family Business, was the smoothest event I've done so far.

I was able to focus more on composition and the artistic side of shooting an event without having to deal with camera issues or technical lighting problems as I did before.

Gaelen Przybylowicz after his win with his fight family