2 Stabbed During Fighting Event, Punk Rock Concert

Two Simi Valley men were hospitalized Sunday night after being stabbed during a combination “extreme fighting” event and punk rock concert at a hilltop restaurant on the east end of the city.

A Palmdale man was arrested in the stabbings.

The no-holds-barred fighting event, a hybrid of boxing, wrestling and martial arts where professional fighters slug it out with few rules, drew about 700 people to the parking lot of Dakota’s Mesquite BBQ & Steak House in the 2500 block of Stow Street, which overlooks the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

The stabbings cut the concert portion of the event short, sending a throng of punk rock fans and fight spectators pouring out of the parking lot.

Simi Valley police said they had arrested Benjamin Wolf, 22, of Palmdale on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He was being held in Simi Valley jail and was expected to be booked into Ventura County Jail. Bail had not yet been set. Abel Guevara, 28, suffered a severe stab wound to the abdomen and was in surgery Sunday night at Simi Valley Hospital. Casey Holland, 25, was stabbed in the back and was also admitted to Simi Valley Hospital. A nursing supervisor would not disclose Holland’s condition.

An unidentified third victim, from an unrelated, earlier fight, was treated at the hospital and released, according to authorities.

The event began with seven professional, organized fights, which organizers said occurred without incident. The gloves-off, open-fist bouts are similar to so-called “ultimate fighting” matches, which are prohibited in New York, Illinois and Missouri.

After the organized fighting was complete, the promoters staged a concert featuring the local punk rock band Strung Out. Three songs into the band’s set, witnesses said, a fight broke out in the crowd.

“It was a bad thing to mix a hometown punk band with fighting and alcohol,” said fight promoter Tim Mullen, one of the owners of the promotion company, Universal Above Ground.

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Two of the extreme fighters who were inside the restaurant heard that a fight had erupted outside. The pair, Nicco Hill, 30, of Los Angeles, who calls himself “The Dragon,” and Amir Rahnavardi, 29, of Tarzana, rushed outside and spotted a man moving through the crowd swinging a metal and plastic folding chair at people.

Presuming the man was involved in the fighting, Rahnavardi said, he tackled the man and they both tumbled down an embankment leading toward the freeway.

Several other people, possibly the man’s friends, then joined the melee, the two professional fighters said. Rahnavardi was left with a broken thumb and Hill with a broken finger.

Soon after Rahnavardi scuffled with the man, police arrived and took him into custody. He was later identified as Wolf, said Simi Valley Police Lt. Gordon Weeks.

The stabbings left organizers stunned, some questioning who was to blame.

“The fights went great,” Mullen said of the organized bouts, adding that he’s never seen anything like the stabbings occur at an extreme fighting event.

Flemming Larsen, 30, one of the restaurant owners, said he lent the parking lot to the fight promoters. Larsen said his restaurant profited from the event by selling food and alcohol to the crowd.

“I don’t know what went wrong,” Larsen said. “Kids just got out of hand. . . . I’m shocked. I never in my wildest dreams thought this would happen.”

Mullen said he provided security guards for the event who wanted to pull the plug on the show when they thought the crowd was getting out of control shortly after the end of the extreme fighting matches. But Mullen said restaurant owners wanted the concert to continue.

By 7:30 p.m., after police had cleared out, all that was left was a parking lot littered with barricades and empty beverage cups. Several diners ate their meals, presumably unaware of the earlier violence.

“It was a mess,” Weeks said. “We’re going to be looking at any future events.”