Southern Impacts history starts with the introduction of MMA to the general public.

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The first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993 grew the interest in what would be mixed martial arts in the US. The purpose of the early UFC competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a real fight between competitors of different fighting disciplines including boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Karate, Judo, and other styles. At the time, the grappling disciplines were not looked upon with the same esteem as the traditional striking martial arts and the first UFC opened many peoples eyes to the effectiveness of ground fighting when Royce Gracie won the entire tournament with a background that was based solely on grappling.

Brent Toon had 6 years of experience in Taekwondo (Taekwando Black Belt) and after seeing UFC 1 he decided that he had to learn how to fight on the ground as well. Toon and his brothers grappled in an old abandoned church in Octavia, Oklahoma learning as much as they could about the grappling arts.  At the time, finding a ground fighting based school was unheard of in the area and they acquired whatever knowledge they could from any source they could come across. Shortly thereafter, the Toons built a small shed in Watson, Oklahoma to train in.

It was in 1996 that Andy Threlkeld and Aaron Renard, who had a brown belt in Judo, joined the Toons. At the time No Holds Barred (MMA) was still illegal in Arkansas but when it became legal in 1997 Brent began competing.  In the early days of MMA most competitions were in a tournament format and it was common for him to have to fight four to five times in one night.

In the late 90s Brent started training at the Lions Den in Tulsa, Oklahoma under Mikey Burnett as much as possible. In 1997 Brent won Dan Severn’s Danger Zone  NHB Tournament in the 175 lb and under division and made it to the finals of Dan Severn’s Danger Zone 3 in the lightweight division in 1999. Andy Threlkeld had his first fight in 1998 and Aaron Renard started fighting in 2001. Also in 2001 Brent suffered some setbacks and stopped fighting.

Todd Ham was a friend of Andy and Aaron that also had desire to train in MMA after watching the first UFC. Todd’s father was a Martial Arts Instructor in the Marine Corp and Todd always had an interest in martial arts. He trained Karate but didn’t care for the point system fighting used in competitions. Todd joined up with Andy and Aaron in 2006 and they began to train in a hangar at the Mena airport and Brent soon joined in helping to hone their skills. Together they continued to cross train with the Lion’s Den in Tulsa whenever they could. Todd started fighting in 2007 and Aaron would go on to win the Ring Rulers light-weight title in 2009.

From there, they effectively set the foundation for Southern Impact to grow into what it is today.