Fairhaven Hall at the Richland County Fairgrounds will no doubt be the place to be in Mansfield Saturday night, when RFO's Mansfield Mayhem 13 brings their 9-card MMA event to town.

Headlining the event will be local amateur Josh "Honey Badger" Longood, who will compete for RFO's featherweight belt in the main event of the evening. The 23-year-old has put together a solid career up to this point, winning all four of his fights by submission and only training on a part-time basis.

Longood recently finished his education at Ohio State, where he would spend 9 months of the year attending classes. The other 3 months were spent working out at the Fight Farm in Mansfield with trainer JP Pocock and other local fighters.

"I'd come home, get in shape, get a good fight in then I'd go back to school and take nine months off, get out of shape then kind of have to redo everything," Longood says. "I'm in shape, I'm not losing everything I've worked for so I'm constantly progressing now."

Pocock agrees that Josh has come a long way since he's been training full-time, saying "He's got his summer camp in, he got a good fight and now he's got another camp in and he gets to go back to back instead of always getting reading for one and I think it's good for him."

Longood knows his opponent is 7-4 Cory Ruthsatz from Sandusky, but has no idea what his tendencies are in the cage with no fight footage to study. But Pocock says he will likely have solid jiu jitsu because of the camp he trains in.

A guy that Longood trains with will also be looking for his fifth win at Fairhaven Hall this weekend, in 170-pounder John Gunther. "The Machine Gun" as he has been nicknamed, has put together a 4-1 amateur record with his only loss coming essentially on a dare when Gunther took a fight on just a week's notice. 

This time Gunther is prepared for his fight with local Niles Hootman, who like Longood is 4-0 in his amateur MMA career but trains with a cross-town fighting team. Pocock says John definitely has the experience and toughness to come away with a win.

"John has been training forever. I remember when he was 12-years-old he would come to the gym I used to go to. He'll be in great shape, he's really strong, totally relentless and he's super exciting to watch."

Gunther says, "I've done judo since I was little, MMA for just a couple years now so I'm still learning but it's fun." He added that he "Wanted to do something with all the training I'd done, so MMA gives you the opportunity to make a career out of it."

Both the "Machine Gun" and "Honey Badger" say they'd like to pursue a career in MMA, but both are in no hurry to do so. A win for either Saturday night however, would certainly help push them in the right direction.

First bell is at 7 pm with general admission tickets on sale at the door for $25 and VIP seats available for $35.

Follow @BrianSkowronski on Twitter for updates from the event.