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FORT BENNING, Ga. — It was arguably the marquee fight of the second annual All-Army Combatives Tournament, a knockdown clash between two of the Army’s best fighters.

See photos from the tournament.

Staff Sgt. Tim Kennedy of 7th Special Forces Group and Sgt. Damien Stelly of 3rd Ranger Battalion battled in the ring for three heart-stopping rounds.

The audience, packed into chairs and bleachers, waited for the judges to declare a winner.

It was a close call: a split decision between three judges. The audience roared when the referee raised Kennedy’s right arm in victory. Some might argue Stelly should have won. Others said Kennedy did more damage with his fierce blows.

the titans themselves just said good things about each other.

“He’s tough. He’s explosive,” Kennedy said about Stelly. “He’s an excellent fighter and an excellent soldier. I take my hat off to him. I knew he was going to be a great fight.”

Stelly returned the compliment: “He brought his best, I brought my best. It was a close fight.”

But beyond the competition, held Nov. 3-5 at Fort Benning, the 197 brawlers represented what the Army Modern Combatives Program hopes to achieve.

“What we’re really training for is the battlefield, and the goal of this is to be better real fighters,” said Matt Larsen, director of the combatives program. “This is just a method, a means to the end. Soldiers are engaged in real fights on the battlefield, life-and-death fights. At the end of the day, who wins in the arena here isn’t really important. What’s really important is that they’re all training for the real fight.”

Modern Army Combatives has existed since 1995, but it didn’t become Army doctrine until 2002. The combatives school at Fort Benning has been training soldiers since 2000. The school offers four levels of training, with Level IV being the most advanced. more than 16,000 soldiers have completed Level I combatives training in the six years the school has been in operation.

Troops in the war zone “need to be prepared for all types of conflict and different rules of engagement,” Larsen said.

To tailor Army combatives for the real world, Larsen and his instructors bring together elements of martial arts such as judo, boxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian ju jitsu.

“The soldiers that we’re seeing competing over this event could very well be fighting for their life over in Iraq six months from now.”

Kennedy and Stelly want to be part of the mission so much that they turned down offers to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier circuit of the sport, to serve in uniform.

Kennedy, who represented the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at the tournament, started wrestling in grade school, trained in martial arts as a young teen and later trained with UFC champion and fellow San Luis Obispo, Calif., resident Chuck Liddell.

He had a number of pro fights before joining the Army as an 18X, earning the coveted Special Forces tab straight off the streets. He was invited to fight in the UFC within the last year.

“I think [fighting] is the greatest sport in the world,” Kennedy said. “Occupationally, it’s an absolute necessity.”

Kennedy, who weighed in this year at 203 pounds, has now won the Army tournament’s light heavyweight title twice.

Stelly, who fought for the 75th Ranger Regiment team at the tournament, won last year’s heavyweight title just two weeks after coming home from Afghanistan.

At just below 205 pounds, he competed as a light heavyweight, his preferred weight class.

Stelly wrestled in high school, but he learned everything he knows about fighting from the Army combatives school.

He was first invited to fight in the UFC about two years ago.

Spc. Sheila Pereira, one of just two female competitors here, learned her moves at home — her father is a judo and ju jitsu sensei.

The 136-pound Pereira won her first fight but was eliminated after losing two, all against men.

“I hope that being here, coming out, we all respect each other as fighters,” said Pereira, of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell, Ky. “I just want to do my best, no matter who I go against. I have no regrets coming out here. It was an honor to participate.”

The 11-fighter team from Fort Campbell scrounged to pay their way to the tournament, said John Renken, their coach and master combatives instructor for 5th Special Forces Group.

The Special Forces soldiers on the team got money for the tournament from their command, but the other soldiers didn’t, he said. So, the team improvised.

“I had to shuffle it so it wasn’t out-of-pocket for the soldiers,” he said.

Spc. Jeff Yurk, noncommissioned officer in charge of combatives for the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., said his 12-man team got funding for the tournament at the last minute.

“I think a lot of times with the commanders they see combatives as a choice between buying bullets and guns and training soldiers how to fight,” he said. “It’s the smart chain of command to know you can do both.”

• Photo gallery: The second Annual All-Army Combatives Tournament.

• See the video