The basement brawlers have graduated to the main stage at Target Center, which tonight hosts the largest mixed martial arts championship card ever held in Minnesota.

MMA fuses boxing, wrestling, kickboxing and jujitsu disciplines in steel cage fights unparalleled in their primitiveness and soaring in popularity among young males.

Fueled by testosterone and disposable income among the coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic, revenues for pay-per-view bouts of Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA's flagship venture, dwarf those of professional boxing and wrestling.

The glittery UFC produces a reality television show on Spike TV, stages marquee cards in Las Vegas and Great Britain and promotes its star fighters with million-dollar contracts.

By contrast, tonight's 12-bout card in Minneapolis, dubbed the "Downtown Throwdown," is being staged under the banner of Twin Cities-based World Fighting Championship.

The grass-roots enterprise is among hundreds of fledgling farm leagues around the country where wrestling champions, martial arts amateurs and street fighters flock to earn a UFC contract and hope to become the next Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture, UFC's reigning icons.

"Their goal is to get to the UFC, and this is where it all starts," WFC promoter Carey Thul said Friday.

Headlining this homegrown card is wrestling dynamo Marcus LeVesseur, 25, of Minneapolis. The four-time Minnesota high school wrestling and four-time NCAA Division III champion with Augsburg College is undefeated in seven matches in the Octagon.

LeVesseur will fight in the 155-pound lightweight class against Justin Wilcox, a professional bodybuilder and former collegiate wrestler from Pennsylvania.

Thul said this is a key bout for LeVesseur in his pursuit of a UFC contract.

His credentials include a 155-0 college wrestling record and a 46-0 mark as a senior at Bloomington Kennedy High School. With his unblemished MMA record, LeVesseur has not lost a competitive wrestling or fighting match since his junior year in high school in 1999-2000.

"Every sport that I attempt, I have a goal to master it so I can be untouchable," LeVesseur said. "I want to be the best and hold a UFC belt one day. I know it can't last forever, but I want to know how many more years I can last undefeated."

LeVesseur started training in mixed martial arts in 2003 to stay in shape while he transferred from the University of Minnesota to Augsburg. Brushes with the law, coupled with rehabilitation stints for alcohol and drug abuse, almost derailed his wrestling career in 2005, when he dropped out of school.

But he turned around his troubled personal life and rebounded on the mat. In March, he became the first four-time Division III national champion and joined Iowa State legend Cael Sanderson as the only wrestlers to finish their careers undefeated.

LeVesseur started fighting competitively before his senior year at Augsburg, where he plans to complete his health and physical education degree next year. His goal to wrestle in the 2008 Olympics also is shelved while he pursues a UFC career.

Typical of most wrestlers, LeVesseur possesses a potent ground attack aimed at putting and keeping opponents on their back. He also used to spar in junior high. But he had to learn how to kick box and master the martial art of Muay Thai.

"I feel comfortable on my feet. I can kick hard," LeVesseur said. "The biggest problem for a wrestler is you don't know how to throw punches and be open to taking hits. Your instinct is to grab."

Low-level fighters like LeVesseur typically earn about $3,000 per fight. Thul, who managed smaller MMA fight cards at the Myth nightclub in Maplewood, said tonight's purse totals $50,000. He said about 2,000 tickets had been sold as of Friday morning.

MMA broke the mainstream media seal in May when Sports Illustrated published a 4,500-word cover story that pictured fighter Roger Huerta, who trains in Maple Grove. It detailed the sport's evolution in the past decade from an unregulated barnyard freak show to a violent, fully sanctioned cash cow.

According to the magazine, UFC's pay-per-view revenues last year totaled $223 million, compared with boxing on HBO ($177 million) and WWE wrestling ($200 million).

The Target Center card is the largest of several sanctioned this year by the Minnesota Boxing Commission, which started regulating MMA fighting in July.

The commission is responsible for enforcing UFC rules, hiring referees, conducting physical examinations of fighters and arranging for on-site medical professionals. Rochester is hosting an MMA card tonight and Brainerd, Minn., has one scheduled Sept. 29.

Scott LeDoux, the commission's executive director, hopes state oversight will convince cities such as Red Wing and Willmar, which have banned MMA fighting, to reconsider hosting events.

"There were about 40 shows last year with no oversight, and several people from the state were talking about closing it down," LeDoux said. "I wanted a level playing field. MMA is a very exciting sport that has zoomed past boxing in the United States. I think they've done a great job of marketing to young people in their 20s."