Valhalloween 7 MMA Fight Event: First Time Shooting with Canon R6 Mark II Through the Cage in Venice, FL

Valhalla MMA: Valhalloween 7 fight event took place on October 25th, 2025 at the Venezia Resort Hotel in Venice, Florida.

It was my first time shooting a caged fight event and using the new Canon R6 Mark II camera I recently purchased to upgrade my fightography game.

In this post I'll breakdown what I did, settings I used and the fight shots I got.

Let's get into it.

The Venue

The fights took place at Venezia Resort Hotel in Venice, Florida.

The cage was setup inside the hotel's conference room. It fit just right with not much room for shooting over the cage but enough space for the fighters to do what they needed to do.

Since I had no space to shoot over the cage, I had to shoot through it. And actually this is one of the most common ways you'll be documenting caged fight events.

Also due to the size of the room, it made the entire fight event very intimate and personal. You were up close with the fighters and with the crowd. Something you don't get with larger events in bigger spaces.

Shooting Through the Cage

I had to find a spot, a neutral area where I could shoot through the cage and document all the fights and there wasn't much room to move around.

F4.5, 1/500s, ISO 256000, 39mm

Shooting with the Canon R6 Mark II for the first time was amazingly pleasant experience. Prior to this, I haven't used the camera very much and only had it for couple of weeks.

I was able to get the settings dialed in and start shooting right away.

Few impressive things stood out to me right away with Canon R6 Mark II:

Speed of auto-focus
High ISO with minimal noise
Sharpness of images

I couldn't believe what I was able to capture without much experience with using the camera.

Shooting through the cage allowed me to get some amazing shots of foreground, seeing the cage slightly blurred and the action in the cage itself.

F4, 1/1000s, ISO 25600, 42mm

Camera Settings for the Canon R6 Mark II

Being new to the Canon R6 Mark II camera and not having any experience with it in a very high stress and chaotic environment, I had to focus on a few settings and maximize capturing as many good fight shots as I could.

I used Shutter priority mode, with aperture being automatic and ISO also being automatic. This allowed me to control the most important setting in the camera for capturing and freezing the fight moments and that's the shutter speed.

I was able to push my shutter speed to over 1/1000 of a second while still maintaining sharp images and freezing the motion. The noise was very low even with high ISO.

F4.5, 1/1000s, ISO 12800, 24mm

The lens was Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM. So it usually defaulted to f/4 to f/4.5 aperture with the shutter speeds I was using.

Settings I Did Not Use

I did not use Servo mode where you can keep track of the subject.
I also did not enable continuous shooting.

For this first event, I wanted to minimize the amount of different settings I had to go through due to my inexperience with using the camera.

The Flow of the Fight Event

For this fight event I did not document the weigh-ins. I only came for the fights themselves.

I showed up a few hours before the doors opened, which gave me access to the calm before the storm. The moment where the entire venue is still empty and all you have are the people who run the event and the fighters.

I focused first on documenting the empty venue, the fighters showing up and the backstage.

There is always a rules meeting. This is where all the fighters are in a room and the referee and athletic commission goes over the rules of the event.

F9, 1/80s, ISO 10000, 24mm

Besides the weigh-ins, this is the one time you get to see all the fighters in one single room.

I love the rules meeting. As you get to see all the fighters dealing and processing their emotions before the fights.

F8, 1/80s, ISO 16000, 24mm

You can feel the tension.

Image 1 - F9, 1/80s, ISO 12800, 61mm; Image 2 - F9, 1/80s, ISO 12800, 61mm

Then as the time gets closer to the fight, the doors open, the people begin to come in and the venue begins to fill up.

F4, 1/60s, ISO 5000, 24mm

When the fights begin, the job is to capture the following essential shots.

The walk-in if you have a good vantage point and the path is well lit. For this event it was too dark during the walk-outs to get any good shots.

When they get checked out before they enter the cage:

F4.5, 1/250s, ISO 12800, 76mm

The face-off if you have a good angle and the ref happens to allow this Usually the face-offs are exclusive to the title fights and main events.

F4, 1/250s, ISO 8000, 45mm

In their corner before the fight, the few seconds right before it begins:

Image 1 - F4.5, 1/320s, ISO 25600, 58mm; Image 2 - F4.5, 1/320s, ISO 16000, 37mm

And of course, the entire fight from start to end and all the important action:

F4, 1/640s, ISO 25600, 50mm

The in-between rounds, the one minute rest when each fighter is in their corner:

Image 1 - F4.5, 1/320s, ISO 12800, 83mm; Image 2 - F4.5, 1/320s, ISO 25600, 105mm

The end of the fight, where you go into the cage, capture the hand being raised and get the shot of the winner with the coaches:

F4.5, 1/250s, ISO 8000, 24mm

F4.5, 1/250s, ISO 10000, 24mm

These are your standard shots you MUST get.

But then there are also unplanned moments. Something may happen. Maybe the fighter's reaction in a fight such as this one when he caught me with the camera:

F4.5, 1/250s, ISO 20000, 105mm

Or the audience:

You got to be ready for something unexpected. Sometimes these will be your best shots.

And then, it's on to the next fight to do it all over again.

For this event, I ended up capturing over 4,000+ images.

I was a little trigger happy with the new camera. But it's common that you'll end up this amount of shots if not more.

The fight event featured MMA, boxing and kickboxing.

F4.5, 1/250s, ISO 6400, 87mm

F4, 1/800s, ISO 25600, 56mm

F4.5, 1/1000s, ISO 25600, 24mm

It even featured a grappling match. This was a nice break due to slower pace of the match. It allowed me to take my time and pick my shots.

F4.5, 1/320s, ISO 16000, 76mm

Know and Love the Fight Game

The most important thing is you have to love the sport you are documenting.

And I love the fight game.

I understand it.

I know what the fighters are feeling before, during and after the fight. As I've made the same walk and fought myself.

So loving and knowing the fight game gives me a huge advantage over capturing the shots and documenting each fighter's story. Even if I'm still figuring out the photography game.

What I Learned

Every single event you do, you always learn something new along the way and things you need to improve on.

I need to work on my composition.
I need to start using Servo tracking auto-focus.
I need to start using continuous shooting.
I need to be more intentional with my shots.
I need to learn Lightroom Classic and how to use it in my production pipeline, which I started doing with this event.
I need to get more reps and more experience documenting more events like these.