Fred Dufour, a Beijing-based photo-journalist for the Agence France Presse (AFP) released a photo essay this week that revealed the inner workings of ‘Monster Club’, an underground street-fighting establishment in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Dufour attended a night of fights at Monster Club on June 2nd, snapping over a dozen pictures of fighters facing off in a small and dimly lit cage.
According to Dufour, Monster Club hosts around four fights every Friday night and that participants compete for a $75 purse. The club’s cage is 172-square-feet and the venue allows for some 120 spectators to crowd around the fighting floor, with many of them close enough to reach into the cage.