You don’t want to get in the ring with a champion of the full-combat sport of mixed martial arts. MMA fighters are big, tough, and could hurt you to pieces. Ditto, of course, for professional boxers. So when these athletes come out against dog fighting, it’s pretty awesome, and the right people tend to listen.

I recently learned through Dogster Augusta Louisville about the nonprofit group, Knock Out Dog Fighting. Its website describes it as “a one-of-a kind, award-winning youth intervention program that has become a national leader in stopping cruelty and abuse to both humans and animals.” It really seems to be a taking the message to where it needs to go: To schools, Boys & Girls Clubs, juvenile detention centers, and at-risk-youth programs.

Knock Out Dog Fighting has produced a bunch of powerful PSAs by some real . Check out this one by MMA fighter Brett “The Grim” Rogers, who tells kids that dogs “want to be your friend, and they would do anything for you. Your dog is for your family not for fighting…I have a choice when I go into a ring, dogs don’t.”

Not only does the group do great outreach, but its volunteers rescue, care for, and re-home dogs who have been used in fighting or are victims of other abuse. That really packs a punch! (As does the touching PSA atop this post, featuring dogs “talking” about the cruelty of dog fighting, and the video below, which the group shows during its outreach.)

Check out Knock Out Dog Fighting’s site. If you have a strong constitution, they’ve got a video on the home page that shows snippets of dog fighting videos, and some of its victims. Not that any Dogsters need the fire lit under them about dog fighting…

Here’s to the real champs winning this fight.