Page returns from hiatus with impressive victory
‘Shermantor’ lives the dream, beats Sanchez
ISLETA PUEBLO — He calls himself the Angel of Death.
Figuratively speaking, Jesus Urbina likely would not disagree.
Albuquerque MMA fighter Damacio Page, returning from a two-year hiatus, dropped Urbina with a crushing left hook and finished him with a rear naked choke, taking a dramatic firstround victory Friday night.
The flyweight fight was the main event of Jackson-Wink Fight Night 2 at Isleta Resort & Casino.
Page improved his record to 20-10. Urbina, of El Paso, is 8-6.
“Everybody knows I go out there and drop bombs,” Page said afterward. “… (But) you’ve got to keep calm, you’ve got to (control) your emotions.
“I threw my left hook hard and hurt him bad. Then I didn’t just jump in and try to kill him. I was ‘All right, pick and choose my shots, finish this.’”
Page, a former UFC fighter, has a contractor’s license and is the head wrestling coach at St. Pius X. But if the UFC were to call, he said, he’d listen. In other fights: Los Lunas heavyweight Cody East avenged a 2012 defeat against Tony Lopez, defeating the Yucaipa, Calif., veteran by bloody unanimous decision.
All the blood flowed from Lopez’s right shin, opened by an East leg kick in the first round. By fight’s end, East was covered with it.
East (13-3) successfully resisted the all-out aggressiveness that cost him in his first fight against Lopez (56-27) — moving and picking his shots, punching and kicking effectively. For added measure, East took Lopez down three times in the third round.
The judges saw it 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 for East.
Lightweight Harvey Park, the fighting Curry County sheriff’s deputy, found himself in the cage with a skilled fighter in Frenchman Majdeddine Ayadi. But Park (9-1) showed his own versatility, gradually turning the fight in his favor and securing a rear naked choke. Ayadi (10-3), who trains in Albuquerque at Jackson-Wink, tapped out at the 4:05 mark of the first round.
“He’s skilled,” Park said, “but he’s one-dimensional. He didn’t want to strike. … I can wrestle, I can do jiujitsu, I’ve got the full game. … If you’ve got the full arsenal, you can adapt.”
The loudest ovation of the night went to Albuquerque’s Isaac “The Shermanator” Marquez, who fought a display bout with Albuquerque MMA legend Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez.
Marquez, who has Down’s Syndrome, “submitted” Sanchez with an arm bar at 1:35 of the first round.
Marquez, who trains with Sanchez at Jackson-Wink, dedicated his victory to his late mother.
“(Marquez) had a dream, and he went after it,” Sanchez said. “He earned it, and he got it.”
Jackson-Wink lightweight Chris Brown opened the pro card with a victory by first-round submission (rear naked choke) over former Del Norte wrestling champion Brandon Trujillo.
Brown, a brash Houston transplant, quickly showed his confidence was not unfounded. He dropped Trujillo with the first punch of the fight and was completely dominant before finding the choke hold at the two-minute mark.
It was Brown’s pro debut. Trujillo is 1-3.
Brown’s debut has been delayed, he said, by a string of prospective opponents who opted not to fight him.
“I’ve had 15 people turn me down since July,” he said. “… They’re too scared, for reasons like that (his performance on Friday).”
Denver middleweight Andrew Kapel stunned Jackson-Wink’s Maurice Jackson — and quieted the crowd — with a victory by first-round submission.
The taller Kapel fended off a Jackson takedown attempt, took the Chicago native’s back and quickly sank in the choke hold. Jackson tapped out at the 48-second mark. Kapel is 13-6, Jackson 6-2. Jackson-Wink middleweight Wilfredo Santiago got the quickest stoppage of the night, blasting Clovis’ Omar Acosta to the ground with a powerful right hand. No ground-and-pound was necessary, as the fight lasted just 19 seconds.
Santiago is 8-4. Acosta is 2-4.