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A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2016 Herald Sports Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports Umatilla man changes his life with mixed martial arts Talley brings momentum into Farm-City Past Hermiston winners performing well on tour By WILL DENNER For the Hermiston Herald Nearing the most im- portant ight of his career to date, Abraham Campos of Umatilla said he’s now making the right choices. Training out of Pend- leton mixed martial arts gym Solid Base Jiu-Jitsu, Campos has dedicated him- self to eating healthy, and improving his stamina and technique in preparation for a bout with Idaho’s Andrew Cruz. Campos and Cruz will square off at Front Street Fights 9 in Boise on Friday. The stakes of this ight are unlike any Campos has faced previously. Front Street Fights is a feeder organization to Bellator MMA — widely considered the most elite circuit below UFC. If Cam- pos beats Cruz, who owns a 2-0 professional record, he could gain signiicant momentum in his ighting career. “I look at it like the most important ight of my career and I take it very seriously,” he said. Campos, 22, has come a long way professionally and personally since he irst set foot in an MMA gym seven years ago. Johnny Picard, owner of Solid Base, met Campos in December 2009 when both started training the same week at Straight Blast Gym in Umatilla. Campos came in a scrawny, tall and troubled kid. Picard heard stories from Campos involving him packing weapons and often getting into ights to fend for himself. He was raw, both in skill and at- titude, and didn’t stick around for long. As he continued getting into trouble at school, his parents grew increasingly worried. At their urging, Campos eventually agreed to attend Oregon Youth Challenge Program, an al- ternative school and boot camp program in Bend. He spent 22 weeks there, and returned home determined to get his life on track. “I started thinking about the decisions I was making that were not just affecting me, they were affecting my family and everybody else around me,” Campos said. “That’s when I started fo- cusing.” Campos enters Friday’s featherweight bout with a 1-1 professional record, Tournament golfs ‘fore’ life Golf Fore Life beneits Pregnancy Care Services in Pendleton and Hermiston. The nine-hole, four-per- son scramble is Saturday. Aug. 27 with sign-in at 1 p.m. and a shotgun start at 2 p.m. at Echo Hills Golf Course. The cost is $240 per team. Individuals can pay $60 and be added to a four- some. The fee includes green fees, a cart and a bar- becue dinner. In addition, prizes will be awarded to the top team and winners of the longest drive, closest to the pin and longest putt contests. Mul- ligans can be purchased for $10. Also, people who don’t golf are invited to come for the dinner, which costs $15. Pregnancy Care Services provides resources for men and women who are faced with making decisions re- garding an unplanned preg- nancy. They have ofices in Hermiston and Pendleton. People planning to par- ticipate are asked to regis- ter by Wednesday, Aug. 17. For more information or for a registration form, call 541-276-5757, 541-567- 2393 or visit www.preg- nancycareservices.com. PRCA Media & Hermiston Herald STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Abraham Campos, left, warms up with sparring partner Justin Milani on Monday at Solid Base Jiu-Jitsu while preparing for a ight later this week in Boise. although his loss came against the UFC’s Jason Novelli. It was Campos’ irst professional match-up in March 2014. Novelli was undefeated at the time, and Campos battled him into the second round before ul- timately losing by technical knockout. Novelli is now 11-1 as a professional, and made his UFC debut Aug. 6. “That loss, it didn’t put me down, it let me know what I needed to work on,” Campos said. “I look at (Jason) like a lesson in life and my MMA career… I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that (ight).” Campos began lifting weights more often, try- ing to bulk up his 6-foot- 1, 145-pound frame. He also started running in the mountains to improve his conditioning. But his return to the cage had to wait. His second son was born short- ly after the loss to Novelli. As a single father, he found little time to train for a ight. Two years later, howev- er, Campos inally got his chance to move on from the loss. At Wildhorse Ca- sino’s Mission Mayhem in April, Campos defeated Jack Floyd in two minutes, 44 seconds to earn his irst professional win. His growth as a ighter is impressive, Picard said, but even more so, how he’s turned his life around. Campos, has since become a correctional oficer at Two Rivers Correctional Institution, and commutes to Solid Base a few times a week for training. All of this while raising his two boys, ages 1 and 3, with help from his mother. “I’m on the road a lot,” he said. His job at TRCI often puts him in chaotic situa- tions where he must keep his cool. With the help of MMA, which Campos calls a lifestyle more than a sport, he learned how to channel his anger. Campos still has a mean streak, but now it’s being put to good use. Front Street Fights 9 begins Friday at 7 p.m. The organization will live stream each ight with com- mentary on its Front Street Fights YouTube channel. Jacob Talley’s 2016 sea- son has oficially gone from a dream to a reality. The 25-year-old steer wrestler from Keatchie, Louisiana, won the 40th an- nual Dodge City Roundup Rodeo Aug. 7, continuing his career-best year. He clocked a time of 4.2 seconds to win the short round, and took the average title with a time of 13.6 sec- onds on three head. “I knew I had a good steer drawn — they had been 3.8 and 4.4 on him this week — so I just had to score well,” Talley said of his run in the short go. “He did exactly what I thought he would do, and he was outstanding on the ground.” Talley’s emergence into the top 10 of the world standings has been rapid. He picked up big wins ear- lier this season in Clovis, California, and Pleasant Grove, Utah, and hasn’t lost any steam. He entered the week- end ninth in the world, but with the $6,237 he earned in Dodge City, along with $3,011 banked in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Heber City, Utah, Talley moved to sixth. “It doesn’t feel real to be having this kind of season, and it won’t sink in until the regular season is over and I’m in the top 15,” Talley said. His next chances to help lock up that standing come this week in a trio of Wrangler Million Dollar 28th Farm-City Pro Rodeo WHAT: One of the final stops on the PRCA’s Wrangler Million Dollar Tour WHEN: Wednesday-Satur- day, 7:25 p.m. (Specialty acts begin at 6:45 p.m. the first two nights) WHERE: Farm-City Arena at the Umatilla County Fairgrounds COST: $17 general admission, $20 reserved, $5 children Tour Silver Rodeos which also represent contestants’ inal chance to earn money toward qualifying for the nationally televised PRCA Champions Challenge events. One of those stops is in Hermiston with the Farm- City Pro Rodeo, which be- gins tonight in conjunction with the Umatilla County Fair. Also coming into Herm- iston with a head of steam is new PRCA all-around leader Russell Cardoza of Terrebonne. The 2012 Farm-City all-around winner became the third cowboy to top the world standings in as many weeks when he and team roping partner Dustin Bird split wins at two Montana rodeos to leapfrog Colora- do tie-down roper and steer wrestler Josh Peek. Cardoza isn’t the only former Hermiston cham- pion coming into the week atop the world standings. Kaleb Driggers, who won the team roping title last year with heeler Mar- tin Lucero in 10.1 seconds on two head, leads Luke Brown by nearly $7,000 as he chases his irst world ti- tle. Defending Farm-City tie-down champion Timber Moore also is hoping to fol- low Hermiston success with a world championship as he leads his event by more than $12,000 over Marcos Costa. He made his fourth Nation- al Finals last year but is still looking for his irst title. Steer wrestler Ty Erick- son, another 2015 Hermis- ton champion, is less than $3,000 behind world leader Jason Thomas and defend- ing Farm-City saddle bronc champion Zeke Thurston is ranked fourth. Garrett Smith won the 2015 Farm-City all-around with the unconventional pairing of bull riding and steer wrestling and enters the week No. 15 in bull riding. The highest ranked East- ern Oregon cowboy enter- ing the week is team roping header Garrett Rogers of Baker City in 15th. Bareback rider R.C. Landingham, for- merly of Pendleton but now residing in Hat Creek, Cali- fornia, is ranked ifth. The 28th Farm-City Pro Rodeo will hold performanc- es at the Umatilla County Fairgrounds tonight through Saturday at 7:25 p.m. Tickets are $17 for gen- eral admission, $20 for re- served seating and $5 for children — cost includes entry to the Umatilla Coun- ty Fair. Tickets can be purchased at Banner Bank locations in Hermiston, Pendleton, Umatilla, Stanield and Boardman, the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce, NW Farm Supply and Fies- ta Foods in Hermiston, and the Farm-City Pro Rodeo and Umatilla County Fair ofices.