A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2016
Herald Sports
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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.