McAlester Martial Arts

By Jayson Knight

The championship evening of the Toughman competition and the second night of mixed martial arts fighting in Extreme Cage Combat 8.0 was Saturday night. It was a night featuring an abundance of testosterone, heated brawling, and Rocky theme music. The evening was full of blood, sweat, and maybe even tears when six MMA winners and two Toughman champions were witnessed.

The second MMA fight was between 155-pound fighters Daniel Carter and James Thompson. McAlester native Thompson was looking to strike from the beginning, landing effectively. Carter shot in for a takedown, but an impressive sprawl left Thompson in position to work the ribs of Carter.

After clever transitioning from Carter, Thompson was left pinned inside Carter’s guard, Thompson stood tall and looked for an opening as Carter then trapped the left leg of Thompson with both of his own and began twisting a heel hook. Carter worked Thompson to the ground with him but Thompson neutralized the ground position until the round ended.

Carter ineffectively threw leg kicks that Thompson capitalized on, landing jabs and crosses to Carter’s face. It wasn’t long, however, before Carter succeeded in taking Thompson down and landing in a mount position. Fully mounted, Thompson showed rare resiliency and swept himself into Carter’s guard. Earning a dominant half guard position, Thompson began to work in an over/under choke from the front, suffocating Carter. Both fighters were noticeably fatigued after Thompson counted the seconds until the end of the round as he survived a triangle attempt from Carter.

Both fighters came out in the third round considerably winded. The fast hands and feet of Carter struck with distinction. After a completely extended, falling punch from Thompson from inside Carter’s guard, the last horn sounded. Thompson was declared the winner in his first-ever cage fight. Trainer and brother Davonte Thompson was truly proud when he said, “He’s never fought like this before. For his first time in a cage and no real jiu-jitsu training, I feel like he really showed great ability against a talented dude.”

The next fight was in the square ring where Codale Ford fought for the first time of the night. His opponent showed great agility in dodging what would have been powerful shots from Ford. With both fighters showing keen dodging, there weren’t many shots landed in the introductory round.

The second round was Ford’s as he played the role of the aggressor in landing multiple combos. Codale pressed the action in the third round and his damaging hooks assisted him as he moved on to the championship light heavyweight fight.

The Toughman action continued with Chris Sorells who took on Jared “the Savage” Hailey. Sorells stunned Hailey with his initial blow. This gave him the advantage in the following exchange. The ring-quaking, first round action ended with Hailey being sent out of the ring from a jarring shot from Sorells. In the third round Sorells landed combos at different levels and eventually, leveled Hailey who landed hard and knocked-out. The heavyweight championship would see Sorells.

MMA would have its turn again. The next fight was overtaken by McAlester resident DJ Loveless who welcomed Logan Proctor from El Reno, OK to town with a kick to his ribs. In a moment where the untrained would be reeling in pain, Proctor secured a takedown. He inflicted minimal damage from a dominant ground position while Loveless worked his way back to his feet.

After a kick combo from Loveless, Proctor threw a kick that gave Loveless the opportunity to land a sadistic, physics-defying slam. This destructive introduction to the mat left Proctor open to have his will beaten, bashed and broken. With a ballistic ground and pound, Loveless devastated his foe in a minute and three seconds.

A former state-qualifying wrestler from McAlester, Cephas “Rock” Cannon was the victor after a 46-second fight. “My goal was to take him to the ground and pound him out, which is pretty much what I was able to do,” Cannon informed. Brad Vargison threw one leg kick before being taken into the air and punished by Cannon.

Cannon was grateful to those who helped him reach victory, “Jesus, my dad, Fernando “Oatmeal” Torres, and DJ Loveless, David Bailey for giving me a place to train and get great advice.”  Cannon represented McAlester excellently and was one of the more dominant fighters in the cage.

The more domineering cage fighters of the night were Loveless and Cannon, both fighting out of Thunderfoot gym in Krebs. David Bailey runs the gym and uses his extensive fighting knowledge to brush up the young fighters as well as hone the skills that they bring to the octagon. Bailey expressed his pride in his fighters after they had both fought and won early in their first rounds, “I’m really proud of them, they made it pretty easy for me tonight. DJ works hard and he’s smart. He carried out his gameplan that he’s been working towards. He can go so far, so can Cephas. He trains hard with an array of skills and a big heart. I’m very proud of both of those guys and everybody that trains at the gym.”

With mostly rights, Codale Ford continued the action against Zack Kelley in the championship light heavyweight fight. Kelley landed some shots of his own but throughout the course of the fight, it became evident that Codale was hitting with power as Kelley began hitting only air on his swings at one point in the second round. Kelley didn’t go out without making his name. Codale Ford mentioned, “Zack was definitely the best fight I had. He was the only one of the night that made me feel like I got hit.” Crowned the champion at the end of round three, Ford looks on to October 24 when he will face a competitor in a cage match in Shawnee at Freestyle Cage Fighting. “I’m most definitely looking into MMA. I like jiu-jitsu and I like the clinching, but for me; there’s nothing like having a guy running around the octagon trying to get away from my punches.”

The champion of the heavyweights was Chris Sorells. His brash, cornering method left Acie “DC” Harrison bleeding from the face at the end of their fight, with the more looping, haymaker shots landing in the ribs of Harrison. Sorells spoke of Harrison after the fight, “He was definitely my best fight. He was so hard to catch and he was all over the ring. I had a good guy in my corner that told me to lead with jabs and that’s what I did. I stuck with the jab and worked him into a corner so I could punish him for making me do all that running.”

The Expo Center had held another impressive showing from local talent as well as those traveling from all over the state. Toughman champions Sorells and Ford are looking to their future being in the MMA world where the action is a little more intense and the outcomes more destructive. With MMA growing in popularity, maybe McAlester will have another opportunity to showcase our brawler ability.

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