By Jeff D'Andrea

Smith beats Cepeda at PA’s first Hard Knocks MMA show, earns shot for second title

Jul 20, 2012 | 6:14 AM

La Ronge’s Devon Smith impressed a lot of people won his fifth straight amateur fight at the School of Hard Knocks 26 MMA event at the Art Hauser Centre Thursday.

The Hard Knocks heavyweight champion made quick work of Chicago’s Elias Cepeda, winning by TKO (strikes) 1:12 in the first round of the light heavyweight fight.

Hard Knocks CEO Ari Taub took note of the Smith’s dominating performance. Not only did he say Smith earned a light heavyweight title shot with the first round win, but Hard Knocks may have to recruit a replacement to find somebody to match Smith’s skill.

“He’s head and shoulders above the regular guys around here at 205,” said Taub. “There aren’t actually that many 205 guys around in the Hard Knocks organization so we have to go find some more, because he’s a pretty strong amateur fighter.

“He’s got some skills and I’d love to see us develop him further.”

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After the fight, Smith walked around the Art Hauser Centre proudly wearing his heavyweight belt, but said there’s enough room for another.

“I’d really, really like to have two,” said Smith. “The weight class that I started in, the weight class I want to be in is light heavyweight. I want to have that one and it’s just an honour to have the heavyweight (belt).

“At the same time, those are two really big targets. It’s a lot of training and I enjoy the challenge, the competition is what I love.”

Smith credits his chance to be a dual-belt holder to the lessons he learned from Jan. 15, 2011, the date he lost his only amateur fight to fellow La Ronge fighter Barrett Thompson.

“In that loss, I got predominately on the ground, I was taken down and kind of man-handled,” said Smith. “That was my motivation since then, to really work on that and never let that happen again.”
Always a strong striker coming from a Muay Thai background with Prestige Worldwide, Smith has since honed his takedown defence and sprawling skills.

It’s a good thing because in Cepeda’s first fight, he dominated Glenn Evans on the ground to win by first round TKO May 23 in his native Illinois. Smith’s constant takedown defence paid dividends in his victory Thursday.

“This fight especially, Elias really wanted to get it down to the ground,” said Smith. “He kept trying and trying and it really helped prove to me I have been working on it and I have been improving in that aspect.

“After I initially landed the jab on Elias (early in the round), I had a feeling that he didn’t want to stand up from that point and he was going to try and muscle me up and get me down,” Smith added.

“Fortunately, we were right in his corner, so I could hear what they were saying for him to do— ‘keep driving, keep driving, grab his leg and drive his leg’ so I said (to myself) ‘ok, just keep sprawling. I know what they’re doing, I’ve worked on this, just keep it going.’”

Smith wasn’t the only won with a successful showing. The local MMA gym, LDP Martial Arts posted a 3-1 record.

Brendan Mooney, Brad Campbell, and Luke Benoit all won their fights in the first round while Adam Basaraba lost in the third round to Kenora, ONT’s Hayden Bye—the only fight to make it to the third and final round.

LDP head coach Lucian Phillips was very happy with his students’ showing, especially with their improvement since he started training them a year ago, some more than that.

“Those kids, man, they’ve been doing awesome … I’ve just watched them grow and get better and better,” said Phillips. “I’ve always told them, especially in the last three months, ‘you guys have no idea.’ Before when the guys started, as a coach I’d come in and train and it was just having fun with them and sparring with them.

“Now, I feel like they’re more of my training partners because they’re getting so good. I’ve got to be careful, I can’t fall asleep. They catch me all the time if I’m sleeping, so they’re growing and they’re doing great. They’re enthusiastic, they’re having fun and they love it.”

Campbell won by a guillotine just 41 seconds into the first round over La Ronge’s Tyrone Halkett, Mooney beat Winnipeg’s Brad Lammy by TKO (strikes) in the first round and Benoit used a rear-naked choke to defeat Stanley Mission’s Chad Halkett, also in the first.

Prince Albert’s Cody Bowman, an independent fighter, was a last minute replacement to fight Thomas Richardson of Winnipeg. Richardson won 1:37 into the first round via TKO (strikes).

None of the 13 fights went to the scorecards as they were all finished by TKO, submission or even a disqualification.

The DQ came in an all-La Ronge battle between Ryan Torrance and Dillon Adam at 140 lbs.
Although Torrance submitted in the first round, he was named the victor as Adam was disqualified for illegal blows.

After being previously warned for hits to the back of the head, Adam hit Torrance again in the back of the head shortly after.

The quickest decision came in the third last fight of the night, with Evander Masuskapoe needing just 13 seconds to beat Randell Martell by TKO (strikes), also from the Bridge City.

jdandrea@panow.com

Twitter: @jeff_dandrea