Cepeda wins comeback fight in ROP 16

Trench Tech’s Ning “The Slicer” Cepeda holds on to the neck of Gracie Barra’s Jose “Young Blood” Ramirez during the first round of their 155-lb bout in the Rites of Passage 16: Unleashed last Friday at the Royal Taga Hall of the Saipan World Resort. (ROSELYN B. MONROYO)

Trench Tech’s Vince Ning “The Slicer” Cepeda returned to the octagon cage after a year-long absence and won over GMT/Gracie Barra Jose “Young Blood” Ramirez of Guam in their 155-lb bout in Rites of Passage 16: Unleashed last Friday at the Royal Taga Hall of the Saipan World Resort.

Cepeda used his grappling and wrestling skills to earn a victory via unanimous decision against Ramirez. Two judges scored the three-round tiff at 30-27, while the third judge gave Cepeda a 30-26 edge. Ramirez absorbed his first loss in three appearances in Rites of Passage and second in his MMA career after, as he tried to go for a stand-up fight and threw punches to the body of Cepeda, but could not get his momentum going with the Trench Tech bet either holding him down the canvas or tying him up at the cage’s side. Ramirez won his first two fights on Saipan via TKOs, as he pounded Travis Eubanks in ROP 13: Destiny in 2012 and Vince “Sanity” Pua in Trench Warz 17: Night of the Champions last year.

The Ramirez-Cepeda collision was a semi-main event bout and came after nine other MMA bouts.

In the first MMA match, Guam’s Ernie Santos handed Zalaka’s Allan “The Silver Bullet” Aguon his first loss. The two fighters consistently exchanged blows in the first two rounds and the stand-up fight was pretty even heading into the opening minute of Round 3 before Santos caught Aguon’s neck and went for a rear-naked choke. Aguon could not get out of trouble and submitted to his foe at the 1:58 mark of the last round.

Santos’ triumph over Aguon started Guam bets’ string of victories, as six other visiting fighters from Saipan’s neighboring island also recorded wins in their respective bouts.

In the semi heavyweight bout between Guam’s Rocky “Rockstar” Quichocho and Trench Tech’s Slade “The Rage” Adelbai, the former threw deadly combinations into the bloody face of the latter in the third round for a TKO win at the 4:38 mark of that period.

Before getting punished by Quichocho’s punches, Adelbai held his own against his much younger foe, unloading some strikes during a stand-up fight in the first two rounds.

Quichocho’s fellow Guamanian fighter—Ryan “The Predator” Toves—also bagged a TKO win. Toves surprised Saipan’s Jun Taitingfong with a jumping kick that brought the latter down the canvas and before the former went for the killer blows, referee Keith Nabors stopped the bout at the 2:41 mark of Round 1.

In another Guam versus Saipan duel, Scotty “Da Slaya” Eclavea used an arm bar to beat Josh “Oh My Gosh” just over a minute (1:26) into the first round. Purebred Guam’s Mikey Sanchez worked out an arm bar, too against Saipan’s K.J. “Man Down” Villagomez to finish the fight at the 2:08 mark of the opening round.

In the Guam versus Guam encounter, Purebred Guam’s Eric Siam won his debut fight on Saipan after stopping HBP’s Mitchel Torre via Guillotine choke at 2:23 of the first round.

Completing the list of Guam bets who returned home victorious were Rob Eclavea and Jerome Cruz. Eclavea won via default after a no-show from Tinian’s Haini “The Prodigy” Hofschneider, while Cruz nailed a unanimous decision win over Trench Tech’s Walt “The Silent Assault” Florencio.

In other results, Trench Tech standouts Lenny “The Machine Gun” Sablan and Seongho Chung got TKO wins over separate foes. Chung was paired against D2S’ Jay “Bonbon” Camacho and unleashed a string of punches as he gained top position for the TKO win at the 1:58 mark of the first round. Sablan posted the TKI triumph in the second round (1:30), as he got out of Jones Langu’s grip down the canvas and threw a flurry of punches to the latter’s head, prompting referee Frank “The Crank” Camacho to stop the fight.