Tonight on Friday night, Legacy Fighting Championships will bring their 20th show into the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. May 31st will be the date of yet another exciting event featuring several of the top regional fighters that Texas claims as their own. In the evening’s main event, Texas lightweight prospect Carlos Diego Ferreira will face off with long time WEC/UFC veteran Carlo Prater. The intriguing part for New Mexico fight fans however, is scheduled to go down just a few fights prior to the main event.
Former WEC top contender and UFC Bantamweight Damacio “The Angel of Death” Page (15-8) will end a nearly 11-month hiatus since being cut from the UFC promotion to make his cage return under the Legacy promotional banner. The 30-year old Page draws 23-year old hometown fighter and rising prospect Patrick “The Juggernaut” Ybarra (5-0).
For Page, this is an opportunity at career resurgence and redemption as he has fallen to four consecutive defeats. In 2009, the Jackson-Winklejohn fighter was high atop the world rankings as a bantamweight. At 135-pounds, Page had defeated perennial title contender Scott Jorgensen while also finishing current Legacy Champion Will Campuzano and Bellator title challenger Marcos Galvao in a combined one minute and twenty seconds. Heading into 2010, it all seemed to be working great for Damacio Page.
After some lengthy, injury related layoffs Page now is facing a nearly three year stretch where he has dropped four consecutive bouts all coming by way of submission. From a guillotine choke loss to current UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson back in the WEC to his most recent bout where he submitted to Alex Caceres via triangle choke back in July of 2012 at an UFC on Fuel event, Page has fallen on some very unfortunate times.
After going 0-3 under the UFC banner, Page was released and has since signed on with the Legacy Fighting Championship organization where he should make an immediate impact on the promotions divisional ladder. In Page’s way of redemption stands a fighter who made his professional debut in late-2012 and on paper represents so many career opposites.
Patrick Ybarra had his first pro fight in August of 2012 and during the time of Page’s layoff, has competed five times going perfect in that stretch. During his unblemished run, Ybarra has finished all five opponents. His last two bouts were his most notable as he competed at Legacy 17 finishing his opponent by arm-bar in under 90-seconds. His most recent bout was against Bobby Huron, who many will remember as relative of Leonard Garcia and having trained within the same confines of Page in the Jackson-Winklejohn gym. Ybarra would earn his first non-submission win, defeating Huron by technical knockout in 42-seconds.
Page has a chance to derail the hype coming out of the hometown fighter’s name and simultaneously re-plant himself upon winning ways. While his camp is based around the Jackson-Winklejohn gym, Page has addressed the issues some have speculated to be at the base of his problems. Many have noted the cardio of Page to be an Achilles Heel as he has diminished late in fights including his last three where the submissions came in the second round. Damacio has added Adrian Gonzales from Elevate PHW as a Strength and Conditioning Coach in a way to re-focus and apply himself progressively to becoming a fighter who can use endurance to not only survive the late rounds but to be able to use endurance to his arsenal. Page has won twelve of fifteen fights in the first round and is an incredible 12-4 when the fights end in the first frame while being an underwhelming 3-4 when the fight sees a second round.
Page and Ybarra have a natural disparity in fighting styles making this clash a complete style contrast. Page is known to be an aggressive, fast paced striker utilizing pressure and powerful attacks to overwhelm opponents. Ybarra has a knack for submissions, mostly setting up and finishing arm bars from grounded positions. Due to the difference in fighting styles it is easy to envision both fighters working to get the fight into their realm of comfort inside the cage. Page may be looking to work the striking game searching for a knockout while Ybarra may be looking to close the distance in order to drag Page to the mat to hunt out submissions.
Stay tuned to SWFight.com for fight results and post event coverage and as always we encourage fight fans to show your support of one of our own as Damacio Page travels to Corpus Christi to compete at the Legacy 20 event. We wish Page the best in his travels and in his fight against Patrick Ybarra tonight.
