Svingala dominates in amatuer MMA debut

RUTLAND, Vermont — On Saturday night, Dominick Carey quickly learned what most wrestlers in the state already know — Trent Svingala isn’t someone you want to go up against one on one.

Svingala and Carey faced off in an amateur MMA fight at Xtreme Combat in Rutland, Vermont and the soon-to-be Maple Hill senior dominated from the opening bell.

The fight lasted less than three minutes.

Carey charged Svingala at the outset, attempting to take the two-time state champion wrestler off guard, but the 2018 Patroon Conference MVP stopped the rush, scooped Carey up and slammed him to the mat.

“I was definitely surprised at first,” Svingala said. “I mean, most people would think to try to keep it on the feet, but overall everything worked out. I was definitely prepared, whether the fight was going to be on the feet of the ground.”

Svingala rained down punches as Carey attempted to escape for the majority of the fight. The top-flight wrestler showed off some of his jiu jitsu skills and locked in an arm bar, which looked to be the end of the fight, but Carey scrambled until Svingala seemlessly transitioned into a triangle choke.

After a few seconds Carey tapped out.

“Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how everything went. With a first round finish, that’s what you want going in, so I’m pretty pleased with how everything turned out.”

For his efforts, Svingala won the Xtreme Combat bantamweight championship.

While Svingala is used to competing on a big stage, his night in a cage proved to be something new.

“I definitely felt a difference between the atmosphere,” he said. You can tell MMA is more of a spectator sport in the aspect of the crowd and how everything is set up. The emotion is definitely different, too, with a sport that is as close to a real fight as they come.

“Overall, it was just a completely different experience from wrestling.”

With his senior season on the wrestling mat looming, Svingala doesn’t plan on competing in MMA again this year and it is unlikely that he will step in the cage while wrestling in college.

He will continue to train all aspect of the sport, though — something he has done for years.

“I’ve always been mixing it up and training other styles up to this point, so I’ll definitely continue to train MMA. Wrestling will just take a little more priority for the moment.”

A large number of professional MMA champions come from a wrestling background, but Svingala shouldn’t immediately be thrown into the mix with those athletes.

While his wrestling pedigree is unquestioned, he has been training in jiu jitsu and boxing for years. If MMA is something he should pursue after his wrestling career is over, Saturday night provided a glimpse of just how promising a career he can have.

“The next thing would definitely be to win states again next year,” Svingala said of his immediate goals. If he does, he will become just the fifth wrestler in Section II history to claim an NYS title three times.

— Hudson’s Mike Alessi returned to the cage over the weekend, competing for a heavyweight title at Cage Wars 37.

The fight was Alessi’s first in two years and while he competed well in the first round, he ultimately lost in the second round by TKO to Matt Boyce.

Alessi is 5-4 as an amateur with four of his wins coming by way of knockout and one by submission.

— One week from Tuesday, Cairo native Mike Davis will be stepping into the UFC Octagon for the first time.

Davis was selected to be a part of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, fighting Sodiq Yusuff (6-1) in Las Vegas.

Davis is unbeaten at 5-0 as a professional in MMA with all five wins coming by knockout. He is also 3-0 as a professional boxer.