Cory Devela had been on the wrestling team at Yakima Valley Community College a few years ago when he got the itch to compete in mixed martial arts.
At the time Devela was talented, tough and mostly broke, which were all good incentives to give the sport a try.
“Some of my buddies were doing this on the side and they asked me if I wanted to do it,” the 25-year-old Devela recalled. “They said, ‘Do you want to make $100 or $200?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to jail, am I?’
“They said, ‘No, you’re a good wrestler and we’ve seen you in street fights’ when I was being a stupid kid. They said, ‘We need to put you in a ring.’ Well, it was $200 if you won and $100 if you lost, and when you’re in college $200 goes a long way. So I started getting thrown into fights.”
Devela, who lives in Bonney Lake, had been a successful wrestler at Sumner High School, where he graduated in 2002 after going to state three years, finishing fifth as a junior and sixth as a senior. Using his wrestling background as a foundation for bouts in mixed martial arts, he has compiled a professional record of 9-4 as a welterweight (170 pounds).
Tonight, Devela will be looking for win No. 10 when he takes on Bobby Voelker of Kansas City, Kan., (21-8) in a Strikeforce Challengers Mixed Martial Arts bout at Comcast Arena.
Devela expects a few hundred family and friends from Pierce County to make the drive to Everett for tonight’s match.
But being a local favorite is hardly a guarantee of success. In June of 2009, Devela was matched against Luke Rockhold at the ShoWare Center in Kent — only a few miles from Devela’s Bonney Lake home — and he ended up tapping out (submitting) just 30 seconds into the bout.
Devela admits to some early and very costly mistakes against Rockhold, “and I got beat real quick,” he said. “I like the fact that I have the hometown advantage and that I’ll have a lot of people backing me (tonight), but this time I hope to keep my head on straighter and do a little better.”
Voelker, meanwhile, shrugged off the suggestion of a disadvantage from fighting in what is expected to be a largely pro-Devela arena.
“Fighting in his hometown doesn’t bother me,” Voelker said in a Strikeforce release. “I always want to go for the knockout. That’s just the way I like to do things. Whether I go in there and everyone is cheering for me or (whether) everyone is booing for me, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t hear the crowd until after the fight is over.”
Devela has been out of fighting since his loss to Rockhold because his girlfriend was battling cancer. But she is healthy again and now he is eager to get back in the ring. (“She’s great. She’s up and running, and doing better than ever,” he said.)
“It was just one of those things where you have to put family before everything else,” he said. “She’s all better now, so it’s my turn to fight. … I could be a little rusty because I haven’t been in a fight in a while. But I’m hoping I’ve gone live enough times with the guys in the gym that it shouldn’t be a big factor.”
In tonight’s main event, heavyweight Shane Del Rosario, who is undefeated in nine bouts, faces Lolohea Mahe (4-1-1).
In other matches, Strikeforce women’s world welterweight champion Sarah Kaufman (11-0) takes on Roxanne Modafferi (15-5). Light heavyweight Abongo Humphrey (7-1) fights Mike “Mak” Kyle (16-7-1). And Caros Fodor (2-0) of Shoreline meets Thomas Diagne (1-1) in a lightweight showdown.
The evening’s first preliminary bout begins at 5:30 p.m., and the first main card bout at 8 p.m.
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