Jayda Bailey’s mixed martial debut was long anticipated, but brief in duration.
The Hermon High School senior from Levant, who had to wait under Maine law until her 18th birthday to enter the cage in the Pine Tree State, required just 93 seconds to emerge victorious in the opening bout of last Friday’s NEF 31 show at the Aura nightclub in Portland.
Bailey, who turned 18 eight days before the bout, used her wide array of combat sports skills to defeat Denae Dostie of Fryeburg by a first-round technical knockout in their scheduled three-round amateur bantamweight (135-pound) contest.
“I went to tap gloves with her and she tried to punch me right off the glove tap, which was kind of unsportsmanlike,” said Bailey. “So I started putting pressure on her and throwing, and I think she tried to put on a body lock and I tripped her.
“I ended up getting on top of her and she held my hands down for a little bit so it was hard for me to frame on her face but finally when I did frame on her I pushed her head to the mat and punched her until the ref called it.”
Bailey, who has trained at Young’s MMA in Bangor since age 12, became the youngest fighter to earn a victory in the NEF cage with her ground-and-pound victory over Dostie — a 2014 graduate of Fryeburg Academy who also was making her amateur MMA debut.
“It was less of a learning experience for me and more just getting to feel comfortable in there,” said Bailey. “I got the chance to finally understand what it feels like to be in the cage. I’ve had so many competitions in front of so many different crowds, but I wanted to feel what that (an MMA match) was like. I think I handled it pretty well.”
While Bailey has competed in numerous combat sports disciplines including boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling since being introduced to martial arts at age 4, she said the sold-out Aura crowd was the largest gathering to watch her fight to date.
“I loved it. I was trying to embrace it. Just having everyone there to see me fight at that time and having everyone cheer for me when my hand was raised was an amazing feeling,” said Bailey, who spent time at the prestigious Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, two years ago and hopes to return there next summer after graduating from high school.
“I thought I was going to be nervous but it was more excitement. I wasn’t afraid to fight, I was more excited about the experience.”
Bailey hopes to return to the cage next Feb. 3 at New England Fights’ NEF 32 show scheduled for the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
Witham wins amateur title
Elsewhere on the NEF 31 card, three amateur champions were crowned.
Justin Witham, fighting out of the Shatterproof Combat Club in Dexter, defeated Nate Boucher from Central Maine Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Lewiston by three-round split decision to capture the vacant NEF amateur flyweight title and improve his record to 4-4.
Terrance Jean-Jacques scored a unanimous decision over defending champion Nick Gulliver to win the promotion’s amateur heavyweight crown, while Hilarie Rose became the first women’s champion in NEF history, winning the women’s amateur strawweight belt with a first-round TKO over Alex Walker.
