Inside and out of the cage, Bellator’s Pat Curran has always fought forward

SHARE Inside and out of the cage, Bellator’s Pat Curran has always fought forward
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Pat Curran lands a left hook on Georgi Karakhanyan in Bellator 155. (Contributed photo/Bellator MMA)

Pat Curran stayed on the mat entwined with opponent Georgi Karakhanyan, blood dripping from his mouth.

A few moments earlier, Karakhanyan landed a swift kick to Curran’s right ribcage, lacerating his lung. When he reached his corner after the round, coach and longtime training partner Brett Brendel looked at Curran and asked, “Do you want me to call it?”

“No,” Curran replied as he stood, then walked to the center of the cage.

Curran fought through the pain and won, beating Karakhanyan by unanimous decision that 2016 night in Boise, Idaho.

Curran’s entire professional career — he has a 23-7 record — has played out in a Bellator cage, and he has never been afraid to fight.

“When you’re backed into a corner,” Curran said, “you have no other choice but to fight forward, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Curran takes his show to Chicago-area fans on Saturday night. Curran, 31, will face A.J. McKee in Bellator 221 in front of a home crowd at Allstate Arena.

Team Curran is known for more than his fighting.

Curran’s bouts with depression began shortly after his MMA career did, and he decided to open up about it in 2014 after his first featherweight title loss to Daniel Straus.

Depression is nothing new in MMA. Fighters pinball between peaks of joy after big wins to pits of doubt and despair after losses. For Curran, it got to a point he couldn’t keep it to himself.

“I just felt like I lost everything,” he said. “I was struggling financially, I didn’t have a backup plan, and a lot of things started to weigh on me.”

Curran’s career in Bellator began more than nine years ago, and like most fighters, he has been battered and tested, whittled down and built back up. In the trials, Curran’s fight-forward mentality has remained steadfast.

Curran and Brendel met when Curran was 17 training at his cousin’s gym in Crystal Lake. It was the beginning of both of their MMA careers, but Curran had a natural talent that couldn’t be taught. The first day they met, Brendel stored Curran’s number in his phone as “The Future,” and he hasn’t changed it since.

“Pat from the start, even as an amateur, it was always excitement not apprehension before fights,” Brendel said. “It’s very rare to see that in young fighters and even in guys who have been in the game. This kid, from the beginning, was cold as ice. When I saw that, combined with his natural ability, I knew if he decided on it, he could do it.”

His first Bellator fight was in April 2010, and within two months, Curran won Bellator’s lightweight tournament, beating Toby Imada in a split decision.

As quickly as Curran climbed the MMA ladder, he fell losing in the lightweight title fight less than a year later to Eddie Alvarez. Again, he would rise, winning six straight fights, including Bellator’s featherweight tournament and the featherweight title, beating Joe Warren knockout.

Three fights later, he would lose his title in the fight against Straus that changed the direction of his life.

He would go on to win the featherweight title back just to lose it again to Patricio Pitbull.

“It’s a very tough sport,” said Mike Valle, Curran’s current coach. “People don’t understand the pressure that comes with the mentality that you’re only as good as your last fight. It’s cruel.”

After that sequence of fights and his openness about battling depression, Curran is in the best place of his life, in the cage and out. He welcomed a son, Lukas, with his fiance a year ago and has found that balance he was always seeking.

Coming off of three straight wins, Curran is ready for the emerging McKee on Saturday. He has faced other promising fighters like McKee, who are fresh into their careers without a blemish on their record — and very few on their body.

Curran has been a wrench in all of them.

“We don’t overlook any fighter,” Curran said. “He’s riding this really massive wave right now, and it’s hard to stop someone like that because he’s used to winning. I think the deciding factor will be experience and the will to win. I’ve been here multiple times, and I know how to dig down deep when times are tough.”

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