The UFC’s Ireland event this past Saturday July 19th saw popular Irish club fighter Cathal Pendred make a successful UFC debut by taking out Mike King in the second round via Rear Naked Choke. For Pendred, it was a fight that he was favored in at the books and was expected to win, but it almost wasn’t that way.
King won the first round, as he was able to knock Pendred down, following up with an attempted rear naked choke and getting some damaging shots in from the mount. King actually threw Pendred down to the mat in the starting sequence of the fight, and Pendred walked back to his corner wobbly. The second round started off as more of the same, as Pendred was not getting in much offense until he landed a take-down from a body lock on King and quickly worked the rear naked choke to leave King sleeping.
The crowd erupted, and Pendred, who is an fighter who thrives off the emotions, had a very nice come from behind performance in his octagon debut. Pendred’s next fight will be one to carefully watch, as he may come in with a line that is tighter than his skills call for because of his fervent following.
With all due respect, Pendred got to the UFC with a win in his local event over UFC veteran Che Mills. Mills who goes by the nickname is “Beautiful” should explore changing it to ‘lazy’ at this point, led to Pendred getting a coveted slot on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality series, where he lost. Pendred is a hard nosed fighter with a willingness to fight that is admirable, and combined with good charisma, he was invited to the UFC anyway. Despite the win against King, he was well on his way to losing that match before he was able to work the quick finish in on an opponent who was beginning to tire.
If the UFC wants to keep Pendred winning and build him up, they are going to have to be very careful in picking his opponents, since Pendred still has a long way to go before being a contender, despite what his fans tell you. If Pendred’s next opponent ends up being someone like Rick Story, you can look for Pendred’s UFC winning streak to end at one.
