Tag: Cole Konrad

And Now He’s Retired: Bellator HW Champ Cole Konrad(?!)


(Believe it or not, Columbia Pictures saw this coming some 8 months ago, and chose Kevin James to star in a movie about Konrad’s life.) 

Maybe it’s just me, Potato Nation, but recent events have led me to believe that I have stepped into some sort of alternate reality where up is green, foot is west, and Joe Silva apparently never existed. So maybe I should just take the confounding news that current Bellator heavyweight champion and undefeated powerhouse Cole Konrad is retiring from MMA to obtain a position as a financial trader specializing in milk products as sign that my suspicions are correct. Seriously, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

MMAJunkie has the scoop:

The Twincities.com report said Konrad, 28, is leaving fighting to become a financial trader at a Minnesota-based firm that supplies ingredients to the feed, pet food, food processing and chemical industries. Konrad will specialize in trading milk products. 

Plans to find a new champion are unclear at the moment. The news first was reported byTwincities.com and subsequently confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) by a source close to the promotion. 

Of all the reasons for retirement we have heard MMA fighters give…this is a new one.


(Believe it or not, Columbia Pictures saw this coming some 8 months ago, and chose Kevin James to star in a movie about Konrad’s life.) 

Maybe it’s just me, Potato Nation, but recent events have led me to believe that I have stepped into some sort of alternate reality where up is green, foot is west, and Joe Silva apparently never existed. So maybe I should just take the confounding news that current Bellator heavyweight champion and undefeated powerhouse Cole Konrad is retiring from MMA to obtain a position as a financial trader specializing in milk products as sign that my suspicions are correct. Seriously, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

MMAJunkie has the scoop:

The Twincities.com report said Konrad, 28, is leaving fighting to become a financial trader at a Minnesota-based firm that supplies ingredients to the feed, pet food, food processing and chemical industries. Konrad will specialize in trading milk products. 

Plans to find a new champion are unclear at the moment. The news first was reported byTwincities.com and subsequently confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) by a source close to the promotion. 

Of all the reasons for retirement we have heard MMA fighters give…this is a new one.

Granted, it’s not exactly like Cole has been fighting enough lately to reel in a ton of money — he’s fought just twice since the start of 2011 — but considering how far he has managed to come in the sport despite being a professional for less than two years, you can’t help but feel that he is blowing a huge opportunity here.

Apparently there is a lot of money to be made in milk these days, especially in the line of work Konrad has chosen, but I just get creeped out by the kind of crowd it draws. Best of luck to Konrad, though.

Konrad now joins Jorgen Kruth as the second flabbergasting retirement in as many weeks to happen in the world of MMA, and will end his career (for now, at least) with a perfect record of 9-0.

Although Bellator officials have declined to comment on Konrad’s decision, you have to imagine that the finals of this season’s heavyweight tournament — which is set to kick off on October 5th at Bellator LXXV and features a rematch between Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos that will totally happen this time, for reals — will now determine the new champion of the division.

Then again, we’ll probably hear word that three of the four quarterfinalists have been forced to withdraw from the event due to injury any minute now…

–J. Jones

Exclusive: Bellator Heavyweight Champion Cole Konrad on his First Title Defense and Post-Lesnar Team DeathClutch

Friday night, Bellator Heavyweight Champion Cole Konrad kicked off an impressive weekend for heavyweight MMA with his first title defense against Eric Prindle at Bellator 70 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After the event, I managed to catch up with the champion in order to talk about his victory and the current state of Team DeathClutch. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my microphone with me (again), so at times the interview is hard to hear. I’ve taken the time to transcribe it for you, available after the jump.

Friday night, Bellator Heavyweight Champion Cole Konrad kicked off an impressive weekend for heavyweight MMA with his first title defense against Eric Prindle at Bellator 70 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After the event, I managed to catch up with the champion in order to talk about his victory and the current state of Team DeathClutch. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my microphone with me (again), so at times the interview is hard to hear. I’ve taken the time to transcribe it for you, available after the jump.

Cagepotato.com: Great win tonight. You defended your title by submitting your opponent within one minute of the first round. How satisfying is it to get such a quick victory?

Cole Konrad: It’s extremely satisfying. You envision fights in your mind and how you think they’re going to go – or how they could potentially go – and I think it went pretty much according to plan. A little bit different maybe than I had envisioned it, but everything’s alright.

CP: What do you mean by a little bit differently than you envisioned it?

CK: Well, I was anticipating taking a shot I thought he was going to come in to me harder and well, he didn’t, obviously. We kind of kept our distance.

I had a good, strong feeling he was going to throw an overhand with his left, and I was kind of waiting on that, and waiting for him to come in to me. When he did, I just, you know, tied up and worked for a trip off that shot. But part of that was how he came in. So that was the difference of what I had envisioned.

CP: Up until tonight, fans have been a little critical of your performances. How satisfying was it to hear such a loud ovation after your win?

CK: It was satisfying, obviously. I would say obviously in the past I haven’t finished a lot of fights, that I had gone to the judges. That’s not great from a fan’s perspective, and I am a fan also of MMA, so I understand the frustration. From that standpoint, it was gratifying obviously to get this submission, and in short order, too.

CP: We didn’t really get to see it tonight, but how far along would you say your standup game has come?

CK: *laughing* You’ll have to keep waiting and watching! I think it’s come quite a ways, but you never know until you actually put it together out there.

CP: How has the climate at Team DeathClutch changed ever since Brock Lesnar has retired from MMA competition?

CK: It hasn’t changed too much, to be honest. We’re all still pretty much together. Obviously, Brock was a big factor in Team DeathClutch, so a little bit has changed. But for the most part, we’re all still together, rockin’ and rollin’.

CP: Were you a little surprised to see Brock retire when he did, and were you a little surprised to see him go back to pro-wrestling?

CK: No and no, actually. And I have nothing to base that on, it’s just a personal opinion.

Brock is a great guy, and I don’t have too much to say about him besides that. He knows what he wants and he goes after it, and I respect that. He must have known that the time was right to walk away and move on, and if that’s what he thought, I respect it. I wasn’t totally shocked by it, and at the same time, the guy goes after what he wants.

CP: Given that it’s heavyweight week for the UFC, how do you see yourself stacking up against the heavyweight division as a whole?

CK: You never know. That’s the beauty of MMA, you never know. They have some great fighters over at the UFC and I would love to be able to defeat some of them.

CP: One last question before we leave: It keeps coming up about the partnership between Bellator and TNA Wrestling. Would you ever consider doing something like that?

CK: *laughing* Why, do they need a fat kid?

I don’t know. You know, never say never, but where I’m at right now, I don’t think so.

Previously: Exclusive: Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney Talks Women’s MMA, Fighter Insurance, Impact Wrestling and More

@SethFalvo

Bellator 70 Recap: Hawn Victorious, Konrad Quickly Submits Prindle

Let’s get a few things straight before we even start to analyze this one: Yes, Cole Konrad picked up the quickest stoppage of the evening at last night’s Bellator 70 from New Orleans. No, that isn’t our way of saying that the entire card was full of decisions. And no, we aren’t lying to you.

But before we get to that, let’s talk about the evening’s main event. Despite having a heavyweight title fight on the card, the main event of the evening was the lightweight tournament finals between former welterweight standouts Rick Hawn and Brent Weedman. While the first two rounds were razor thin, the third round was all Rick Hawn. Hawn took Weedman down numerous times throughout the round and utilized elbows from inside Weedman’s guard. Weedman put together some late offense, but it was too little, too late. Rick Hawn will meet Michael Chandler next season for a shot at the lightweight title.

Let’s get a few things straight before we even start to analyze this one: Yes, Cole Konrad picked up the quickest stoppage of the evening at last night’s Bellator 70 from New Orleans. No, that isn’t our way of saying that the entire card was full of decisions. And no, we aren’t lying to you.

But before we get to that, let’s talk about the evening’s main event. Despite having a heavyweight title fight on the card, the main event of the evening was the lightweight tournament finals between former welterweight standouts Rick Hawn and Brent Weedman. While the first two rounds were razor thin, the third round was all Rick Hawn. Hawn took Weedman down numerous times throughout the round and utilized elbows from inside Weedman’s guard. Weedman put together some late offense, but it was too little, too late. Rick Hawn will meet Michael Chandler next season for a shot at the lightweight title.

When a champion who goes out and earns the quickest stoppage of his career in his first heavyweight title defense, that speaks volumes on how quickly that fighter is developing. Cole Konrad immediately put the dangerous boxer Eric Prindle on his back and locked in a kimura, earning the tap exactly one minute into the fight. If you were interested in seeing how the Team Deathclutch prospect’s standup has improved, you’ll have to wait for his next fight. Obviously, his submissions seem to be coming along. If Konrad continues to develop into a balanced, complete fighter, he’ll be a tough matchup for anyone in the heavyweight division.

And likewise, it’s hard to be too critical of Eric Prindle. For starters, stepping up to fight a teammate in the first place deserves respect from the fans. As for his performance, preventing a takedown from such a huge, yet technically solid wrestler like Konrad is no easy task. He was taken down and overpowered on his way to the early stoppage. There’s no doubt that Prindle will be back, as Bjorn Rebney already confirmed in last night’s post-event press conference that Prindle will be fighting in the next heavyweight tournament. Hopefully he’ll be back with better takedown defense next time around.

In the bantamweight tournament semifinals, Luis Alberto Nogueira was simply on a different level than Hiroshi Nakamura. Save for an early low blow to Nakamura, Nogueira’s performance was flawless. Nakamura simply had no answers for the Brazilian’s crisp standup, getting outpointed on his way to a third round TKO defeat. Props to Nakamura for almost making it the entire fight, but Nogueira was simply too much for him last night. Luis Nogueira will meet Marcos Galvao for the Season Six Tournament Championship and a shot at Bantamweight Champion Eduardo Dantas.

Also of note, Louisiana’s own Rich Clementi picked up a quick submission victory over Derek Campos. Campos managed to catch Clementi early on, using his superior standup to control the fight. However, the fight quickly changed once Clementi earned a takedown. Once “No Love” got the fight to the ground, the fight was essentially over, as Clementi’s jiu jitsu was simply too much for Derek Campos. Clementi improves to 43-21-1 with the victory.

Full Results:

Main Card:

Lightweight Tournament Final: Rick  Hawn def. Brent Weedman via unanimous decision
Heavyweight Title Fight: Cole Konrad def. Eric Prindle via submission (kimura), 1:00 of Round One
Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal: Luis Nogueira def. Hiroshi Nakamura via KO (punches), 1:58 of Round Three
Rich Clementi def. Derek Campos via submission (guillotine choke), 4:18 of Round One

Preliminary Card:

A.J. Matthews def. Charlie Rader via KO (kick), 3:34 of Round Two
Kelvin Tiller def. Jeremiah Riggs via verbal submission (kimura), 3:38 of Round Three
Jonas Billstein def. Mike Seal via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:55 of Round One
Derek Arcement def. Blake Dufour via unanimous decision

Eric Prindle is Officially the James Irvin of Bellator, Title Fight Against Cole Konrad Postponed


(Who knew that this moment would become a metaphor for Eric Prindle’s Bellator career?) 

At this rate, Bellator’s season five heavyweight tournament is going to take longer to come to a close than Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament, a notion this writer didn’t think was possible until earlier today. Because believe it or not, season five winner Eric Prindle has been forced to withdraw from a scheduled match on less than a week’s notice yet again, this time from his title fight with heavyweight champion Cole Konrad.

The fight, which was supposed to go down at this weekend’s Bellator 65 card, has now been pushed back to May 25th as a result of a hand injury Prindle suffered in training, an injury that he described as “all my own fault.”


(Who knew that this moment would become a metaphor for Eric Prindle’s Bellator career?) 

At this rate, Bellator’s season five heavyweight tournament is going to take longer to come to a close than Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament, a notion this writer didn’t think was possible until earlier today. Because believe it or not, season five winner Eric Prindle has been forced to withdraw from a scheduled match on less than a week’s notice yet again, this time from his title fight with heavyweight champion Cole Konrad.

The fight, which was supposed to go down at this weekend’s Bellator 65 card, has now been pushed back to May 25th as a result of a hand injury Prindle suffered in training, an injury that he described as “all my own fault.”

For those of you who have not followed the story of Eric Prindle’s Bellator run, it is not unlike that of the television show Lost. Every time closure seemed within sight, the rug was abruptly pulled out from beneath the viewing audience at the last moment, leaving them feeling cheated and pissed off, yet somehow more pretentious as well. This first happened in the original finals of the heavyweight tournament, which took place back in November of 2011. Prindle’s opponent at the time, fellow tourney finalist Thiago Santos, nearly punted Prindle’s testicles halfway across this building, leaving the fight to be declared a no-contest when Prindle could not continue.

The rematch was scheduled for Bellator 61, but the former U.S soldier was forced to withdraw from the fight just one day beforehand due to an alleged case of the flu. The rematch was then rescheduled for Bellator 62, and wouldn’t you know it, both fighters actually managed to make it to the weigh-ins. This was where things would go awry once again, as Santos would weigh in at a scale shattering 12.8 pounds over the heavyweight limit. Prindle was awarded a title shot against Conrad, and the fight was scheduled for Bellator 65.

Conrad has not fought since out gunning UFC veteran Paul Buentello in one of Bellator’s infamous non-title bouts at Bellator 48 in 2011 and has yet to defend the belt since submitting Neil Grove at Bellator 32 in October of 2010 to earn it.

Like we said, Prindle’s match against Konrad is scheduled for May 25th, but we wouldn’t recommend buying those tickets just yet.

Bellator 65, on the other hand, goes down this weekend from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey and features a headlining bantamweight title fight between champion Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky and challenger Eduardo Dantas.

-J. Jones

Pat Barry Says Death Clutch Gym ‘Still Marching Forward’ Without Brock Lesnar

Filed under: UFCUFC heavyweight Pat Barry may have halted his two-fight losing streak with a brutal knockout of Christian Morecraft at the UFC on FX event in Nashville last Friday night, but he isn’t letting the success go to his head just yet. It was,…

Filed under:

Pat BarryUFC heavyweight Pat Barry may have halted his two-fight losing streak with a brutal knockout of Christian Morecraft at the UFC on FX event in Nashville last Friday night, but he isn’t letting the success go to his head just yet. It was, after all, the lone win in his last three trips inside the Octagon, as he reminded Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

“I’ve been seeing the world say, ‘There you go getting back on the winning track,’ and ‘You’re back to your winning ways,'” Barry told Helwani. “I would like to say, let me win two in a row and then I’ll feel like I’m on a winning track. As of right now, I just won a fight. That doesn’t necessarily predict what’s going to happen in the next fight.”

What the victory over Morecraft did accomplish was to save Barry from the dreaded three-fight losing in the UFC, which is often the point when the organization will send a fighter packing. While Barry admitted to being “ridiculously nervous” heading into the fight in Nashville, he insisted it wasn’t due to the losing streak or the potential consequences of adding to it.

“That’s the state that I put myself into, just match-ready, knowing that anything could possibly happen.”

What happened in the fight against Morecraft — and what didn’t happen in many of Barry’s previous fights — was that Barry kept his cool after getting taken down, fought off his opponent’s submission attempts, and got back to his feet to deliver the deciding blow. The win showed significant improvement in Barry’s overall game, but the mere fact that he got to demonstrate his defensive ground skills means he’s still got a ways to go, he said.

“I was happy with what I did once I was already on the ground, like…staying poised, staying controlled, not panicking and being able to avoid submissions and getting back to my feet, but the one thing I wasn’t happy with was the fact that I even hit the ground. I showed submission defense and I showed a better confidence on the ground, being under somebody, but I didn’t execute the takedown defense like we had been planning on doing and the way we trained to do it.”

Much of the credit for his gains on the ground go to his coaches and teammates at the Death Clutch gym in Minnesota, Barry said. While some fans seem to believe that the gym has folded up shop ever since its most famous member — former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar — announced his retirement, Barry insisted the rest of the team was “still marching forward; we’re just down one man.”

“We still have [Bellator heavyweight champion] Cole Konrad, and when you have a Cole Konrad, you don’t really need much else,” Barry added. “That dude is a monster.”

According to Barry, the Death Clutch gym has turned out to be the perfect place to deal with his weaknesses as an MMA fighter — namely staying on his feet and out of submissions in a division populated with much larger fighters.

“There’s no secret to the flaws in my game. …What I did was I went and found a gym that consists of giant wrestlers who all do [jiu-jitsu], and with [Rodrigo] ‘Comprido’ [Medeiros], a seven-time world champion who is a super-stud on the ground. So I found a room with a bunch of guys who are a lot bigger than I am, they all wrestle and they all do jiu-jitsu. …What better thing [is there] for me to do?”

The work seems to have paid dividends for Barry in the win over Morecraft. One win might not be a streak, but at least it’s a start.

 

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Video: The Reem Season 2 Episode 8

(Video courtesy of Vimeo/THE REEM)

Our favorite web documentary series is back with another episode just intime for its protagonist’s biggest fight of his career.

In this episode of The Reem, Alistair Overeem does some PR work in L.A. ahead of his UFC 141 bout with Brock Lesnar this Friday and spends some time training with Mark Munoz and company at Reign Training Center.

Shame on HDNet and the Octagon Nation Tour for jacking our swagger (6:08 mark) and props to Overeem for punking the last fan in line at the signing. The dude looked like he was going to cry.


(Video courtesy of Vimeo/THE REEM)

Our favorite web documentary series is back with another episode just intime for its protagonist’s biggest fight of his career.

In this episode of The Reem, Alistair Overeem does some PR work in L.A. ahead of his UFC 141 bout with Brock Lesnar this Friday and spends some time training with Mark Munoz and company at Reign Training Center.

Shame on HDNet and the Octagon Nation Tour for jacking our swagger (6:08 mark) and props to Overeem for punking the last fan in line at the signing. The dude looked like he was going to cry.

What’s up with the “Chessboxing” guy? Strange vibes from him. I’m guessing being shell shocked is the least of his issues.

We also finally get to meet Alistair’s dad, who makes an appearance when he catches one of his son’s training session for the first time ever and explains that it’s too stressful to become emotionally invested in his sons’ fighting careers, so he never watches their fights. Overeem explains that he and his siblings convinced their somewhat frail looking pops to move to Holland since he had been living alone in England for the past eight years.

Joining Alistair at the “Alistair Overeem Training Center” to prepare for the fight are Todd Duffee and Jared Rosholt.

If you judge Alistair and Brock’s training partners by MMA Math (and really, who doesn’t?), neither one has a marked advantage over the other, but “The Demolition Man” may have a slight edge, depending on how you carry the 1. Rosholt’s 125-27 collegiate wrestling record is trumped by Lesnar’s teammate Cole Konrad’s 155-13 mark, while Duffee KO’ed Death Clutch hired gun Tim Hague, who choked out Brock’s striking coach Pat Barry.

Finally, the former Strikeforce heavyweight champ expounded briefly on his recent drug testing issue with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, explaining that he did what was asked of him to the best of his ability.