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KURT PELLEGRINO: "MENTALLY, THAT FIGHT ALMOST ENDED MY CAREER"

By Percy Crawford | September 23, 2008
KURT PELLEGRINO:

"Through this whole fight, I had to call myself a quitter and battle through that. My demons were the toughest fight. I'm just happy I went into the cage and fought because I didn't want to fight. I was scared, my back was against the wall and fighting somebody like Thiago, who is such a good fighter and never gets tired, I had to prove a lot to everyone...beating Thiago definitely helps me sleep better at night," stated UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino as he talked about his recent win over Thiago Tavares. Check out what else he had to say as he talks more about the fight, working with Kenny Florian and Kevin Kearns, his prior loss to Nate Diaz and much more.

PC: Congrats on the win over Tavares.

KP: Thank you!

PC: How do you grade your performance?

KP: To be honest with you, I'm going to grade myself an A- just because I out-conditioned a guy that I didn't think I could out-condition. My heart and my condition was suspect. Everyone knows my Jiu Jitsu is good and my hands are getting better and better every fight, but nobody thinks that I have heart. Through this whole fight, I had to call myself a quitter and battle through that. My demons were the toughest fight. I'm just happy I went into the cage and fought because I didn't want to fight. I was scared, my back was against the wall and fighting somebody like Thiago, who is such a good fighter and never gets tired, I had to prove a lot to everyone. That's why I give myself an A-. It would be an A+ if I would've fought a little better, but that's about as good as you're going to get.

PC: I heard you've never watched the Nate Diaz fight. How much did that fight take away from you mentally?

KP: Mentally, that fight almost ended my career. Nate is a good fighter. I really don't think he's a bad fighter or a bad kid, but if I could ever get a rematch with Nate, I would jump all over it. I'm not calling Nate out and I really don't care if I don't ever fight Nate again, to be honest with you, because that chapter in my life is gone, but I wasn't in a good place in my life when I fought Nate. The closest people around me know that I wasn't there mentally. I was there condition-wise. I was in good shape, but I wasn't there mentally and that took a lot out of me physically. It took a lot of my conditioning away in that fight. I can't watch that fight because that wasn't me. I could watch the Thiago fight even if I had lost that fight because I entered into that cage as Kurt and I left that cage as Kurt. I entered the cage against Nate not as Kurt and I left that cage destroyed. It was hard for me to even look at people that I did Jiu Jitsu with because I got submitted by someone that would never submit me in 100 years. He won fair and square, but I had to realize that I was a quitter and I was a loser for me to get back in the Octagon and fight again.

PC: Kenny Florian was barking instructions and you followed them. He told me you helped him a great deal for the Huerta camp. How much did he help you for this camp?

KP: Kenny Florian helped me tremendously. He did help me physically, but I think he helped me more mentally more than anything else. All of those guys, that whole Boston crew, Mark, Kenny and Keith Florian, Kevin Kearns and all of the guys that they train with. For a long time in my career, it was Kurt training Kurt to get ready for a fight. Those guys were there for me on the phone and they were there boosting my ego and that's what I needed. Kenny was there every second. I could call Kenny at 3 in the morning and he would call me back to make sure I was okay. I haven't really had a coach since I left Renzo's school, but I consider Kenny Florian my head coach. That's really what I needed; someone that was really there for me. I heard Kenny and that was the difference. Whatever Kenny said, I did. I did not want to make my coach mad at me. KenFlo was the best choice I ever made.

PC: Did it surprise you any that Tavares made it out of the first round?

KP: I was actually surprised. Every fight I get into, when the fight should actually be stopped, they never stop it for me. I think it's because they want to see if I have a heart or they just want to see the best fight of the night so thank you UFC for "Fight of the Night" again!

PC: I know man. I wouldn't want to be on a card with you because you can x-out one of the bonus checks automatically.

KP: (Laughing) Oh yeah, I take it all. I took "Fight of the Night" twice and "Submission of the Night" once. If he would've tapped to that armbar, I would've took "Submission of the Night" rather than "Fight of the Night." Every time I fight, I really believe that God does have a plan and I wouldn't have been happy with finishing him in the first round. I really wanted to see how good my conditioning was. I wanted to see what burnwithkearns.net was really all about. The "Burn Kearns" is my new conditioning coach and I wanted to see if what he was blowing up my butt was the truth. "You're going to be the best. You're going to be in the best condition of your life." He told me he felt sorry for Thiago Tavares for stepping in the cage with me and he's a condition freak right next to Sean Sherk. Thiago out-conditioned Tyson Griffin when they fought and that's pretty hard to do. I knew what I was getting myself into and I didn't even want to do that fight. Coming into that fight knowing I had no conditioning and no heart fighting that kid...when I hired Kevin...like I said, if that fight would have been stopped in that first round, I would have been pissed because I wanted to see what "Burn Kearns" was all about? And I tell you what, he's the greatest guy in the world. I can't believe that it...well, I do believe that it worked, but for me, I can't believe that it worked. He's my golden egg.

PC: It seems like the poke in the eye bothered you a lot in that second round. He jumped right on you afterwards. How much did that bother you? 

KP: To be honest with you, it did hurt my eye. I'm still having an eye problem right now, which is a little funny. It didn't affect me that much at all. It was an accidental finger in the eye; it happens in a lot of fights and I don't think he intentionally did it. It didn't affect him throwing me and taking me down or nothing like that. I just kind of went to sleep a little bit when we were in the clinch and he caught me sleeping and that's a fighter's mistake. I should have kept the constant pressure on him and he would have had to work with that.

PC: Was this the kind of win you needed, a hard-fought 3-rounder with a young, durable guy to get your confidence back where you needed it to be?

KP: Yeah! This fight here made my whole career again. Thiago Tavares in my mind was the guy I never wanted to fight. I think Thiago...I know Thiago is the toughest fighter that I've ever fought. I said that going into it. I might be a better wrestler than him and his standup was just as good as mine, but the problem was this kid was a condition freak and I knew what I had to do to beat him in conditioning. You could fight a guy that has no wrestling, but if he doesn't get tired, how do you beat a guy like that? You could take them down 100 times, but they keep getting back up and they keep coming after you. Those are the fights that you really don't want to get in; those are the dangerous fights. Beating Thiago definitely helps me sleep better at night.

PC: Yeah, it appeared that you broke him mentally.

KP: Yeah, it's an old saying that I always used from my father. My dad used to tell me he knew when I was tired when I wrestled. I asked him how did he know and he told me, "When you step backwards." So what I used to do is every time we would shake hands, I would step forward. Every time we would go out of bounds, I would stand up right away and run back to the center. Even if I was tired, I still did those things because I showed my dad that I wasn't tired and that helped my mental toughness then. Doing that as a high school kid, I remembered that's what I had to do and we were both tired, but I just kept coming forward and he just kept going backwards.

PC: It appeared to me he tapped to the armbar. Have you gone back and watched the fight and do you believe he tapped as well?

KP: Personally, I thought he tapped, but I never felt it.

PC: It looked like you released it because right after he tapped, he escaped it.

KP: No, his arm, actually when it popped, it popped towards my head and you have to push the legs over his head to get out of an armbar so when it popped, it went in that same direction and released the pressure I had on it.

PC: You've been hitting and missing in the UFC. You win one and then lose one. Do you think Kevin Kearns and Kenny Florian are the keys to you becoming more consistent inside of the Octagon?

KP: Yeah, like I said, I put those guys in my camp for the reason of finishing out my career. Those guys are my success from now on in. If I lose, it's going to be because I got knocked out. It's not going to be because I beat the crap out of some guy and then mentally shut down; it ain't happening no more.

PC: You've fought Joe Stevenson before. Is it safe to say you will be working with Kenny again for this camp?

KP: Absolutely!

PC: I saw you do this in the Diaz fight and again in the Tavares fight and Joe Rogan mentioned it both times. You were in side control and jumped into both guys guard. Is that by design or are you unaware at the time that you are doing that?

KP: You know, I like beating people up inside their guard. When you're in side control and they are good at Jiu Jitsu, that don't make them sit there and fight and I think you waste a lot of energy that way by constantly trying to fight and stay in side control and flexing your muscles. When you're in someone's guard, you're not flexing your arms, your chest and squeezing with your back. You're not doing nothing but posturing and punching the guy in the face. It's not getting the other guy as tired when you're in side control and it gives the other guy the opportunity to sweep you. If I'm in half guard, I'll stay there all day if I have a good base, but from side control, I have a nightmare kind of from when I fought Drew (Fickett) because he did some crazy bridge and ended up on my back. I'd rather be in the guard or in half guard than side control unless the guy has no Jiu Jitsu.

PC: What would you like to do next and when?

KP: I would like to fight January 31st or at the end of February for sure. It's a little hectic for me right now. I'm trying to buy a house and my new school is opening up on the 29th of this month so it's a lot of stuff that I'm personally taking care of that I should've taken care of before I fought Thiago. I took my family and put them on hold to go to work so now I'm going to spend some time with my family and get ready to go to work in January.

PC: Tell us a little bit about your Academy.

KP: It's going to be in Belmar, NJ. It's going to be called Kurt Pellegrino Mixed Martial Arts. We will be training with the Gi on and No-Gi, Muay Thai Kickboxing, Kickboxing, kid's Jiu Jitsu and a women's cardio class. We also run kettlebells. We have 3 certified kettlebell instructors at our school. That's probably the biggest class that we've got. There are millions of people in there for kettlebells. I'll actually have Sharon Wentworth coming in there to do a conditioning course with some of the students that's interested in doing like strength and conditioning kind of work. It's like what I do for my fights so that will give them a little taste of what I do. Anyone that wants to know how I get my condition, I have Sharon Wentworth, who works with Kevin Kearns, and she implements his gameplan with me down in New Jersey. We're going to start offering that to other people so if you want to see what it takes to be a fighter, boom, give her some money and she'll let you know (laughing).

PC: Congrats again on the win. Good to have you back on FightHype.com. Is there anything you want to say to close out this interview?

KP: I want to thank Warrior Wear, the UFC, Dana White, Joe Silva and Zuffa. I really want to thank my beautiful wife Melissa Pellegrino and my beautiful little girl Priscilla Pellegrino for sticking with me, making all of my food and putting up with my crazy, cranky shit. I was absolutely a maniac for this fight. I was probably crying twice a week because I wasn't sure of myself and she stuck by my side as usual. I have to thank all of my new students and new fighters. Thank you guys and the Boston crew. Go Red Sox!



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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