London Calling: Pendred pushing for gold at Cage Warriors 52

It’s fight week for those competing at Cage Warriors 52. To kick-off our series of previews, JOE caught up with Cathal Pendred to see how preparation for his world title fight has been progressing.

JOE

London Calling: Pendred pushing for gold at Cage Warriors 52

It’s fight week for those competing at Cage Warriors 52. To kick-off our series of previews, JOE caught up with Cathal Pendred to see how preparation for his world title fight has been progressing.

By Fergus Ryan

SBGi’s Cathal Pendred challenges Gael Grimaud for his Cage Warriors Fighting Championship welterweight title in the main event at Cage Warriors 52 at the Kentish Town Forum in London this Saturday. The main card will be streamed live on JOE.ie.

Cathal took the opportunity to train with some other top notch European welterweights by moving the early portion of his training camp to Iceland. The Mjolnir club in Iceland is home to Gunni Nelson and is also part of the Straight Blast Gym global network.

“I trained in Iceland for four to five weeks,” Cathal told JOE recently.

“It was great because my time coincided with Gunni preparing for the UFC and Arni Isakssson preparing for Cage Contender. So there were three elite welterweights training together, which made the camp really good for me.”

Having won the Cage Contender welterweight title back in 2011, Cathal made no secret of the fact that his ultimate aim was to get to the UFC. He realised he needed to fight outside Ireland with Cage Warriors, Europe’s largest MMA promotion, being the best place to peddle his wares.

After stringing together some victories in Cage Warriors (five so far) Cathal began to call out the champion to make his case for a title shot. His wish was granted by Cage Warriors match-maker, Ian Dean, as Cathal explains.

“I did some talking before the fight was announced but that was me basically trying to get a title fight. Now the fight is signed the focus is on being the most skilful technical Cathal Pendred when I step in the cage on March 9.”

Cathal goes on to share his train of thought on what the future might hold.

“I can only control what I can do,” he says.

“I think I’d 100 per cent done enough to get the title shot. When I win the belt I think that means 100 per cent I should be in line for a call from the UFC. A Cage Warriors title is one of the most prestigious belts outside of the UFC.

“I’m currently ranked by some ahead of the (Cage Warriors) champion and I’m not the underdog in this fight. So, for me, that pretty much proves I’m one of the top welterweights in the world not fighting in the UFC.”

Though Cathal’s last four fights have gone to the judges’ scorecards, he’s not concerned how the outcome is achieved; he’s more concerned about being a winner than a finisher.

“I’m 100 per cent a natural born competitor and I do everything in my power to win. It’s a bonus if I get the win early and that gives the crowd something to really cheer. If you look at my fight with David Bielkedhan though, it won the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus so that means it was a good fight to watch even though it went to a decision.”

We also can’t forget that in a fight, the other guy is trying to win as well. This will of course impact your game-plan, especially if you get hurt early as Cathal did in his last fight with Bruno Carvalho at Cage Warriors 49 as Cathal himself explains.

“The last fight ended up being closer than I would’ve liked. I thought I had him in the first round, but he recovered and towards the end of the round he landed a kick that really damaged my knee.

“The day after the fight my knee swelled up like a football. I basically spent rounds two and three trying to hide how damaged the knee was. I had really worked on my boxing before that fight so I was disappointed I couldn’t load up on my strikes. I clipped him a couple of times but didn’t have the movement to be able to really follow up and capitalise.”

With his eyes on the future, Cathal revealed he’s been thinking about a more than fighting of late. The road to the UFC can be long and winding and, most importantly, quite expensive. With that in mind, Cathal is conscious that he may need to broaden his support base.

“I made a conscious decision to be more commercial about my career. Most fighters that aren’t in the UFC are bank rolling themselves. The sponsors I have are fantastic but to compete on the level of a UFC fighter requires a lot of funding. Basically, I’ve become more active on social media to try and attract more sponsorship.”

This is where JOE readers and Irish MMA fans can play their part. By following Cathal on Twitter @PendredMMA and liking his Facebook page we can, hopefully, play a role in him gaining more sponsorship.

Cathal wanted to thank his sponsors VitiCoco, BigShots Nutrition, the Irish Strength Institute, Dave Mullins at Conquer Mental Skills, coach John Kavanagh and all my team-mates at SBGi and Mjolnir.

MAIN CARD (streaming on JOE.ie in Ireland).