After months of awkward silence, the cat is finally out of the bag, mostly.
Confirmed as one of the 16 middleweight competitors who will vie for a place in The Ultimate Fighter house when the 19th season of the UFC’s reality TV competition kicks off later this month, Cathal Pendred is happy to be able to speak about one of the worst kept secrets in the mixed martial arts world.
“It’s relief after months of frustration where people kept coming and asking me questions, they already knew, and I just had to keep silent,” admitted Pendred, speaking with Sportsnet earlier in the week.
“It’s a relief now that I can actually talk about it. It was a little bit frustrating, but it was a relief now and it’s great to get a bit of buzz about things now that the show is starting soon. It’s great.”
Considered one of the top welterweights competing outside the Octagon, the 26-year-old Pendred has amassed a 13-2-1 record, earning the Cage Warriors welterweight title along the way and successfully defending the belt last June against UFC alumnus Che Mills.
Two months later and without a major fight on the horizon, Pendred hopped on a plane and headed to Indianapolis to audition for The Ultimate Fighter, as he discussed with Sportsnet at the time.
That’s when things got awkward, as they tend to do when it comes to the taped competition that airs several months after filming has officially wrapped.
Cage Warriors kept running events, but Pendred was nowhere to be found, prompting many to speculate that the former rugby player’s September trip to the States was a successful one. Earlier this year, he announced that he was vacating the Cage Warriors title in March 2013, adding fuel to the “he made it onto TUF” fire.
As difficult as the past few months have been, the SBG Ireland product has used them to his advantage, training at a slightly reduced clip in order to keep himself healthy and trying to add a few new wrinkles to his game.
“The layoff has given me a bit of free time and relieved the pressure in training of not having a fight coming up, and I’ve been able to train differently and experiment with things. I really enjoyed it to be honest.
“For the last few years, I’ve wanted to learn how to fight southpaw as good as I do in my orthodox stance, and I’ve always said it, but I’ve never got around to doing it because I didn’t have the time to mess around when I had a fight to prepare for. Because I had the extra time, I’ve spent a lot of time sparring in southpaw stances, doing pad work all southpaw, and that’s something I’ve added to my arsenal now. I feel comfortable fighting off both stances.
“The other thing (is that) because I haven’t had a fight coming up, I haven’t been pushing myself in training as hard as I would,” added Pendred, who racked up 16 bouts in a little over four years. “If I had a little niggle or I felt really tired, I’d listen to my body a bit more. I felt that was good for my body for those few months, so that’s another bonus as well.”
The forced hiatus has also allowed him to begin laying the groundwork for a post-fight career on camera, as Pendred appeared in an episode of the British period drama, Ripper Street.
Like countless others, a youth spent watching action films—particularly the works of screen legends like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal—fueled Pendred’s initial interest in martial arts. Now that he’s a professional fighter, “The Punisher” envisions a future where his abilities in the cage allow him to fulfill one of his childhood dreams.
“I always wanted to be an action star when I was younger—that drew me to martial arts, which drew me to MMA and now I’m a professional fighter, but I think it’s maybe coming full circle that maybe one day I can do action movies as well.”
To his credit, he’s already figured out how to play the Hollywood networking game.
“I met Russell Crowe the other day. I was at the premier of Noah in Dublin—he was there. I was standing beside him and I said to my girlfriend, ‘Look, it’s a pretend gladiator beside a real one,’” laughed Pendred. “I wouldn’t dare say it to him, of course—don’t want to burn any bridges there.”
While he’s already begun planning for life after fighting, the announcement has allowed him to resume focusing on his career inside the cage. One thing that is very much on his mind at this time is the potential of fighting at home in Dublin, although there could be complications.
Depending on how things play out with The Ultimate Fighter, Pendred could be featured on the show’s finale on July 6, which mean he would miss out on the opportunity to compete in front of family and friends in the O2 when the UFC returns to his hometown two weeks later.
Because of the nature of the show, Pendred can’t discuss where and when he’ll be fighting in July, but that didn’t stop him from joking about his dream scenario—moving the TUF 19 middleweight finale to the July 19 fight card in Dublin.
“If I did make it to the final, I don’t know if the other guy would be too happy (about moving the fight to Dublin), but if Dana and the UFC made that decision, you have to do what the UFC says,” laughed Pendred, who believes this year’s long-awaited return to Ireland could turn into an annual visit.
“UFC came here in 2009 and (UFC President) Dana (White) still talks about how the Irish crowd was pound-for-pound the best crowd he’s ever heard in any arena. That was when there were no Irish fighters with a name here. Now there’s Conor (McGregor) and a few other guys around, and the country has really become aware of the sport and gotten behind the fighters.
“If the Irish were cheering their heads off in 2009 and Dana’s still talking about it, now when they come back in 2014 and the crowd knows who’s fighting, they’re going to make a helluva lot more noise,” continued Pendred, who trains alongside McGregor, the brash featherweight prospect rumoured to be headlining the show opposite Cole Miller.
“I know for a fact that it’s going to force Dana and the UFC to bring this back and make it an annual thing.”
After a challenging six months of silence and more than a year on the sideline by the time he finally returns to the cage, Pendred is ready to embark on the next leg of his journey—the one that ultimately carries him to the top of the UFC welterweight division.
“It’s been long and difficult, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it,” admitted Pendred of the past eight months. “I’ve enjoyed every part of it, and I think when I look back on my career when I’m an old man and I’m retired, just making movies, I think I’m gonna look back and remember the journey more than getting to the destination. This isn’t the end of the journey yet though—to get to the UFC was only part of it.
“This is just the next chapter. I’m still looking to work my way up the ranks and get to the top.
“That’s why I got into this game is to be the best in the world, and the reason the UFC was always part of that is because the best in the world are in the UFC.”
And now that includes Cathal Pendred.