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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator MMA touts their tournament format as a chance for fighters to carve out their own path, to make themselves into stars by winning consistently and earning their place. Though it hasn't resulted in that many breakouts as of yet, one fight who epitomizes their "homegrown star" tag is Pat Curran, who picked up his sixth straight win in the organization on Thursday night.
When Curran made his debut in the organization during their second season lightweight tournament, there wasn't an air of inevitable stardom behind him. He came in as the cousin of the more well known Jeff Curran, and was one of many faces in Bellator's early seasons.
However, he quickly made an impact, knocking out future Ultimate Fighter runner-up Mike Ricci in his first bout, then following that up with wins over UFC vet Roger Huerta - the favorite in that tournament - and then Toby Imada. Those wins brought him to a title fight with Eddie Alvarez, and in a five round battle, Curran fell just short.
But he showed that he was a legitimate talent in that fight, and made a sensible decision to drop to the featherweight division. Once there, he buzzed through the 2011 summer series tournament to earn a shot at Joe Warren, and took Warren out with a violent assault in 2012. He's now followed that up with two successful title defenses, including Thursday's beautiful first round submission win over Shabulat Shamhalaev.
For a fighter who has kept quite busy as it is, Curran's got no desire to slow down after Thursday's quick outing.
"As long as I'm healthy and have no injuries, I want to get right back at it," Curran said after Thursday's event (via MMAJunkie.com). "But that's up to (CEO) Bjorn (Rebney) and the guys at Bellator, and my coaches. We'll come up with a game plan on when to get back in there next."
He probably won't have to wait too long, depending on the circumstances of the two challengers who are already lined up. Daniel Straus was supposed to face him on Thursday's card before being delayed by injury, and now he's got some legal issues compounding things for him, but Thursday's event crowned another tournament winner and title challenger in Frodo Khasbulaev.
Regardless of who it is, Curran will be a featured piece of Bellator MMA's puzzle on Spike TV, and founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney sang his praises after Thursday's event.
"I honestly think this is the best featherweight in the world," Rebney said. "The evolution of Pat Curran has just been an amazing thing to see. The standup is there – we've seen the incredible knockout power. The submission game is there. His technical expertise inside the cage is second to none. He adapts to everything inside the cage that's thrown at him – he has an answer for any puzzle he's faced with. I'm hugely impressed watching this guy fight, and I'm thrilled he's fighting in this organization."
Penick's Analysis: Curran's a fantastic talent, but while he's clearly the best featherweight fighter on Bellator's roster, it's Bjorn Rebney in promoter-speak mode to call him the best featherweight in the world. I don't doubt for a second that Curran can compete with the top 145 lb. fighters in the UFC, but it's the same situation we're always in when it comes to these hypotheticals: until they actually fight the best, they can't be considered the best. That's just the simple reality, because he's fighting opponents who aren't regarded as on the level of those at the top end of the UFC's featherweight division. That said, he continues to make people pine for those hypothetical matchups, and that's a major statement to make for a fighter in his position.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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