If you didn’t know, I train former UFC fighter and current Bellator fighter, Kurt Pellegrino. We have been working together since his comeback after blowing his knee out fighting George Sotiropoulos. If you have followed Kurt’s career you know he is one funny guy who is a grinder in the cage. BJJ black belt, lifelong wrestler, good boxer, and now Real Elite style MMA Striker.The Kurt you see on TV is the same Kurt you meet in person. Always candid, funny as hell, and a really hard worker. After the Tibau loss he had to evaluate some things and step away from the sport for a second. The guy is serious about being a good father and mentor for his students. Losing to Tibau sucked. It didn’t sit well with either of us. Kurt took that fight way earlier then he could have considering that his knee just got reconstructed. He wanted the biggest, scariest dude he could find to motivate him and the UFC delivered with the big ATT Gorilla that Tibau is. Kurt lost a split decision not 6 months out from an ACL reconstruction. Not the result we trained for but it happens.
Fast forward to the end of the summer. Kurt Jr. has arrived and Kurt got some needed R and R. The cage kept creeping into his thoughts and mine. I impatiently waited for him to wake up and say its not over. The call came and we got back to it. Kurt is in full blown Kurt Mode, smashing and bashing his way through some ridiculous strength & conditioning I am designing for him plus mad mitt work and hard sparring. We are about 9 weeks out from the fight and he is better now then he was for his last fight.
I can’t predict fights anymore. The cage is a funny place where anything can happen. I don’t know Patricky Pitbull outside of what I have seen in his fights. I know Kurt pretty well and I know how hard he is training. I can say now that Kurt will be better then he ever has been before. Pitbull started to poke at Kurt online. Really not that smart a thing to do. The Kurt he is fighting is not a Kurt that anyone has seen before. Somebody is getting hurt in this fight.
Tune in November 26th on MTV 2 to see what happens when a young upstart takes on a nasty veteran.
Brian Wright
Real Elite