Jeff Curran Takes A Chance At UFC 46 When you find out you'll be fighting one of the biggest fights of your life in ten days, just what do you do? For UFC 46's last-minute entry Jeff Curran, it's not so much what you do, but how much you can fit in before you have to board that plane for Las Vegas. Welcome to the glamorous side of professional fighting. There's the physical examinations; the hepatitis and HIV tests; the most convenient optical once-over, complete with its dilation testing that can blind you for hours; not to mention the endless calls from your out-of-state manager to make sure you've faxed off the requisite papers necessary to fight within the Nevada State Athletic Commission's jurisdiction. "When you're in a hurry," Curran relates, "you gotta take any appointment you can get and everything has to fall around it." 
With the clock ticking away, so has been the way of Curran's life these last five days, with the paperwork a necessary evil that seems to keep him further and further away from the gym and his training. "I still got my training in," when asked if he's actually had a moment to even dwell on his impending battle with lightweight Matt "the Terror" Serra. " I'm not saying I didn't. It just wasn't a smooth ride."Bumpy journeys seem to be the norm among most professional fighters, but Curran has never been one to dwell on the negative. Even when his mother pulled him out of the local karate program after his older brother didn't want to go anymore, Curran still found a way to express his innate love for the combat arts. He snuck private boxing lessons with his grandfather, a pugilist in his military days, until his mother found out and quickly put that to an end as well. Mommy eventually acquiesced, though, letting her son join the high school wrestling team with the compromise that he wouldn't get hit in the face. Curran also took up karate again in a church basement, before transitioning over to the world of ground fighting when he happened upon a class. Like a game of telephone, the Gracie techniques were passed down to the future fighter through teachers that had attended the Gracie seminars. Curran didn't look back and today, those teachers are now his students. With the death of his father at the early age of 40, the 18-year old immersed himself in training. A thirst for knowledge eventually led the eager student to Professor Pedro Sauer, a man who would become Curran's mentor and inspiration. As Curran accelerated through Sauer's system, local interest began to grow in the little warehouse where Curran had set up shop. With no one around to tell Curran that a 19-year old can't open his own gym and start schooling others, the affable Illinois native did just that. The Linxx Academy of Martial Arts was born. Assessing his skills in amateur competition, Curran quickly graduated to the professional ranks, but taking every fight available only seemed to be moving the upward-aspiring fighter in circles. "I was fighting in a bunch of random shows, but at the same time I was making no money, no progress, and not getting any fights that were worthwhile." With his newly-acquired boxing coach Doug Mango in agreement, Curran made the decision to go after the very best in career advice. With 35 active clients throughout his seasoned tenure, Monte Cox was the Rolls Royce of MMA management, and in the end, it was a simple letter that persuaded the Iowa godfather to take Curran under his wing. Now, before grabbing pen and paper to serenade Mr. Cox with all the reasons why he should make you his 36th patron, it should be noted that Curran already had a working history with the management king. In fact, Curran had gotten his start in Cox's amateur Extreme Challenge events, but on an ex-trainer's ill-fated advice, had later pulled out of a scheduled title fight which had created a drifting between the two. That which hurts us, only makes us stronger, and hopefully a little bit wiser. Realizing he had made some poor choices up to this point, Curran went on to make the smartest choice of them all. "I contacted Monte to clear the air and say that I was willing to do whatever it takes and follow his lead and put everything in his hands." "At the time, I had more guys than I needed, and really wasn't looking to add anybody," says Cox of Curran's proposal. "But there was something about the email... he seemed really sincere and I just had a feeling that it might work out." And work out it did. If clothes make the man, managers must make the fighter, as Cox proved Curran's one-way ticket into the fast lane. Key victories over Next Generation standout Bao Quach and Hawaii's homegrown Baret Yoshida put Curran on the map seemingly overnight. A productive year was capped off with another win over Todd Lally at WFA 3 in Las Vegas. Despite being on the lighter side of lightweight ( the 145-pounder sometimes gave up weight with the prospect of a higher-profile adversary) Curran's star was on the rise. It's funny how God likes to test the strong ones. 2003 was a terrible year for Jeff Curran the fighter. Coming off the highs of 2002, which ranked him in the media top ten for the first time in his career, a meniscus injury in January required immediate surgery. The affable Illnois native bounced back fairly quickly, resuming his grappling after only a few weeks of recovery, just in time to accept his most high-profile fight to date versus the always-crafty Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto at Superbrawl 29. But, after years of doing what others could only dream of, self-doubt finally found a crack in Curran's armor to infiltrate. "Something came over me right before the fight and I thought, I'm gonna lose this fight, Curran admits. "When I went out there, I kind of snapped out of it a little bit, but I was on the defense the whole time. It was a rough fight." Curran chalked up the loss as a learning experience, and left only eight days later to compete in a tag team match in Japan's ZST event with fellow Team Extreme member Rich Clementi. However, less than a minute into their match against Japan's Kotani brothers, Curran caught a wild kick that broke the ulna bone in his forearm clearly in half. Clementi tagged in, but soon needed his teammate's aid. "I went back out to fight knowing my arm was broke, but no one else knew it. I tried to tell people it was broken, but I didn't want to end up being the guy that quit a fight because his arm hurt, and then have it turn out just to be bruised real bad." With one arm to defend, Curran eventually tapped to a footlock. A 13-hour plane ride back from Japan without a broken appendage is not an appetizing prospect, but Curran hung in there. Back stateside, it was too late to set the bone properly, so Curran went under the knife for a second time in six months. Doctors implanted a titanium plate, as well as six screws right into the bone, leaving a sizable souvenir the length of Curran's wrist to elbow. Always a fan of tattoos, the scar is now covered by a custom-drawn dragon hissing down his arm. The "terminator" of the featherweights, Curran was back before the rest of the world knew it, easing into competition with a few amateur boxing bouts around town. Two surgeries and four losses later, Curran notes that it's time to get back on track...which leads us to UFC 46, and the fight that no in-shape, injury-free fighter should ever turn down. "I like taking fights on shorter notice, Curran coos confidently. "It doesn't give me time to second guess myself. It doesn't give me time to sit around and think too much. Am I doing things right? Am I doing things wrong? I just kind of go forward and get it over with." In his last few days before battle, Curran admits he'll be holed up with his coaches somewhere in the Mandalay Bay resort, with his trusty portable DVD player in hand. Friends are bringing the Serra fights that Sauer and company haven't already combed for clues to the Renzo Gracie black belt's potential demise, and it might be in some wacky hour of the morning that a final plan will start to mentally formulate for the fighter. But, will his body be able to assimilate it in enough time? "It's not like I can change my whole style and approach just from watching a tape," Curran confides, " but you're out there for so many days with nothing else to do. You wanna try to eat, sleep, and breathe your opponent, just so you know what to do and he should hopefully be doing the same thing on me. You want to make sure you've done everything possible to understand the person, especially when you're pressed for time." With visions of flawless transitions dancing through his head, Curran will venture to guess how this preliminary bout may go. "I've got a few different visions on how this fight will go. I'm sure he knows," referring to 5-time UFC vet Serra, who has seen his competition change a mere four times in the last few weeks. "It all depends on him. I have mixed feelings. Being a Jiu-jitsu black belt, I feel like just going out and touching gloves and start wrestling with him to see how we both fair against each other. I'm not gonna run from the ground. I'm supposed to be very good on the ground too. Being a jiu-jitsu guy, you don't want to run away from that. It might look like you're afraid to test this guy out." Then there's scenario number two.... "He might be working his standup now, " Curran contemplates. "I think he might be working with some boxers and kickboxers. He's probably gonna want to test himself out. If he does, then we can have a fight." Regardless of where the match goes, experts confide that Curran is at a sheer disadvantage in the weight category, and might be giving up as much as twenty pounds once Serra has jumped off the scales Friday and satiated his appetite at the local buffet. But, does it matter what the experts think? "To me, saying I have a disadvantage ahead of time makes it feel like I'm making excuses," Curran scoffs. "I've already promised myself and everybody that there's just no excuse for losing. I took the fight and everyone's trying to make excuses for me. 'Well, you know, you are lighter and he's stronger and he's been a black belt longer.' I say, you know guys, then why take the fight if I've got three big things working against me?" In the end, Curran knows it only matters what one man thinks, and that man has climbed far more treacherous mountains in his day. "There's no excuses," he pragmatically states one more time for emphasis. "I think I have a good chance." And it's a good enough chance that Jeff Curran is willing to take. |
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