Pat McCrohan returns to CES on June 15 against Reginaldo Felix
Friends do a lot of things for each other, some even start fight careers. Derek Peterson launched the MMA career of his friend Pat McCrohan. At the time, McCrohan and Peterson were working together, and Peterson was the one fighting. McCrohan who wrestled at Johnson & Wales joked that he could beat Peterson in a fight. That led Peterson to call a local promotor at the time and after a minute or two on the phone, Peterson had booked McCrohan his first fight.
“I went into the gym and trained for a month and then I won that fight, said McCorhan.”
It was after that McCrohan was hooked on fighting, he was glad that he was able to put his wrestling to use once again. In college, McCrohan finished with a record of 53-37. He was a 2010 Second-Team Al-Pilgrim League selection and earned a pair of all-conference honors during his career.
During his college career, McCrohan wrestled with Irish Brennan Ward, a current Bellator fighter who has fought some of Bellator’s toughest fighters including Paul Daley and Saad Awad. The teammate were also co-captains his senior year. Ward was one of McCrohan’s inspirations when he first started.
“He was one of my main motivators to get into it because I knew he would train with me and I knew he would help me out a little bit here and there which he has, gone down there and trained with him a lot. And it was just seeing him doing it, a guy from Johnson & Wales, from my school, a local guy can make it to that level and really do well not just compete, but do well it was like, I might as well give it a shot.”
Another motivation for McCrohan was not going back to the farm life. He was raised in Berkley, Massachusetts where he says he got his work ethic from. But, he doesn’t want to go back to that life style.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhFWAGng37c/?taken-by=mccrohan185
“That’s one big motivation is never having to dig dirt again. Every time I’m sweating and dying in the gym, I think I’m not digging dirt.”
McCrohan has done well for himself in MMA and hasn’t had to go back to digging dirt. He went 5-0 as an amateur and is currently 3-1 as a professional. On June 15, he will return to the cage to compete at CES 50 in Rhode Island where he will face Reginaldo Felix who is on a four-fight winning streak.
After starting his career with no experience, McCrohan now believes he can compete with the best in his division.
“At least in New England right now I’m number one, as far as nationally, I think I can compete with those guys, we’ll have to see, but as far as New England, I’m the top dog right now, it’s just getting out there and competing, getting the wins.”
The confidence isn’t unwarranted as he has faced extremely tough competition. As an amateur, he defeated his current Regiment Training Center teammate (they weren’t teammates at the time) Yorgan De Castro and as a pro, he defeated current UFC fighter Mike Rodriguez.
Now he’ll face Felix who lost his first two fights but has rebounded by winning his last four including a submission victory of Tom Regal at CES NY in May. The 30-year-old feels he matches up well with his opponent.
“I match up well, he’s obviously a Muay Thai fighter, but most people think I’m going to go in there and wrestle him, which I may end up doing, I also don’t mind standing with this guy. I train with Yorgan De Castro, who in my opinion is the best 205 pounder in New England and he’s a Muay Thai fighter and he makes Reginaldo look tiny and I train with Yorgan every single day. I don’t know how fighting Reginaldo, he’s going to throw something that I don’t see every single day. If getting beat up by Yorgan is helped me a lot, I’m basically going to fight a smaller, discount version of my teammate.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi3EIaBAUMP/
The Regiment Training Center product believes his work day will be quick on June 15.
“I see it ending in the first. Like I said, I’m going to go out there and swing with him and try and get the knockout on the feet. If that doesn’t work, I’ll take it to the ground, once it gets to the ground, I don’t think he’ll have anything on my submissions, it should be real fast. I know it’s going to end in the first, I guess we gotta see how it goes, how it happens.”
You can watch McCrohan fight on AXS TV on June 15.
