Pat Curran

Pat Curran (born August 31, 1987) is a retired American mixed martial artist, and a former two-time Bellator Featherweight World Champion.

Curran made his debut in 2008, against Tony Hervey, a future King of the Cage Lightweight Champion.

Curran won the bout.

Curran had his second professional bout against Lazar Stojadinovic, who previously had a dominating performance over Curran's teammate Ben Miller.

The bout was featured on the Tapout reality series on the Versus Channel, giving Curran his first mainstream performance.

Curran was featured on the Tapout reality series on the TV channel Versus.

Curran trains under his cousin, former WEC Featherweight title challenger Jeff Curran at his gym in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

On the show, between training sessions, Pat got his first tattoo and he, Jeff and the crew did an autograph session at a Chicago clothing store.

At the official weigh-in, Pat gets his first look at his opponent, Lazar Stojadinovic.

Lazar has fought another of Jeff's students, so Pat reviews footage of that fight.

The fighters were scheduled to meet at XFO 23 in Crystal Lake.

Pat went on to dominate much of the first round with his grappling and ground and pound.

He similarly dominated rounds two and three and won a unanimous decision from the judges.

Curran returned to the XFO for his third professional fight, where he defeated Amir Khillah by Decision (Split).

His next two fights took place outside of the XFO banner, where he went 1-1 (the loss coming at the hands of UFC competitor Darren Elkins), before returning to XFO to defeat Daniel Mason-Straus by KO (Punches) in the second.

After winning another with XFO, he lost again competing outside of the promotion, this time to Charles Diaz by Decision (Split).

Once again, returning to XFO, Curran next faced Luke Gwaltney, winning by TKO in the first.

On October 10, 2009 he faced Jay Ellis in an XFO event, where he defeated his opponent in under a minute, submitting him with a Guillotine Choke.

He was defeated in his next fight with XFO, at the hands of Travis Perzynski, losing by rear naked choke in the second round.

Curran took part in a Trojan MMA event, where he defeated former Cage Rage British Lightweight Championship contender Robbie Olivier on February 27, 2010 via unanimous decision.

It was announced that Curran would be a participant in the Bellator Season Two Lightweight Tournament.

His first round match-up was announced to be UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre's protégé, Mike Ricci and the fight took place at Bellator 14.

A crowd favorite, the Chicago-area fighter remained patient through a few strategic minutes in which the fighters traded low kicks and jabs while finding their range.

However, a little more than midway through the round, Curran connected on a powerful right hook that sent opponent Mike Ricci crashing to the mat where he stayed unconscious for a few uncomfortable minutes after a few follow up punches.

The bout was called, and Curran won by knockout by 3:01 in the first round.

His second bout took place at Bellator 17 against former UFC veteran Roger Huerta.

Huerta was heavily favored going in to the fight, but Curran impressed over three rounds and went home with a unanimous decision, winning 29-28 on all three judges scorecards.

With that victory, Curran moved on to face Toby Imada, who was also victorious that night, in the Season 2 Lightweight Tournament Final.

At Bellator 21 Curran defeated Imada via split decision in a close fight, becoming the Bellator Season Two Lightweight Tournament Champion.

A match-up against Bellator Season One Champion Eddie Alvarez was anticipated for Season Three, but Curran was forced out of the contest due to a shoulder injury.

Fighting in his place, Roger Huerta took on Alvarez in a non-title bout at Bellator 33 and lost via TKO due to a doctor stoppage.

He is the cousin of World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Jeff Curran and fought primarily with Xtreme Fighting Organization (XFO) before signing with Bellator, where he is the winner of Bellator Season Two Lightweight Tournament and the Bellator 2011 Summer Series.

From July 2011 till April 2014 and January 2018 till July 2018, Curran was ranked in the top #10 Featherweights in the world by Fight Matrix, rising to as high as #2 from July 2012 till April 2013.

Curran went to Olympic Heights Community High School where he was a standout wrestler.

Curran spent much of his youth crafting his skills on the playground with boxing gloves.

Curran was a Florida High School wrestling stand-out who went on to study Brazilian jiu-jitsu with his cousin Jeff Curran at the young age of 17.

It was during this summer of training that Curran decided to pursue mixed martial arts as a career.

Curran's bout with Alvarez took place on April 2, 2011 at Bellator 39.

He lost the fight via unanimous decision, with the judges scoring it 49-46, 50-45 and 50-45 in favor of Alvarez.

Curran dropped to his original fight weight of 145 lbs to enter the Bellator 2011 Summer Series Featherweight Tournament.