After recording a second successive defeat inside the Octagon at UFC Dublin, Cathal Pendred is going to take some time away from the cage to recover.
Just 15 months after his stunning UFC debut in Dublin, Pendred re-entered the Octagon in his hometown for his sixth fight for the promotion.
Unfortunately, the Dubliner was unable to recapture the magic that saw him score one of the greatest comeback wins in UFC history by choking out a juiced-up Mike King and he was simply outclassed by rising star Tom Breese.
He revealed to SportsJOE that although he expected a strong striking game from the Tri-star prospect, he was surprised at just how devastating his stand-up game had become.
“Within the first exchange, he broke my nose and I started to back up and that played right into his game. When you’re fighting a long range guy you don’t want to stay out in that long distance range. It just went downhill from there.”
“I really didn’t expect his striking to be so devastating, precise and crisp. I had seen fights from him before but I had never seen that. It just shows how much he’d improve from his last few fights.”
A stinging body kick took the wind out of Pendred’s sails towards the end of the first round and Breese capitalised by dropping him to the mat with his hands and raining down with heavy ground and pound until the referee awarded him the TKO victory.
Pendred was the first Irish fighter to enter the Octagon at Fight Night 76, and he confessed that he felt he had disappointed the fans inside the 3 Arena by losing.
“I felt I had let them down. I felt embarrassed. You can’t compare it to any other sport like football, GAA or rugby, when you lose you do it together and it’s not all on you but when you’re in a fight it’s all on you. It was kind of an embarrassing feeling.”
Pendred spent some time lying prone on the canvas and receiving treatment from the doctor after the fight had finished. However, after he stood back up and exited the Octagon there was a very special moment when the fans stood up and applauded the vanquished hero.
He admitted that this was a particularly moving moment and sounded his appreciation of the incredible Irish support.
“Obviously it didn’t go my way, but if I could pick one moment that meant a lot to me was after the fight finished I walked out of the Octagon and everyone stood and clapped and cheered me off. That meant a lot. I really appreciated it.”
Pendred explained he was taken to hospital straight away after his fight, which meant that he was unable to watch his SBG teammate Aisling Daly record a memorable victory in her Dublin debut for the UFC. However, the Punisher found a way to keep himself informed of how Daly’s fight played out.
“Myself and (SBG light heavyweight) Chris Fields were refreshing a feed that was giving a play-by-play of the event.”
“It was brilliant, we’d just refresh and it would be 10-9 to Aisling Daly and we’d be cheering and we’d go again and it would be 10-9 Aisling Daly again and a few minutes later it as 10-8 to Ais. So, we were jumping up and down in the hospital. People didn’t know what was going on. I was busted up but I was still jumping up an down celebrating.”
Pendred is now riding a two-fight skid in the UFC and will be almost certainly be fighting for his job the next time he enters the Octagon. He doesn’t intend on fighting again in 2015 to allow his body to recover from a hectic 15 months of work.
“I have a broken nose so I’m going to let that heal up and get back to training and I won’t be taking a fight until after Christmas or the new year. I’ve had six fights in 15 months and I feel I’ve pushed my body to limits and it needs a chance to recharge.”
Cathal Pendred is an Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Ambassador.
Assassins Creed Syndicate is now out on PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and will be available on Windows PC on November 19.
