09-11-2011, 08:31 AM
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Status: Leben 'em dead and maimed Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: BC, Canada Posts: 7,331
|  Bellator's Kurt Pellegrino on short retirement: "I fell in love with the sport again"
Bellator's Kurt Pellegrino on short retirement: "I fell in love with the sport again" Quote:
The New Jersey native will make his promotional debut at Bellator 59 against Patricky Freire (9-2 MMA, 2-1 BFC). The event takes place Saturday, Nov. 26, at Caesar's Atlantic City in New Jersey.
The official announcement was made during Saturday's Bellator 49 broadcast on MTV2.
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"Sam Caplan, our VP of talent development, called me, and he said, 'There is a slight chance that Kurt Pellegrino might be willing to come back and fight for this organization,'" CEO Bjorn Rebney said after Bellator 49. "We jumped all over it."
After a flirtation period between the promotion and Pellegrino, it may have been the actual Bellator 59 logistics that sealed the deal.
New Jersey is where Pellegrino grew up. It's where he still resides. It's all he's ever known. Pellegrino has fought in his home state in eight career bouts, including six of his first nine pro fights, while making his way up the ladder as a relative unknown.
"I have an opportunity to fight for Bellator in my backyard where I started this whole game," Pellegrino said. "I started fighting in Atlantic City. I won two championship belts in Atlantic City."
Not only will the fight take place in friendly territory, but it'll come against a formidable challenge in Freire, who was a finalist in a recent Bellator lightweight tournament.
It's precisely the kind of challenge that will require Pellegrino to dive headfirst back into the sport. And it's something he's now in a much better place to be able to tackle, even though it was just a short time ago when that was not the case.
"I started working out again real hard," Pellegrino said. "The summer has been amazing. I fell in love again with the sport. I had some demons. I had to kind of just walk away and be with my family for once."
|  Bellator's Kurt Pellegrino on short retirement: "I fell in love with the sport again" | MMAjunkie.com |
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