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Fitness

The Official Durkin: How Patrick Cummins Became an MMA Fighter

Patrick Cummins never meant to become an MMA fighter, but it turns out he's pretty darn good at it. Find out how wrestling has helped his career, how he trains, and what his plans for the future are.

Written by Sally Arsenault Last updated on Nov 22, 2021

When Patrick Durkin Cummins was growing up, he had a lot of respect for fighters like Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. He could see the camaraderie among the fighters back then and thought that someday he could be like those guys. One of the things I’ve noticed since I began training in martial arts is that fighters really are like brothers. They are among the most humble and friendly people I’ve met, and Patrick Cummins is no exception.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Patrick about the wrestling career that paved his way to the cage. While he attended high school, “Durkin” was involved in a variety of sports. When he began university at Penn State, he joined the wrestling team as a walk-on, mostly due to his brother’s accomplishments in the sport. Once he decided to focus on wrestling, though, he became unstoppable. During college he was a two-time All-American and NCAA runner-up. After college he wrestled for five years with the hope of making the Olympic team.

Surprisingly, MMA was a hard sell for Patrick who was originally recruited as a training partner for Strikeforce light heavyweight Muhammed Lawal. Eventually his current manager, Ryan Parsons, was able to persuade him to make the transition. Cummins’ wrestling career took him to the dismal lands of the Eastern Bloc and Iran so when he had the opportunity to travel to Nagoya, Japan with former training partner Jason “Mayhem” Miller for his fight against Kazushi Sakuraba, he felt as though he was in paradise. With additional training trips to Brazil and a fight in Honolulu, Hawaii, Patrick felt as though his switch to MMA was the right decision.

While in Brazil Cummins had the opportunity to train at a variety of Rio de Janeiro’s most respected academies including Jose Aldo’s home, Nova União. Trading his wrestling knowledge for Brazilian jiu jitsu technique, Patrick was a big hit with the Brazilians, who lined up to fight the “big guy.” The improvement in his BJJ game helped him to defeat opponent Tasi Edwards with a sick arm triangle in the first round:

Patrick’s explosive wrestling style has made for an easy transition to MMA. Looking back at his wrestling career Patrick remembered finding himself in tough matches, thinking if he could only punch the guy things would be much easier for him. Turns out he was right. Two of his three professional fights were finished by TKO in the first round. Chuck Liddell has said having good wrestling allows a fighter to control where the fight goes. Patrick has certainly controlled all three of his professional fights, so much so that it has become very difficult for him to find people willing to fight him.

patrick durkin cummins, official durkin, patrick cummins, mma cumminsThe work ethic required by elite-level wrestlers has remained in Cummins. He makes his home base at Reign MMA, where his training partners include Mark Munoz, Brendan Shaub, and Emanuel Newton. Cummins trains twice a day, with MMA technical training in the evening that includes wrestling, muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, and MMA sparring. His afternoons are spent lifting weights and doing other strength and conditioning training.

One day, Patrick went with his manager Ryan and Ryan’s six-year-old daughter to her gymnastics class. Her coach is an MMA fan and convinced Patrick that gymnastics would help his MMA game. After trying it, Patrick was sold. He now trains gymnastics two afternoons a week and has strength in places he never expected as well as improved spatial awareness.

patrick durkin cummins, official durkin, patrick cummins, mma cumminsWith all of this training you would think Patrick would just relax when he had the chance, but instead he takes his mountain bike out for a twenty to thirty mile ride on his day “off.” Hard work pays off though, and his conditioning allows him to maintain a relentless pace and forward pressure in his fights. Not that he’s had to maintain it for long, considering his fights have never gone past the first round.

Patrick is passionate about his new MMA career and looks forward to eventually fighting his way up the rankings with the goal of fighting UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones someday. Cummins feels his aggressive style is what’s needed to test Jon and doesn’t understand why the guys who do get a title shot are so timid when they step into the octagon with him.

I, too, have a feeling that Patrick is going to explode onto the big-time MMA scene. If you want to be up to date on his career progress, like his athlete page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

About Sally Arsenault

Sally Arsenault was not an athlete growing up and did not begin fitness training until she was 26 years old. Her first love was weight lifting, but after being robbed at gunpoint twice, she decided to learn self-defense to take back a sense of control over her own safety.

After trying muay Thai, MMA, and BJJ, she decided to focus on BJJ as it is a leverage-based martial art that was developed for small people, like her, to defeat larger attackers.

Now Sally is a BJJ brown belt under Kevin Taylor at Renzo Gracie Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. She founded a women's only program with hopes of introducing other women to the sport she loves.

BJJ is Sally’s passion and she is constantly researching training methods, techniques, supplements, nutrition, new training gear, and following leaders in the sport to learn their strategies to become a better athlete and competitor.

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