Coming up on Friday night will be CES MMA 27 in Rhode Island and one of the fighters that will be on the card is Rob Sullivan, who will meet James Murrin in a featherweight bout.
Sullivan (4-3) is out of Baltimore, Maryland and is coming off a submission win in November against Timothy Wade. The victory snapped a two fight losing streak and was his first victory since Bellator 108 in November of 2013.
Just like every fighter in this sport, Sullivan has a story on how he became a mixed martial artist.
“I actually started as a wrestler to musician, if you want to call it that, then a musician to fighter,” Sullvan told The MMA Report. “I grew up wrestling and I always played in bands — high school bands and pretty much the thought was I would go to college. Go to junior college for a little bit and switch off to a like a division three school so I could wrestle. The band that I was in — I always just wanted to tour. That was kind of my whole mode of ever being in a band was just like hit the road.”
“That opportunity sort of started to manifest itself and the member I had — I had people who wanted to do it. I kind of took a different road for a little bit and just played in bands for a little bit. I went all of the world and I always came back and wrestled and helping people out. MMA started coming a bigger thing and I had friends who were starting to get into fighting and jiu-jitsu. They would bring me in to help them to get ready with wrestling and that is really how it took shape for me.”
Along with being a professional mixed martial artist, Sullivan is a wrestling coach as well. He enjoys coaching the sport and firmly believes that being a coach has allowed him to become a better fighter.
“It helps me re-examine a lot of things,” he said. “I am a pretty open minded person and when I learn something new, I try to incorporate it when I can. When I know fixing something that I was going wrong. I have definitely learned a lot from coaching. Just like watching my own kids who I am coaching there. Seeing what I put them through and what they put themselves through, it keeps me motivated because it’s hard to yell at a kid to go harder, do this and do that and yourself are not willing to do that.”
“These kids have seen me cut weight for just jiu-jitsu tournaments. One weekend when we don’t have something and I have something coming up and it’s like, I’ll go do this jiu-jitsu tournament. They have seen me in a room on a bike, pedaling hard, covering in sweat, and wearing six layers of clothes.”
Sullivan’s fight on Friday will mark the first time he has ever fought during wrestling season. In addition to fighting for the first time during wrestling season, Sullivan has set a goal of fighting five times this year and it all starts on Friday, which he believes the fans in Rhode Island are going to enjoy his fight.
“We are both Irish and I feel like that crowd up there, they are going to be extremely into the fight. It looks like by judging pictures, we are both bleeders so I imagine this is going to be a bloody one if we connect with each other a few times.”
Sullivan will be a guest on Friday’s edition of The MMA Report Live and you can hear more about his career and what to expect at CES MMA 27 in his bout against Murrin.