Solid article on Pat Cummins, serious prospect debut on Strikeforce Prelims

http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/1/In-Cummins-the-Potter-Becomes-the-Clay-28496

Patrick Cummins physique screams “bruiser”: a former two-time NCAA All-American heavyweight wrestler, the topography of his ears has been eroded smooth. The stubble of his shaven head and beard run together. If you catch him without his front false tooth in, you might mistake him for a hockey enforcer.

But Cummins’ slice of Pennsylvania is not Broad Street. It is idyllic Reinholds, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country -- the kind of quaint place where an Amish dairy farm is still a legitimate tourist attraction and where a naturally gifted grappler might end up with a simultaneous love for ceramics.

When he was vying for a national wrestling title at Penn State University, campus and local newspapers wrote about him. The narrative was always the same.

“People just can’t seem to get over that I could be sensitive artist guy and heavyweight wrestler guy,” Cummins, a fine arts major, muses. “They want to believe I’m some kind of Renaissance man, that I’m so bizarre. I don’t mind talking about it, but, really, it’s personal. I love pottery, but I don’t want to be a potter. I don’t want to produce cups and bowls. Clay is something I feel like I can develop. I’ve got a good set of skills with it.”

One struggles to imagine Cummins at a pottery wheel, but he has had a long relationship with clay. Now, he’s becoming the clay himself.

Cummins will step into the cage for the first time on the Strikeforce “Henderson vs. Babalu II” undercard on Saturday at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, taking on unbeaten local light heavyweight Terrell Brown. The bout will stream live on Sherdog.com.



Definitely check out the full article. And if you made a pick on the Cummins/Brown fight without knowing about this guy, maybe you should reconsider your selection.