Issue 050
June 2009
Jeff ‘The Big Frog’ Curran has one of the coolest nicknames of any professional athlete, and sporting an impressive winning record of 29-10-0 he is one of the most experienced featherweights in the business.
The Crystal Lakes, Illinois, native has very strong ties to brands of equipment that he has tried and tested over years of intense training. As an athlete who is constantly in search of ways to improve his performance, Curran is also at the forefront of a new project which he hopes will revolutionize important aspects of MMA training.
Shorts
Curran’s brand loyalty knows no bounds, particularly when it comes to fight shorts. “I always go with Tapout, first and primarily. I feel comfortable with those, I’ve been training in their shorts for a decade. If they were plain black I would still wear them, but it’s always nice to have different styles – and Tapout have hundreds of different styles of shorts, so it mixes it up and they all look good.”
Rashguards
Unsurprisingly, Curran’s wardrobe is full of Tapout rash guards. “They are my favorite brand and they have been for a long time, so I know their stuff is all quality. If they had garbage equipment I would probably wear other people’s stuff. It’s good, the printing doesn’t fall off or start to peel, whereas a lot of other rash guards I’ve had, after a few washes and a few hard training sessions, the logos start peeling off and it starts looking like shit.”
Gloves
As a contracted WEC fighter, Jeff trains in the gloves he competes in (the official Ouanos) but if it were up to him, he’d revert to his old favorites. “All of the Fairtex MMA gloves are awesome! They are the most comfortable and they are the best fitting. If I could choose a glove to fight in, it would definitely be a Fairtex glove, but because I fight in the WEC’s brand of glove, I train in them so I can to keep used to that style.”
Shin guards
Trusting Fairtex to keep his shins in one piece, Curran likes the smaller, ‘pro’ version of the company’s shin guards. “They are contoured, the joint down by the ankle is better and it gives a little more mobility. You can grapple in them; they are always a little bit of an obstacle, but nothing major.”
Headgear
“You have to train safe,” Curran explained of his heavy sparring sessions. “You can’t go and be a tough guy and train with MMA gloves and no headgear. I can’t do that on a daily basis, I would be cut up, black eyes and broken noses, injuries to my hands. You name it. We spar in 16oz gloves and headgear, just like a boxing gym. Your defense has to be better so that you don’t get hit, but the consequences aren’t as bad.”
Rubber-band accessories
The jiu-jitsu specialist is always looking for new ways to develop as an athlete, and has recently been very impressed by a range of rubber-band products made by Lifeline USA. “I use a lot of rubber-band pieces of equipment, the exercises you can do with them are better on your body. My trainer and I love the results so much right now, we’re working with an engineer to design a universal piece of equipment for rubber-band training. We have some little tricks up our sleeves here with that.”
Music
Jeff is a big fan of country music, and it can be heard constantly blaring out of the speakers at his gym. “My last three fights, I’ve pretty much trained every boxing session to the same album, Play It Loud, by Chris Cagle. It really helps me to remember the state of mind that I was in for my fight before, and I feel like I’m making loads of right steps forward and it keeps me focused.”
Jeff Curran spoke with Jim Page
