Jack Congdon entered into the world of MMA at one of the worst times possible. He had just finished up his second amateur fight in November of 2019 and was looking to make some big noise over the next year. However, there was one problem: the world wouldn’t have very much in the way of MMA in 2020 – certainly not on the regional scene.
As a result, Condgon was left at a crossroads and one that left him without much direction.
“I had two amateur fights when I got out of college before COVID and then COVID happened and I couldn’t fight for like a year and a half,” Congdon said. “Probably that first year of COVID, it was like you could train, but they wanted you to wear a mask – and obviously that’s atrocious and ridiculous. So, you’re trying to get in the gym and trying to do what you can, but there’s no competitions really.”
While many fighters considered giving it up then, and many of them actually did. That was never going to be the case for Congdon. Although it was suddenly a harder dream to chase, the pursuit of that dream was one of the only things he had to look forward to in a trying time.
“I don’t think I was ever really ready to like pack it in. MMA was probably like the biggest thing that I had,” he said. “When I could train and when I was in there, that like got my mind right. And it kept me from being too depressed and too low in a time that, you know, there wasn’t much good going on.”
It wasn’t too long before stuff was yet again going on for Congdon. He came out of the gate hard with an audience at Cage Titans that was as raucous as ever.
“When I finally got back on the first local card that they had after COVID, the energy there was insane,” Congdon explained. “You could tell everybody had been cooped up for almost two years and the card was wild. I was like the fifth fight or something and it was back to back-to-back-to-back finishes. And the energy by the time that I got in there was crazy.”
And there was no looking back for “.50 cal” Congdon. He would not only win that next fight, but nine of his next ten after that – earning him a shot on Dana White’s Contender Series this Tuesday. You can catch him getting that chance at 8pm EST on ESPN+ as he squares off with Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani.
