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Rodney Glunder

Back in the old days, I was aware of two fighters named Rodney: Rodney Faverus and Rodney Glunder. It wasn't until four or so years later that I realized they were the same person.

Rodney Glunder is another of those low-key, long-time veterans of mixed martial arts--the kind of fighter who's been around forever and fought almost everywhere, but never got high enough in the sport to get truly noticed. A teenaged adoptee of karate and taekwondo, Glunder turned to professional fighting after his 21st birthday and took on both MMA and kickboxing, with moderately successful results--regional acclaim, but never the big leagues. A striker with only rudimentary grappling abilities, he hit the same hill all of those fighters did: Beating fighters who couldn't grapple him, getting ragdolled and submitted by fighters who could. Three years into his career he was 5-6-2 and contemplated retirement.

There's this theory that every fighter has a specific window where they're at their best--not just being in their athletic prime, but developing in the right directions to complement that prime and meeting the right competition during that development--a combination of rising to meet the challenges of your career while having just enough good luck that the world lets it happen. Glunder hit that window harder than almost anyone: After the middling, losing beginning to his career he went almost undefeated for four years--winning 16 of his next 19 fights, in all, including victories over Valentijn Overeem, Tommy Sauer, Cheick Kongo, Cyrille Diabate and Melvin Manhoef. It was a hell of a streak.

Unfortunately, as with so many, it didn't extend to the big leagues. He made his one and only Pride appearance during the run--against Chalid "Die Faust" Arrab, representing the Golden Glory team Glunder had been picking off--and lost a lopsided but not particularly interesting decision. Pride had expected fireworks from the two kickboxers, and were so sufficiently disappointed that Arrab only came back once--to be fed to Kazuhiro Nakamura--and Glunder was never invited back again.

His career didn't fare much better afterward. Glunder would eventually retire with journeyman records in both his sports--25-20-3-1 in MMA, 16-12 in kickboxing. He tried professional wrestling for awhile, but much like combat sports, it bruoght him only middling success.

Which is a shame. He was a solid fighter and had plenty of regional titles. Some people just never break through the ceiling, unfortunately.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pride: Bushido 1 vs Arrab / Cage Rage 26 vs Zikic / RINGS Holland vs Manhoef / K-1 WGP '06 vs Delgado).