Quote :

"Another decorated collegiate wrestler has thrown his hat into the cage. Texas-based organization Legacy Fighting Championship on Monday announced the signing of Darrion Caldwell, a 2009 NCAA Division I wrestling champion and two-time All-American from North Carolina State University. A New Jersey native, 24-year-old Caldwell will soon relocate to Arizona, where he’ll train at Gilbert, Ariz.’s Power MMA and Fitness. The Power MMA Team is home to a number of former NCAA All-Americans who have made successful transitions to MMA, including co-founders Ryan Bader, Aaron Simpson and C.B. Dollaway. Caldwell is expected to compete at featherweight in MMA, having won his national title at 149 pounds. His championship junior season at NC State saw him amass a 29-match winning streak and included victories over current Team Alpha Male prospect Lance Palmer and Dan Hodge Trophy winner Brent Metcalf. Caldwell did not compete in his senior year after undergoing shoulder surgery, an injury which also kept him out of a rematch with Metcalf in May 2010. No date has been set for Caldwell’s MMA debut, which Monday’s Legacy FC release states will come “in the near future.” "

its unfortunate there is no lucrative career in wrestling, but at least MMA is a decent outlet

he has potential to do well

6/27/2012 1:05:16 AM

thats pretty cool. Would be awesome to have a Wolfpacker do well in MMA.

You dont see a ton of wrestlers in the featherweight division though. Some quick dudes and great striking in that class.

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 2:55 AM. Reason : a]

6/27/2012 2:55:05 AM

BHS - Do you think his wrestling skills will translate well to MMA? I don't know if he has any fighting experience so it will be interesting to see how long it takes him to get ramped up.

6/27/2012 8:41:08 AM

Legacy is one of the ones that have their fights on HDNet, so if you have HDNet you could get a chance to see him.

6/27/2012 10:00:21 AM

His scrambling will be great for mma that is more important IMO than takedowns and even holding people down hell be hard to control overall

But the camp he is going to with Aaron Simpson and Ryan bader will be really good at getting that wrestling translated to mma because but not great there's more complete mma wrestlers he could have gotten up with Bader has done really well with mma wrestling but Aaron Simpson has not been so effective with his wrestling game despite his credentials

I expect he'll change camps within two years, he just uses this camp to hone his style and get used to the sport and get a few wins in before movin on to learn some ground skills and a higher level of mma skill in general. him joining up with Ben askren at roufus sports would be a slam dunk for Caldwell

Askren is who he should emulate, to me has the best wrestling in mma plus excellent jiu jitsu



[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 10:08 AM. Reason : G]

6/27/2012 10:05:18 AM

should have went with TNA

6/27/2012 11:02:56 AM

Quote :

"its unfortunate there is no lucrative career in wrestling, but at least MMA is a decent outlet"

He could have a very lucrative wrestling career, but at his size he'd have to train to be a high flyer and that'd take years.

Also, Jake Hager had to job to a puppet on Monday, so maybe he just wants to avoid that.

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 11:29 AM. Reason : -]

6/27/2012 11:28:16 AM

Lol I meant sport wrestling

6/27/2012 1:34:11 PM

In order to make it financially in sport wrestling I think you have to be pretty much competing at world level. That's another level beyond NCAA Division I wrestling champion.

Speaking of local former amateur wrestlers in MMA, Derek Brunson who used to wrestle at UNC-Pembroke and was a Division II All-American, will be facing Jacare Souza on a Strikeforce card in August.

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM. Reason : .]

6/27/2012 1:39:26 PM

Quote :

"should have went with TNA"

nah, you gotta wash out of WWE to get anywhere with them. but then they'll put their so called "world title" around your waste before you can say "Dixie Carter"

6/27/2012 1:48:55 PM

i wrestled derek brunson in HS went 1-2 against him he went to hoggard (lol)

hes a beast, but he just lost to kendall grove last week by decision, and it bothers me that they let him reschedule this fight with jacare at this time, he kinda gassed and he didnt do much with his takedowns...plus kendall grove stepped in on short notice

hes a really cool dude, i feel like his management isnt properly leading his career. Heck the first time they tried to drop him in against jacare on short notice was suspect to me, this is plainly a bad gamble.

but whatever, im rooting for him to pull off an upset, but i think jacare is way too good.

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 1:56 PM. Reason : e]

6/27/2012 1:54:06 PM

Quote :

"nah, you gotta wash out of WWE to get anywhere with them. but then they'll put their so called "world title" around your waste before you can say "Dixie Carter" "

Highly disrespectful of "The It Factor of Professional Wrestling", Bobby Roode.

(TNA's been pretty good lately.)



[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 4:43 PM. Reason : /]

6/27/2012 4:42:15 PM

"Good TNA" is on the level of "Bad WCW."


Though both beg the question, if bad wrestling occurs but nobody watches, does it really happen?

6/27/2012 5:12:25 PM

^ TNA's been better than WWE post-Wrestlemania. Not kidding either. Russo's been fired since last fall.

6/27/2012 6:04:26 PM

Quote :

""Good TNA" is on the level of "Bad WCW.""

and bad wcw is 1000x better than wwe has been since the 80's.

6/27/2012 7:28:46 PM

Quote :

"and bad wcw is 1000x better than wwe has been since the 80's."

But Jericho's jacket is awesome and has more charisma by itself than half the roster.




Although on a side note, fuck Cena.

6/27/2012 9:28:54 PM

TNA has been light years better than it used to be, but the fact remains that Vince has Punk & Danielson wrestling each other on a regular basis, plus Dolph Ziggler and Damien Sandow.

All the shitty story lines in the world can't kill tremendous in-ring work and, well, Damien Sandow.

6/28/2012 1:14:09 AM

5-0 and fighting for bellator

He was pretty good and won by rear naked choke in lime a a minute 40

Gave several Wolfpack hand signs

5/2/2014 10:23:00 PM

starts here around 56:00

http://bellator.com/articles/prelimstream

5/2/2014 11:31:53 PM

Darrion "The Wolf" Caldwell threw up his wolves after he won...love it.

5/3/2014 1:37:52 AM

Big MMA fan and didn't realize he was an NCSU alum until he was throwing up the wolf sign hand puppets and googled him. Will be nice to have someone to pull for that is ncsu affiliated in MMA. He looked pretty good.

5/7/2014 6:07:57 PM

you guys can also pull for Derek Brunson, he's in the UFC and is from Wilmington. He was a year behind me in high school. I believe he went to UNC-Pembroke

5/8/2014 11:27:02 AM

Caldwell has a big fight tonight at 9 pm on Spike for anyone interested. Undefeated so far

5/15/2015 3:48:27 PM

Quote :

" throwing up the wolf sign hand puppets "

The guy uses puppets in his fights?

5/15/2015 3:52:06 PM

good looking out--watching it now

5/15/2015 9:08:30 PM

Easy W

5/15/2015 9:27:07 PM

Looked dominant. Should be a title shot coming up

5/15/2015 10:40:15 PM

Glad to hear he likes Ncsu still. Wasn't he the one that wanted to transfer and we wouldn't let him?

5/16/2015 8:34:30 AM

He did look very dominant.

Also, that was a very bad ass wolf head hoodie he was wearing too.

5/16/2015 10:52:01 PM

http://www.spike.com/fight/hy3nj7/bellator-mma-joe-pingitore-vs-darrion-caldwell

5/17/2015 1:38:36 AM

Dude's pretty badass

5/17/2015 2:20:31 AM

I believe Caldwell is slated to fight again this Friday, September 25th on Spike at Bellator 143

9/22/2015 4:33:16 PM

Caldwell is fighting Joe Warren tonight on Spike TV...probably gets a chance at the belt if he wins tonight.

3/4/2016 1:26:38 PM

Awesome, thanks for the info. Set to record. Go Pack!

3/4/2016 7:38:34 PM

Our boy just beat the shit out this dude. Suplexed his ass. Caldwell is a beast.

[Edited on March 4, 2016 at 11:09 PM. Reason : S]

3/4/2016 11:03:45 PM

meant to peep this, but tv was on channel 1909 so it didn't change

[Edited on March 4, 2016 at 11:19 PM. Reason : will have to find a replay]

3/4/2016 11:19:44 PM

Just finished watching, that was awesome. Fucking dominated his ass. I shouted out loud in the house on that suplex.

3/4/2016 11:30:55 PM

Dat Suplex

3/5/2016 12:23:03 AM

Lost on Friday

Was a huge favorite and then made a mistake in the opening seconds of the 3rd round that cost him the match. This loss also cost him a title shot for the bantamweight although he should have opportunities in the future if he can recover from this disappointing loss.

7/24/2016 9:25:02 AM

Congrats! Wolfpack in the house.

New bellator champion

10/8/2017 7:06:48 PM