Long Before Fury FC’s Kyle Todrank Went Worldwide For Hitting A Twister Submission In His MMA Debut, He Was On The Wrong End Of A Viral Jason Nolf Pinfall.
At 157 pounds, they don’t come much better than Penn State’s Jason Nolf, and Fury FC’s Kyle Todrank learned that the hard way.
Heading into the final dual of the 2019 season, Todrank and the Buffalo Bulls stormed State College in hopes of dethroning the most dominant team in recent memory, the Penn State Nittany Lions.
The University of Buffalo failed miserably, sending Penn State off with a 47-3 victory and attaching one wrestler’s face to the loss. Fury FC’s Kyle Todrank.
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“My whole wrestling career, I was a s***head,” Todrank laughed. “I talked s*** during matches, I did little antics here and there; I did this my whole career. It was [Nolf’s] senior night, so I had come to the decision that I wasn’t going to do my antics or talk mess. At a point, he shoved me and I kind of shoved him back, then the way I wrestle, I try to circle and create angles. He got frustrated trying to chase me down, so he double foot jumped at me and I heard a whole section of the audience laugh at me. When I heard them laugh at me I was like, ‘All right, f*** it, I’m turning it on now.’”
He knew what he was doing on the Purdue mat, he knew what he was doing in the Fury FC cage. What does Kyle Todrank have up his sleeve for #FuryFC87? pic.twitter.com/4lWSZaFpn9
Trailing Nolf 15-5, Todrank hit an escape on the eventual three-time National champion and promptly hit a Conor McGregor ‘billionaire strut’ before being thrown down with his face mashed into the mat and cradled for the final regular season pinfall of Jason Nolf’s career.
The pin didn’t affect the outcome of the dual. If, by some stroke of luck, Todrank pinned Nolf, Penn State would’ve still cracked 40 points. The result of the poorly aged celebration was much worse. Todrank got on social media to see himself as the most disrespected name on social media.
“I don’t hold it personal, only because I know how the internet works,” Todrank explained. “People think that they’re going to tweet something out and there’s not a real person behind it. It wasn’t just DC, it was Lance Palmer, it was Clay Guida, all these dudes were in the comments and tweeting things out because they didn’t know that there was a real person behind this stuff.”
What the commentors weren’t ready for in that moment was that as much as they wanted it to be, that pinfall wasn’t the worst moment of Todrank’s life. Far from it. It wasn’t even the worst moment of Todrank’s life on February 24.
It turns out that even with the influx of hate on his social media channels, it was still a moment of triumph.
“People don’t know this, and nobody has ever even asked me this question, but one year to the day of the match with Jason Nolf, I was sitting in a jail cell a year before, which kind of led to me leaving Purdue and things of that nature,” Todrank said. “God put me on the right path and put me where I needed to be, and one year to the day after that, I wrestled Jason Nolf in Rec Hall.”
A late night turned into a wild night, a wild night turned into a rowdy night and a rowdy night turned into a criminal record.
A bar fight broke out that led to a sizable amount of damage to both the bar and the guys Todrank and his friends got their hands on.
It was a mistake the police and Purdue couldn’t look away from. Todrank found himself spiraling out of control and no more handrails to grab hold of.
“I definitely learned a lot,” Todrank said. “I don’t even go out anymore. I learned some hard lessons at Purdue, not that I was messing around or going crazy there. When I was at Purdue, I feel that I handled business enough; I’d like to go out and have fun on the weekends, like normal college kid stuff, but now that I see everything that it cost me, I just stay on my path. I go out less than five times a year, and when I do, I’m not getting in any bar fights.”
The University of Buffalo may have changed the course of his life for the better after his hand in a bar fight changed it for the worse. The college sports atmosphere doesn’t lend itself to second chances for those outside of the National championship conversation often, but Todrank got the second chance.
He never went into a match counting himself out, but knew what he was up against when he toed the line against one of the greatest 157-pounders of all-time and nothing could wipe the smirk off his face.
“I have the highest regard for Jason Nolf,” Todrank said. “I had enjoyed watching him wrestle going into that match. I literally have a video on my snapchat where I record all 14,000 people in the arena in attendance and I said, ‘One year ago today I was at my lowest point, wondering if I would ever wrestle again, and today, I’m here.’”
He's always felt he was destined for something special and it definitely takes a special kind of person to fight somebody for a living. It also takes a special kind of person to live most people’s worst nightmare and view it as a story of redemption. Furthermore, it takes a special kind of person to dig themselves out of a potentially life-altering hole to begin with.
Todrank has never, and will never, count himself out, even if it means being criticized by thousands of people because he reminded one of the major figures of a sport that he’s not intimidated.
With his age, weight class and lofty goals, could we one day see Todrank flexing on Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski or another beloved athlete of his division? The journey continues at Fury FC 87!
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