This is part two of Kevin Lally's trilogy of blog posts on MMA. Last week, Kevin provided a historical overview of the origins and development of MMA:
https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/06/mixed-martial-arts-origins.html
In this week's blog, Kevin looks at MMA in Ireland.
In the early and mid-90s the UFC was developing its
professional brand in the USA. They had PPV deals with cable operators in the
USA but no formal relationship overseas. The events were recorded and released
on VHS video tape. Again, this was an era before DVD and broadband internet.
Bootlegged videos made their way to the UK and Ireland.
Martial arts were common in Ireland since the 1960s.
Perhaps, popular due to the success of martial arts movies like Enter the
Dragon (1973) starring Bruce Lee or even the Karate Kid (1984) there
wasn’t a town in Ireland during the 1990s that didn’t have a Karate, Judo,
Taekwondo or Kung fu class. Of course, boxing was ubiquitous which has a
special relationship with Ireland.
It was from these martial arts groups that most people made
their first foray into MMA. People who had trained in one martial art or
another looked at the UFC and began to ask themselves interesting questions –
e.g. How would my training prepare me to
compete in these types of events? Thus small training groups sprouted up around
the country and informal competitions took place.
There was no agreed upon rules (at this point the two
biggest competitions – Pride and the UFC fought under similar but distinct rule
sets). There was no national or international governing body and no specific
requirements for health and safety beyond public indemnity. In the United
States the UFC was relying on being regulated by the state athletic commissions
who regulated professional boxing bouts. To this day there is no recognised
governing body for the sport (e.g. an equivalent of FIFA for soccer).
The Last of the Old School
In the early 2000s there had been MMA style bouts placed on
Kickboxing cards around Ireland, North and South, East and West. The first
“professional” style MMA only tournaments took place in 2004. The Ultimate
Fighting Revolution catered for the market in Northern Ireland and the Ring
of Truth and later Cage of Truth took place in Dublin. Events were
well attended and hosted in hotels, boxing clubs and occasionally GAA clubs.
Tickets were the equivalent of 15-25 euro a pop and there might be 11-15 fights
on the night. They were a mixture of “amateur” and “professional” rule sets
catering for the variety of experience involved. Attendances were in the
hundreds from 300-500 on average with most tickets bought by family and friends
of those competing.
You can see some clips of the first Ring of Truth here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCanrohaJqc
On March 12, 2005 Rings: Bushido Ireland took place
in the Point Depot in Dublin (currently the 3 Arena). Rings was a Japanese MMA
organisation that was attempting to bring events to Europe. The event was well
publicized with tickets selling healthily probably in excess of 5,000. There
was backlash on radio talk shows but the event took place without much fanfare.
There were 4 Irish competitors on the card and Mick Leonard was successful in
his contest.
The event had been pitched as a blood sport and for many
this was their first experience of live MMA. The fights were criticised by some
first time attendees as “boring” and not the slug fest they had expected.
Unlike the local events it was attended by people unfamiliar with the fighters
competing. The event failed to build on the momentum created by smaller local
shows and probably didn’t bring a new audience to the fledgling sport in
Ireland.
The next big event was Cage Rage Contenders: The Real
Deal which took place on May 26, 2007 at The Point in Dublin. The UK
based Cage Rage was the biggest professional MMA organisation in Europe and had
been running big events in Dublin. The card was stacked with Irish or Irish
based fighters and is generally seen as a success.
Later that year the UFC came to The Odyssey Arena in Belfast
(UFC 72). Two Northern Irish fighters Colin Robinson and Stevie Lynch
competed on the card. Unfortunately, neither were victorious but both are
fondly remembered by the Irish MMA community and are the last of the old-school
to compete (although Neil Seery, a veteran of Irish MMA made his UFC debut
later). The first UFC on the island of
Ireland had a live audience of 8,000 people with millions more watching on television.
The Golden Era
The first UFC in Dublin was UFC 93 held in January
2009. There was one Irish fighter on the card, Tom Egan, friend of Conor
McGregor. Tom is often cited as one of the first people to urge Conor to have a
go at MMA and join a club. While Tom was unlucky to face a rising star in the
form of John Hathaway and lost in the first round, he represented the first of
the “golden era” of Irish MMA.
Conor McGregor made his UFC debut in April 2013 (UFC on
Fuel TV: Mousasi vs. Latifi). Conor had a series of dominating performances
in the smaller leagues in Europe. He debuted
in the aforementioned Ring of Truth in 2007 (video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOSts7PTDxM)
going on to win the Cage Warriors championship. He headlined the UFC
event in Dublin on July 2014 (UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Brandão)
which is cited by many as the most successful night in Irish MMA. There were 4
Irish fighters on the card including McGregor as well as Northern Irish Norman
Parke. Gunnar Nelson, from Iceland but based for training in Dublin also
competed. All were victorious and this group really announced the presence of
the Golden era of Irish MMA.
Aisling Daly was the first (and currently only) Irish female
fighter to compete in the UFC. She equally should be acknowledged as a pioneer
of the sport, representing Ireland around the globe (Denmark, the UK, the USA,
Canada and of course Ireland). She also participated in the MMA themed reality
TV show the Ultimate Fighter season 20. She was eliminated from the reality TV
based tournament at the semi-finals but later went on to compete in the UFC proper.
This generation of fighters had mostly begun their training
in MMA rather than in another martial art (with exceptions). They had coaches
who had competed in MMA and this generation was reaping the benefit of the time
their predecessors spent watching bootlegged UFC videos in garden sheds
practicing MMA moves.
The McGregor Era
Amongst this Golden generation there was an undisputed star
in the form of Conor McGregor. McGregor would go on to break multiple records in MMA
in terms of attendances and PPV sales but also win championships at two weight
classes. He competed in one of the most watched professional boxing bouts of
recent times versus Floyd Mayweather and went on to become a global megastar.
His stock is still rising despite some falls along the way, both professional
and personal.
Tragedy as well as Triumph
On April 11 2016 Portuguese MMA fighter Joao Carvalho died
in hospital from an acute subdural haemorrhage. Two days earlier he had
competed in an MMA contest in Dublin on the Total Extreme Fighting
Championship card. He had two previous MMA bouts in which he had won and
lost the other. His opponent on that fateful night was Charlie Ward who also
had a modest pedigree (1 win 1 loss). Charlie would later go on to fight in the
UFC and perhaps more infamously be involved in Conor McGregor’s assault of a
UFC bus.
The Coroner’s court returned a verdict of death by
misadventure. The court heard that there were safety concerns about the event
made by Prof Dan Healy, chair of SAFE-MMA an organisation that aims to promote
safety at MMA events. There were three doctors “ringside” and a paramedic crew
on side. The referee had stopped the fight in the third round. Video evidence
had showed Joao Carvalho had sustained 41 head strikes during the bout. There
were no immediate signs of major injury following the end of the bout but soon
after Joao had come nauseous and eventually collapsed. He would die from the
injuries sustained during the bout. The coroner’s court recommend a national
governing body be put in place for MMA and in the interim MMA follow boxing
standards.
The third and final blog post on this series will address
some of the safety issues in combat sports like MMA.
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