A Historic Hall Welcomes the Latest Crop of Irish MMA Charges

John Kavanagh and Paddy Holohan celebrate a win for Richie Smullen

From the heady heights of Las Vegas, regional MMA event BattleZone 15 brought an assembly of national MMA greats to a simple sports hall that has been a pillar in the growth of the sport in Ireland.

The Trinity Sports and Leisure Center in North Dublin is nothing spectacular. It's a simple community hall with basketball nets on either end of its wooden floored surface, but there's a certain magic it brings to the regional MMA events that have frequented the venue for over a decade.

Conor McGregor, Neil Seery, Gunnar Nelson, Aisling Daly and Tom Egan all took fights in the Donaghmede premises in their fledgling years, and BattleZone 15 brought another card full of UFC hopefuls for Saturday night's showcase.

I had a mission of my own for the night. Having splurged on a DSLR camera the day before, I wanted to try to take some pictures. Luckily, Gavin Fitzgerald, the filmmaker of 'The Notorious' documentary series, saw me unwrapping my new tool from its packaging and took some sympathy on me. After trying his best to teach me some of the basics with the help of SevereMMA.com's Dave Fogarty, he eventually lost hope and took the pictures himself, to my delight.

Back to Basics

Irish MMA has ascended to the heady heights of main events in the fight capital of the world, on the biggest stages the sport has to offer. Without the glitz and glamor, the sport shined through in a far more resoundingly way on Saturday night. It was less show and more sport, and it was interesting to see some of the big names from the Emerald Isle back in their old stomping ground.

John Kavanagh became a number one best seller on Amazon a few days go, but the SBG head coach was still on hand to corner all of his team on the night. The last time I saw Paddy Holohan he was being mobbed by fans after his main event bout Louis Smolka in Dublin's 02. On Saturday night, he moved between cornering some of SBG's younger charges and joining the rest of the spectators in the crowd.

Rodney Moore, a man known from Norman Parke's corner to international audiences, did the same as Kavanagh with his Next Generation Northern Ireland fighters, who travelled a long way to the capital from Northern Ireland.

There was the odd selfie with a fan here and the there for the more well-established ambassadors of the Irish sport, but for the most part it was the whole scene coming together for the good of mixed-martial-arts on the island.

Vision

BattleZone is the brainchild of Team Ryano boss Andy Ryan. Sitting cage side throughout the night as a conveyor belt of talent came and went, Ryan made a conscious effort to minimize the flair of the event. The promotion often put on bigger shows in far more plush surroundings for their pro cards. Yet, with only two professional bouts booked for the event, the judo and jiu jitsu black belt wanted the night to be more centered on competition than spectacle.

The whole Ryano crew was involved on the night. Irish heavyweight champion Karl Roche locked the door of the fenced enclosure for each fight. He was nearly unrecognizable without his signature goatee due to fundraising shave-a-thon that took place earlier in the day at national kids jiu jitsu championships. The team's judo coach Robbie Brennan kept the time and Stephen Lowry played master of ceremonies, trading his kimono for a waistcoat and jacket combination. As Seery made his way too and from the stage for his cornering duty he would crack jokes with his teammates before disappearing into the backstage area.

One of the most dedicated participants of the night was former UFC featherweight Paul Redmond. At one stage 'Redser' abandoned his post as the event's DJ to be replaced by Luke Brennan (blue belt on the mats, black belt on the decks), before he took to the canvas for ADCC matchup. After a quick submission win via an unorthodox inverted shoulder lock, the toehold specialist sat back down behind the turntables.

Action

There are obvious differences between an amateur regional event and the polished offerings of the likes of UFC, Bellator and WSOF.

However, victory and defeat become far more pure without lucrative purses being involved. At amateur level there are no distractions or conciliations, the winner can only leave with triumph and the loser with the inevitable sour taste of defeat.

SBG jiu jitsu virtuoso Lee Hammond came close to finishing Ryano's Eric Nolan early in the night, in a bout that was contested as a world amateur championship qualifier. When Nolan rallied and finished Hammond with a barrage of solid connections in the second round, the raw emotion of the moment was evident as Nolan was hoisted aloft by Seery in celebration as Kavanagh consoled his prodigious teen.

The bond between Kyuzo and BJJ Cork was only revealed by friendly nods between coaches Barry Oglesby and Liam Beechinor when their bantamweights met for the amateur title. Despite Nathan Kelly and Aaron Maguire knowing each other quite well, they engaged in an epic battle that was given in Maguire's favor. The duo looked completely emptied of all effort as they left the cage. Both had smiles on their faces, knowing they had done their utmost to secure the win.

Kiefer Crosbie and Will Fleury took wins in their professional debuts in what were the only two professional contests on the card. Fleury's boisterous celebration after his first round head and arm choke finish of John Redmond illustrated what the win Cork man, as he bounded around the stage after the tap.

Crosbie's pinpoint strike to Keith 'The Butcher' McCabe's liver gave the Dubliner a steady start to his pro career, and immediately after the fight the flashy kickboxer was calling for international tests to pit his skills against.

When you consider that ten thousand people have traveled from Ireland to Las Vegas to see Conor McGregor compete in the MGM Grand on two occasions, it seems crazy that around 500 people turned out to see what could be the next batch of Irish UFC fighters in years to come.

If not to see the new breed of the Fighting Irish, the chance to see the current crop of top tier talent in their natural habitat should be an incentive enough to pay the admission fee. There is something quite magical about the sports growth in the nation. If Saturday night's action was anything to go by, the national scene can look forward to plenty of international escapades in the future too.