Tomorrow evening, at UFC Rotterdam, 36-year-old Neil Seery steps into the octagon for the biggest fight of his career.
Outside of Conor McGregor, it's the biggest fight ever for an Irish fighter in the UFC.
Seery, who holds down a full-time job as a warehouse manager along with being a UFC fighter, takes on number five ranked flyweight Kyoji Horiguchi .
This time a year ago, Horiguchi was in a flyweight title fight with Demetrious 'Mighty Mouse' Johnson. He would lose that via armbar with just a second remaining in the fight. Had it gone the distance, Johnson would likely have won by unanimous decision.
Still, just to stay competitive with Mighty Mouse - the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC - is a real achievement.
On Friday's The Racket podcast, we spoke to Severe MMA's Sean Sheehan about Seery's chances. While he believes, Horiguchi should win the bout, he doesn't completely rule out the Dubliner.
If he can get his strategy right, he's in with a shout.
He's [Horiguchi] one of those guys who is on another level and give him a year or two he'll be up there again fighting Johnson. He's one of the only guys who I think could challenge Demetrious Johnson.
For Neil Seery, it's a difficult one. Horiguchi has a karate style that's very, very fast. He fights on the outside and snipes in with big shots. Seery likes to get inside and make it a dogfight. He likes to box you up and hurt you on the inside. He spoke a lot recently about using his takedowns and I think that was with Horiguchi in mind.
It's a three round fight. I think the way he going to win this fight - if he can win it - is to eke out rounds. He's going to need to grab Horiguchi and take him down. Keep him down for three minutes and try to win a round. Land big shots on the inside and try to win moments in the fight.
If he goes out to fight for 15 minutes and win every second of the fight, I don't think that's going to work for him. Horiguchi is just too fast and too good.
I'm picking Horiguchi. But Seery, never rule him out. He's a fighter his whole life, he's fought as far up as lightweight. He's at flyweight now, working a full time job. He's come through plenty of adversity in his career. I definitely wouldn't rule him out.
You can listen to yesterday's podcast below.
Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
