Paul Kimmage says that he's still 'repulsed' by MMA but his stance on the sport does sound like it's softening. Kimmage appeared on Today FM's The Last Word to discuss Conor McGregor's lightweight title fight victory against Eddie Alvarez.
Paul Kimmage UFC 205 accreditation refused
Following a meeting with John Kavanagh last month for a Sunday Indepedent interview, Kimmage applied for UFC 205 media accreditation but he was refused.
I applied to go and see the fight in New York. I thought 'I want to see this. I want to see this for myself'. I was actually refused accreditation which was a right slap to my ego.
Kimmage did not elaborate on exactly why he was refused. The UFC is an organisation which has had a frosty relationship with some members of the media in the past. Who could forget the whole Ariel Helwani lifetime ban debacle? To hear that someone with a history of speaking negatively about the UFC was refused probably shouldn't be a major surprise. In this respect, the UFC - the most slickly promoted sporting organisation there is right now - needs to work on its PR.
Kimmage's decision to apply was prompted by a positive experience interviewing Kavanagh and also eavesdropping on a conversation between two young SBG fighters.
I went out to John Kavanagh's gym on the Naas Road last month and I had a really interesting experience out there. First and foremost, John Kavanagh is one of the most interesting people I've ever met - period.
In a three-hour discussion with John, I got a real sense of where he'd come from, where the sport had come from and what it was really about.
Even more interesting than that was a little vignette before I went in to meet John. There's a little reception area in the gym. There were two kids there. One a little big, the kind of guy you wouldn't want to meet down a dark alley. He was talking to this little skinny guy by the coffee bar. The skinny kid had a fight coming up and they were talking about it in this language I didn't understand. It was all technique - he'll do this, then you'll do that. It was real technique and then real substance and something I hadn't considered.
Before I'd gone in there, I had a fixed mindset. What is it? I don't understand what I'm looking at. I'm still not sure.
Kimmage said that one of his main points of contention with MMA - the use of PEDs - has been addressed with a 'serious testing programme'. He also added that fighters taking excessive punishment, usually on the canvas following a knockdown, was an officiating issue.
The Sunday Independent journalist also told of the first time he realised Conor McGregor was an individual to be taken seriously - at least in terms of popularity.
I've always found McGregor to be a really interesting person. It is easy to dismiss him as a braggart and a mouth. The first sense I had that this guy was special was in New York two year or three years ago. I was over there with my son at Christmas and he was on a Times Square billboard. This is this young fella from Crumlin. I don't know if it's that easy to do that, I don't think it is.
He has something. He has people like Rory McIlroy going to his fights. He is - without question - out famous sportsman. McIlroy or McGregor? I'd give it to McIlroy but I will not deny his popularity. That has to be built on something.
