October 24th 2015 – UFC Dublin featured a rather lacklustre card but served up some highlights nonetheless. It was an ideal stepping-stone for the Irish MMA market that the UFC failed to seize upon.
In part due to Conor McGregor’s success, Ireland was tipped to be the next Canada or Brazil - offering a largely untapped market with a obsessive fan base. Twelve months later and Ireland may be following in the footsteps of the aforementioned countries for the wrong reasons.
UFC Dublin featured five Irish fighters on the night. The 3Arena filled up during the preliminary bouts despite the fact the card was lacking in big names on the night. On the prelims, Cathal Pendred suffered a loss with 23 seconds remaining of the first round.
Then came the highlight of the night as Aisling Daly entered the arena to a roaring rendition of The Cranberries ‘Zombie’. It was a hair-raising moment which instilled a wonderful sense of national pride. Daly went on to win the fight via unanimous decision to extend her record to 16-6.
Veteran, Neil Seery, won both the fight and ‘performance of the night’ for his effort against Jon Delos Reyes. While Antrim native, Norman Parke defeated Reza Madadi in what would be his penultimate fight with the UFC.
Yet the night ended on a somewhat somber note as fan favourite, Paddy Holohan, could do little to prevent Louis Smolka locking in a rear naked choke in the second round to concede defeat.
The Aftermath
Only two of the five Irish fighters who competed on the UFC Dublin card remain with the company twelve months later. However, Paddy Holohan had to retire at 28 years with a rare illness – and if it was not for that fact, we could have expected him to be hanging around the Flyweight division for years to come.
Cathal Pendred also decided to hang up his gloves following the event, while Norman Parke was cut following a loss in London earlier this year.
Aisling Daly and Neil Seery still remain under contract with the UFC but the latter is expected to retire following his fight with Ian McCall in Belfast this November. That leaves Daly as the only one of the five fighters from the UFC Dublin card to enter 2017 with the organisation.
Bare knuckle pic.twitter.com/zZoJmrlF6I
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 1, 2016
While Straight Blast Gym continue to produce a high calibre of athletes, just three of them which fight under the SBG banner in the UFC are Irish born – Aisling Daly, Conor McGregor and Charlie Ward (pictured above).
That’s not to say that John Kavanagh is becoming reliant on foreign talent whatsoever. As the gym gains attention, it’s only natural for fighters wanting to train a successful environment. It is credit to the effort put in by everyone at SBG. Yet the onus is on the UFC to sign talent from throughout the country.
The fact that just two Irish based fighters feature on the Belfast card is inexcusable. Artem Lobov and Neil Seery are 30 and 37 respectively. The UFC has failed to seize the opportunity to display emerging Irish talent on the Belfast card.
Comparatively speaking, the upcoming Bellator/Bamma event dwarves UFC Belfast in terms of exciting prospects as a host of Irish names have been announced. SBG’s James Gallagher will garner the most attention as he continues his run through the Bantamweight ranks.
When Canada and Brazil had their moments in the limelight, the UFC heavily invested in fighters and publicity of MMA in both countries. The PPV cards were stacked – Georges Saint Pierre and Anderson Silva were top of the game in their respective divisions. Yet the transition failed to happen and interest began to wane from both the fans and UFC.
So much so, fans in Toronto are rallying on social media to boycott UFC 206 as neither St.Pierre or Rory MacDonald will feature. Gone are the days of Canadians breaking attendance records at UFC 129 (55,724).
UFC lost Rory and GSP in a span of months, Canadians should protest and boycott UFC 206
— Gaz (@agaz996) October 18, 2016
I think like GSP Canadians need to take a stand and #boycottUFC206 . I'm ready to move over to Belator
— BitcoinBilly the Beaver (@ihaveinternet2) October 18, 2016
Absolutely, the interest is there from the Irish contingent of MMA fans but without the introduction of more homegrown talent - which is in abundance - the UFC may run the risk of Ireland becoming a neglected territory in years to come.
