Galway fight Male & Female

topdog8

Hey for those of you who were at the fights in galway and seen the female who was fighting the male (forgive me for being lazy and not looking up there names).
i was just wondering what your opinions were of this fight, its sparked up some debate in our own club.

crokester

Whats there to debate? She did very well and drew against her second oppenent. She also hung in very well in the first fight despite taking some heavy early knocks. As I far as I remember the submission in her first fight was only succesfully applied against her in the final moments. As far as im concerned she had every right to fight against males if thats what she chooses. Best of luck to her in the future.

topdog8

crokester wrote:

Whats there to debate? She did very well and drew against her second oppenent. She also hung in very well in the first fight despite taking some heavy early knocks. As I far as I remember the submission in her first fight was only succesfully applied against her in the final moments. As far as im concerned she had every right to fight against males if thats what she chooses. Best of luck to her in the future.

No dont get me wrong i have nothing but admiration for the girl she done really well and i didnt see her second fight.
It was the guy we were talking bout it was horrible to watch imo and alot of other people including her club members. the guy came out and lashed into her very hard and wanted to try hurt her. i just felt it could be handled in a different way and thats not slating either fighter

crokester

He was aggressive to be fair. But wel have to give him the benefit of the doubt that it was how he would have fought against a male oppenent also. To be honost I dont think she would have wanted it any other way. If I was a girl competing I know I wouldnt.

Unpossible

i just felt it could be handled in a different way

Its not easy fighting a woman, come on too strong and its a case of "what a b##tard, hitting a poor woman so heavly/often" if he makes an exception and goes easy then "he's treating her differently and basically saying women are inferior to men".

Then theres the whole winning/losing thing;
"dude you beat up a woman"
"dude you were beaten by a girl"

its a lose lose situation

topdog8

Unpossible wrote:

Its not easy fighting a woman, come on too strong and its a case of "what a b##tard, hitting a poor woman so heavly/often" if he makes an exception and goes easy then "he's treating her differently and basically saying women are inferior to men".

Then theres the whole winning/losing thing;
"dude you beat up a woman"
"dude you were beaten by a girl"

its a lose lose situation

thats exactly the debate that we were having but anyhow ill be the first to stand up and say well done to her there is not alot of guys who would of taken them punches and she done it well, the guy was even getting frustrated cos of it

crokester

I have to say, it annoys me when anybody gets overly aggresive at the MMA league. Its all a bit of fun and a chance to see how you might enjoy full mma, ie headshots. Your only kidding yourself if you think bodyshots over a 5 min period is gonna do anything meaningful, unless you get a complete peach! And thats not often done

dlofnep

Unless we are in their shoes, I don't think its fair of us to judge them. Firstly, it's competition - the aim is to win. If the girl felt she could compete in the division, it was her choice. The guy had two options:

A) Hold back, and possibly be criticised by his peers.
Compete as normal.

I dunno guys, I'd probably hold back - But it could have it's consequences. hard one to call really..

topdog8

crokester wrote:

. Your only kidding yourself if you think bodyshots over a 5 min period is gonna do anything meaningful, unless you get a complete peach! And thats not often done

thrust me man if they connected right at the ribs you could easily snap them and the damage that could of been done.

Personally speaking and were all diff, id of went to ground straight away and looked for a sub... But thats just me

Roper

I reckon the only way to sort this out is to get more girls competing!!! Then there'll be no such discussion.

topdog8

Roper wrote:

I reckon the only way to sort this out is to get more girls competing!!! Then there'll be no such discussion.

ur dead right.... im sure it wud put a smile on alot of peoples faces.
how does the league go about making it more attractive for girls to participate

MarkBrophy

The girl fighting was debra and she trains with us in ul kickboxing. Im 110 kgs and i dont hold back when sparring with her so i dont see why the guy fighting her in competition should have. I would say however that perhaps the reason he was so aggressive was because he found himself in a tough fight:D

FiannaGym.com

More power to women for competing, thats great. No chance I'd fight a girl in a real competative match.

Peace

MaeveD

.... compete as normal of course!

Fair play to her

topdog8

mark i seen ur fight down there and at 110 kg id say you pack a pretty punch alright. im not tryin to slate anyone as i said just wanted to see what people thought...

Maeve do u train aikido in swords with ray

MaeveD

Yep.. thats me

roo1981

topdog8 wrote:

It was the guy we were talking bout it was horrible to watch imo and alot of other people including her club members. the guy came out and lashed into her very hard and wanted to try hurt her. i just felt it could be handled in a different way and thats not slating either fighter

a:Im sure she knew what to expect if she trains MMA regularly
b:She and her coach were forewarned by the event organisers one way or another
c:The lads style is aggressive, and hes more of a standup fighter-if you watched his second fight it went pretty much the same way. Why should he have to change his style, an opponent is an opponent. And i doubt he set out to 'hurt' her-which would imply he went out to cause her injury.
d:How do you think she would have felt if she turned up to compete and all she got was someone going easy on her? Doubt shed have been too impressed.

Anyways kudos to the chic for stepping up, she did well in both her fights.

mark.leonard

Debra is a warrior there is no doubt about it! She knew exactly what is in stor for her when she stepped into the ring, she trains with Tim Murphy in UL and has a wealth of competitive experience from Taekwondo and Kickboxing, but now she is trying to make some progress in MMA she found there was nobody for her to compete with, and as anyone who has been in that position will tell you , its hard to move from being competition driven to just training. She wanted to compete and asked could she enter in the men's division. I'd much prefer for her to have another woman to compete agianst, but as that was not happening I had no qualms about letting Debra enter the men's event as I know from first hand experience she is well able for it. The first kick she took in her first fight would have dropped a lot of fellas, so after seeing that I was sure I'd made the right decision. I would expect her opponents to go for it the same as with a guy, and so would Debra, anything less would be insulting, after all if she wanted special treatment she wouldn't have entered into a men's section anyway!

I am the first to admit however that it is not the ideal situation for both Debra and her opponents, the solution as Roper said is more women stepping up so any instructors out there, encourage your female competitors to take the next step!

Tim_Murphy

I think Mark covered most of the points I would have made.

Debra certainly didn’t want any special treatment and would not have appreciated it if she got it. Although these were her first MMA bouts, lets remember that she have been on of Irelands top TKD & Kickboxing competitors for years (numerous time world championship & world cup medal winner) and would have vastly more competitive experience than most people competing in the league.

Sure the guy was being aggressive but he was certainly staying within the rules and it didn’t bother Debra one bit. I’m sure I’ve given her worse at training!

The fact is that there is an serious lack of female competitors here interested in MMA, and even in BJJ, the numbers just aren’t there. What are these people meant to do? Debra isn't the first to do it, Reka from SBG competed in the league as well and anyone remember Caoimhe from Belfast at the BJJ open? She rocked! Fair play to them all.

It was the guy we were talking bout it was horrible to watch imo and alot of other people including her club members

Not sure what you are saying here. Why was it horrible to watch? At no point did she seem hurt from his shots and it was clear he was getting frustrated by his lack of progress. As for her club mates, I would be very surprised if you heard any of them say it was horrible to watch, I'm sure they were all too busy cheering her on.

c:The lads style is aggressive, and hes more of a standup fighter-if you watched his second fight it went pretty much the same way. Why should he have to change his style, an opponent is an opponent. And i doubt he set out to 'hurt' her-which would imply he went out to cause her injury.

Exactly. The guy went out there to compete the way he wanted to, regardless of opponent, as he was well entitled to do.

topdog8

like i said im only playing devils advocate.. i think she done real well and alot of credit does have to go to her instructor.. it would be great to see more females along the way but i have a feeling the debra would be there toughest opponent.. Fair play to her

debra.donovan

Thanks guys for the support. I don't go onto these forums that often thus I only heard about this last night

As already mentioned I have been competing for many years now in both TaeKwon Do and Kickboxing. I have been training in MMA for some time now in the UL Kickboxing club where I am constantly training with guys who are much heavier than me (except for Tim of course). These guys are great- they are the reason I felt that I was ready and able to compete in the league. Training alone while great doesn’t quite do it for me as I have always been the type of person who likes to test myself a little.

As for the competition in Galway I didn’t want “special treatment” just because I was competing in the men’s division. I’ve been to MMA league competitions before and know the story. Obviously I would love to be able to compete in a division with women around my weight, but they are just simply not out there at the moment. Women competing in martial arts are thin on the ground anyway so this doesn’t come as a surprise to me.

MMA League fights in Galway; that first kick. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel it but as any competitor would tell you, you just have to get through the times when you take a knock. I was nervous before the fight but I also wanted my opponent to take it seriously and fair play to him he let me know that he did immediately. Both my opponents on the day were great and neither of them took it easy on me. Fair play.

If it was horrible to watch then turn away. As for my opponents I do sympathise a little with the fact that it seems like a no win situation for them. As Mark Brophy has already stated he doesn’t hold back when sparring with me so I know what it’s like to get a hard punch or kick every now and again. It’s a controlled sporting situation where the referee would intervene if either me or my opponent were unable for the bout to continue.

I hope that the fact that I am competing in the league will encourage other women to take part in it. I’m glad to say that three to four of the girls that I help to coach here in UL Kickboxing Club are seriously considering competing in the MMA League event that will be held here on the 22nd of April. These is a start and to all other coaches out there please encourage your female martial artists to give it a go.

Finally I just want to thank all of the people I train with here in UL (both male and female) and I hope to see you at the next MMA league. I’m really looking forward to it.

yomchi

debra.donovan wrote:

Thanks guys for the support. I don't go onto these forums that often thus I only heard about this last night

As already mentioned I have been competing for many years now in both TaeKwon Do and Kickboxing. I have been training in MMA for some time now in the UL Kickboxing club where I am constantly training with guys who are much heavier than me (except for Tim of course). These guys are great- they are the reason I felt that I was ready and able to compete in the league. Training alone while great doesn’t quite do it for me as I have always been the type of person who likes to test myself a little.

As for the competition in Galway I didn’t want “special treatment” just because I was competing in the men’s division. I’ve been to MMA league competitions before and know the story. Obviously I would love to be able to compete in a division with women around my weight, but they are just simply not out there at the moment. Women competing in martial arts are thin on the ground anyway so this doesn’t come as a surprise to me.

MMA League fights in Galway; that first kick. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel it but as any competitor would tell you, you just have to get through the times when you take a knock. I was nervous before the fight but I also wanted my opponent to take it seriously and fair play to him he let me know that he did immediately. Both my opponents on the day were great and neither of them took it easy on me. Fair play.

If it was horrible to watch then turn away. As for my opponents I do sympathise a little with the fact that it seems like a no win situation for them. As Mark Brophy has already stated he doesn’t hold back when sparring with me so I know what it’s like to get a hard punch or kick every now and again. It’s a controlled sporting situation where the referee would intervene if either me or my opponent were unable for the bout to continue.

I hope that the fact that I am competing in the league will encourage other women to take part in it. I’m glad to say that three to four of the girls that I help to coach here in UL Kickboxing Club are seriously considering competing in the MMA League event that will be held here on the 22nd of April. These is a start and to all other coaches out there please encourage your female martial artists to give it a go.

Finally I just want to thank all of the people I train with here in UL (both male and female) and I hope to see you at the next MMA league. I’m really looking forward to it.

Hi Debra,
Jon here from IUTF Dublin. I didn't realise it was you in the fight. Nice one!

Good luck in your next fight

Jon

Tim_Murphy

i think she done real well and alot of credit does have to go to her instructor

No, I'd give all the credit to Debra herself. There are no instructors in our club as such, a few of us coach as well as train but we are all training partners.

debra.donovan

Thanks Jon for the good wishes.
Tim thanks for all that great coaching .

I feel that I have benifited from the whole experience and hope to continue doing so.

topdog8

well done deb its great to see and we tot u were an immense fighter. hopefully the other girls come along and fight aswell in limerick and its home territory aswell. best of luck in the next round and be looking forward to see u fight