WKA world championships news!

Tim_Murphy

Big congrats to my training partner and good friend Debra Donovan who won a silver medal in Full Contact Kickboxing (with low kicks) in this years WKA world championships in Spain! Debra has a ton of experience (and titles!:) ) in Light Contact but this was her first time stepping into the FC arena.

From Debra about the final (presume she doesn't mind me posting it!)

Unfortunatly I was beaten in the final last night. It was on at 12.30am (yes at night). This was 4 1/2 hours after it was scheduled and I just wanted to get the bloody job done at that stage. She was about 3-4 inches taller that me at least and I reckon she weighed in at 83 to 85kg solid. I lost the contact in the first round and fought blind for the rest. I´ve beeen told by a lot of people that I won the 2nd which I´m delighted about considering the lack of sight.

For anyone who doesn't know, Debra is basically considered legally blind without her contact lenses and would have trouble walking down stairs not to mind fighting. Knowing Debra though the idea of quiting just wouldn't have occured to her

congrats again Dono!

I don't know how the rest of the Irish crew got on, as far as I know there was a good crowd from the IUTF there, so maybe Jon has heard some news?

gymrabbit

Fantastic well done Debra.

I got a bang in sparring and lost a contact too recently, it's a pain in the ass!

Roper

Nice job Debra!!!

Clive

Fair play to Debra, hard to believe she was fighting a girl the same size as me. Kudos!

dlofnep

Congrats Deb! great achievement.

Millionaire

Thats brilliant! Up Full Contact Kickboxing! and leg kicks too WOW I m Impressed for 1st time in FC!!!! Up Ireland! Briliant!

Post photos if any!

Yeah I know about that contact lens problem, I suffer the same! Fighting with one eye shut and one open when you loose a lens, cause if you open both eyes, its like double vision, and you do not know which guy to hit! ha ha

Thats must have been some heap of a women she was figthing if she was 85 Kgs since I am 90!!!

Thats the stupid thing about some of those competitons , is how they drag on, and leave figthers waiting hours late of their ring time, its very draining.

TwoKingMick

This just in, clive spent that weekend in spain, and has been seen wearing a gold medal of some description about town.

Tim_Murphy

Post photos if any!

As far as I know she has a video clip of at least one of her fights, so hopefully someone will get it up on the net soon.

Thats the stupid thing about some of those competitons , is how they drag on, and leave figthers waiting hours late of their ring time, its very draining.

Yep, it sure is, thats one of the things I dont miss about the kickboxing and TKD scene.

Millionaire

Tim_Murphy wrote:

Yep, it sure is, thats one of the things I dont miss about the kickboxing and TKD scene.

One of the reasons I quit them competitions!

Anyway good luck to her, I am sure there is great things to come.

By the way since over 20 years Ireland has had World Champion Kickboxers almost consistently too, I think the achievements of many of these people on a the International level goes unmentioned and even unnoticed, which is a shame.

I am not ont the scene no more, but for those that are, keep on posting info and news about it on here.

john kavanagh

great stuff, well done

gymrabbit

Is Debra interested in fighting MMA at the pro or semi pro level?

paddyc

... afaik

Dylan Scally who posts here the odd time got a silver medal in the heavy weight division....

fair play to debra as well



paddy

Dan133269

congrats Debra, nothing less than deserved

Marty Mc

85 kg's!!!!! She must have been a monstor at that weight. Its hard getting male kboxing competitors at that weight (85 - 90kg), never mind females. A great achievement especailly against an opponent oif that weight!!!!!!!

mark.leonard

Well done Debra! We're proud of ya girl

Dylan Scally

I cornered debra in that fight, the girls got some serious hart. Great battle. When she came back to the corner after the first round and said she had lost her lens, i thought ''bollocks'' but she went out and fought to a split decision. The german was a monster. Some fight, well done debra.

debra.donovan

Tim_Murphy wrote:

From Debra about the final (presume she doesn't mind me posting it!)

Well too late now I guess!! :eek:

Tim_Murphy wrote:

For anyone who doesn't know, Debra is basically considered legally blind without her contact lenses and would have trouble walking down stairs not to mind fighting.

Yep How long have you known me and you still think I have two lenses. I've only the one! Long story. Hopefully by this time next year the whole sight thing will be sorted out.

Thanks for that Tim. All those times that you belted the head off me must pay some dividends I guess. Would have been great if you could have been there too Tim.

At the WKA's this year I had one of the best fights of my life in the final. I wouldn’t be able to say that if it hadn’t been for the help of many people. In the ring it’s very much an individual sport but in the weeks and months coming up to the event it’s very much a group/club effort. I would not have been able to do any of it without the help of all here in UL Kickboxing & MMA club. The people include Alan Hannon, Liam T., Alan H., Philip F., Aaron, Marie, Caroline, Ellen, Mark Brophy, Stefan Hubca and many more.

Special thanks also to Ger Healy in the Combat Sports Centre where I am truly learning about ring craft.

Also a big shout out to Dylan Scally for cornering me throughout the event and also Noel for also cornering me in the final. I went over on my own as did Dylan so it was great to have them in my corner.

This is the clip of the second round of the first fight. I'm just going to have to say that I have to drop down a weight division. Maybe I could cut off my left arm or something!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upR-n_kzwtw

As for Dylan: He was unlucky in the final to be stopped. There was huge possibilities if the fight continued. It was a bit of a funny decision by the ref but Dylan will fight another day. I'd love to see the German's leg after the fight as I'd say it was a very pretty colour.

Tim_Murphy

Yep How long have you known me and you still think I have two lenses. I've only the one!

I know, it was a type. Now no more of the back talk woman!

Is Debra interested in fighting MMA at the pro or semi pro level?

I´d imagine so but getting opponents for her wouldn´t be easy. I´d love to see it happend though

gymrabbit

that's a great fight. Firstly, fair play to the big girl for getting in the ring and fighting a full fight. Must have struggled with the cardio against such an active fighter like Debra.

FAir play to debra for taking it to her, it must be hard getting hit by someone with 15kg on you.

crazy monkey

Hi Debra,

First things first - congrats on the results...

Second - without too much sleaze, it is great to see you back in tip top condition and looking very well on your feet...
Your win is even better for me as I saw you sustain a wee knee injury earlier on in the year...and watching you bounce around the ring was great...

Thirdly - it's always great to see someone flying the flag and without being sexist...even better that it's a lady....

A good and consumate victory over the larger girl....who I would slaute just for getting in the ring despite the fact she was probably sweating hamburgers [just kidding folks]

Noble victory...Bravo salutes you!!!!


ps talking about yourself or typing about yourself in the 3rd person means you're cool

Tim_Murphy

Congrats to Dylan as well on his silver medal. I don't remember any irish competing in low kick at the WKAs before so maybe this will be the start of something.

Sean Keane also won a silver medal in the light contact division, which he can add to his gold medal from a few years ago. Nice one Sean!

BTW Debra, whos leg is that in the pictures on your bebo? That looks nasty!

yomchi

Well done Debra, my jaysis that girl in the clip is ginormous! You look in great shape.

Question for UL KB - did you take much from the IUTF squad training into your training schedule for your club?

Debra, why don't you try get some FC fights through the IKF, there's not many women at your standard, I'd say you'd clean up.

Well done again, and well done to everyone else from the IUTF who competed.

JohnMc1

Congrats Debra.

Tim_Murphy

Question for UL KB - did you take much from the IUTF squad training into your training schedule for your club?

To give a deplomatic answer...

The training in the club has evolved a lot over the past few years. This has meant that training in the club started looking less and less like how training in the IUTF does. I did a TKD class a few months ago and although it was good fun, it just showed to me how much our club has come on. I wouldn't be able to go back to that training again.

That said, I haven't been at an IUTF squad training in a long time so Debra could probably give a better answer.

debra.donovan

Jon wrote:

Question for UL KB - did you take much from the IUTF squad training into your training schedule for your club?

Again to try and give a diplomatic answer. I have to agree with Tim the training in the club has evolved a lot in the past few years. The training schedule for the club did not change very much at all as most of the conditioning work I did myself or with one other person during the day. This was mainly to improve my fitness levels and I’m sure that the iutf gang do the same outside of their squad or training sessions.
The biggest change that was made in the training of the club was the shark bait that I had to go through each night during sparring. I would have 3-4 opponents and I would spar them for 2 mins then rest for one min then go against another opponent etc. For the most part my opponents were men who would have been a little bigger and stronger than me and they all have various styles (e.g. one guy comes from a Thai boxing background another from a boxing background and another is loves to kick high.) The fact that my training partners were bigger and stronger than me really stood to me in the final especially.
Other than the shark bait I the clubs training did not change very much as other people are also trying to prepare for various things. During the bouts of stamina work I would have pushed myself as much as possible and that be it.
I did not completely stop training in the MMA or ground fighting aspects of the training but I was concentrating much more on the stand up aspect of the training though.

Jon wrote:

Debra, why don't you try get some FC fights through the IKF, there's not many women at your standard, I'd say you'd clean up.

I really had not thought of it much. I might look into it soon. I think I would be interested.

Tim_Murphy wrote:

Sean Keane also won a silver medal in the light contact division, which he can add to his gold medal from a few years ago. Nice one Sean!

BTW Debra, whos leg is that in the pictures on your bebo? That looks nasty!

Aoifa Foley also won a bronze and there were a number of junior medals a swell. As soon as I get those results I’ll post them.

The leg is Dylan’s. That’s why I was saying I’d like to see the Germans leg too!!

waterford mma

congrats again debra.

stephenwhelan31

Debra Congratelation on your WKA medal.

I was at there for Debra's fights and I got the video clip of her first fight secoud round. So just a brief run throught of what the fights were like for the audience and my point of view! Well the first fight was very impressive, if you saw the vid clip then you know what I'm on about, I was seriously shocked by her opponents size and she could move bless her! The main opening shot of the round was a savage low from debra on the "monsters" quads. It only got better from there. The second round finished with KO with Debra launching from half way across the ring a deadly series of combos, it looked to me like pure killer instinct.

"At the WKA's this year I had one of the best fights of my life in the final" she are being modest here!

Now the final. All I can is WOW. My initial taughts were Debra was going to have some trouble here and for the first half of round one I was right but boy did that change. The problem debra was having was that she was standing in the middle of the ring squaring up and trading punches. Very impressive sight from the audience but the girl had a foot on Debra and it just wasn't working(I'm think you lost your contact here?!) Now as i live and breath what happen next was like pure magic, all the Irish crowded started shouting MOVE DEBRA MOVE… and as if by magic she did it and continues to sidestep and counter, just moving and striking (now we all know that when your in the ring you hear nothing but your hearth beating and your corners voice so that’s why I say magic, it was clear that Debra had trained for just this!). Now I was at ring side and Debra did win the second round and I don't think anyone I talked to after disagreed. As for the third round I felt Debra won this too by a very tight margin, the reason I feel she lost by the judges calling was due a bad call by the ref, giving a standing 8 count for no reason(Debra was on the ropes but she was and just had worked her way from the ropes)(this ref did this alot throughout of the competition seriously! In general the refing was brill thought)
Anyway we all know the decision. And far play to her opponents she was super **** hot! Now just a little bit on her opponents. When first she got in the ring I taught wow she looks fit. When the fight was over I was just after sitting down and I noticed a sudden quietness come over the crowd so I stood up and looked in the ring and in the place of Debra's opponent I saw a man, it had to be a man!, but no in fact it was a women, she was shaved bald with a very strong chin and build and ripped like no MAN I had ever seen doing martial arts, her shoulders were huge and she had a male body builders abbs (I know this because someone took a photo and we zoomed in!!) All in all she was a perfect fighting machine, think of Van Dam in some of his cybog movies!

So once again congrats on your meda Debral!!!