Who are ya?

Dragan

So, are you a figher or a fan? How long have you been into the sport and what got you watching?

fergal_d

Dragan wrote: »

So, are you a figher or a fan? How long have you been into the sport and what got you watching?

1st


MY MMA TIMELINE
- Saw it on friends
- saw it on bravo
- thought it was brutallity, but cool
- went to UFC 72 in Belfast
- Bought a UFC hoodie and wore it out one night thinking I was sh1t hot
- Random amature MMA fighter from Dublin saw me
- Asked me to join a club in Dublin
- Started at Kokoro
- Fought in the Kokoro Annual Tourny Thingy
- Christmas came... Tried to show off to my mates by doing MMA moves.... Broke my collar bone, seperated my shoulder and tore my clavicular tendon.

- 5 months later moved to Galway, Shoulder nearly better
- Joined Point Blank
- Did MMA league in Kilkenny
- Lost my job
- Had to move away from Galway and point blank
- Currently looking for Jits / Kickboxing / boxing in the Roscommon Area...

- Going to Ultimate Conflict 2 tomoz night in Newry


END

Doubs

nice summary Fergal

Personally just started watching it on tv and thought it was pretty cool, interest has grown steadily and look forward to the events now, also read the MMA Mania (http://mmamania.com) blog regularly. Never been all that bothered about getting involved though.

Nothingcompares

Dismissed UFC in the sky sports era as violence. Rolled with some BJJ people in 2004 and got pwned. Started training in BJJ/MMA club, watched every UFC and Pride since and a lot of the other shows when something interesting is on the card. Done the mma league about 4 times, interested in fighting semi-pro when I'm not fat.

The-Game

Got into Pride back in the day and watched every event, got more into UFC after it took all of Prides talent :P

Martin Walker

Marty Walker (jnr):cool:

26yrs old

From Antrim Northern Ireland

Member of Antrim MMA/ Red Dragon

Been into MMA for quite a while now. Started in Kickboxing moved to Thai then competed in the first MMA league in Galway many moons ago when i found a flyer on a seat in the Europa hotel in Belfast at a UFN show. I think Mark Leonard fought that night and if i remember rightly Tom Haddock fought David Patterson aswell. That was really the start of it all for me. Since then ive broke the same leg twice and took a year out to travel. That has put skids on my MMA competing.

Now im a Promoter (Spartan Promotions)

A Ref and Judge. If Reffed at EFR shows and of course my own shows.

And im also match-maker/manager/PR man for the Red Dragon fightteam.

But most of all im a fan. And i dont mean a UFC fan. Domestic MMA is awesome. I just love it.

Hugs and Kisses!
Marty

Dragan

Well i'd better give my own.

Been into the martial arts since i was a kid. Tried my hand at various things but always lacked the physical ability to get anywhere. Ended up seeing a documentary of Ian "The Machine" Freeman on Discovery Channel about 8 years ago. Myself and my Dad sat and watched with a degree of awe what these guys were able to do.

Became a big fan of the sport and started watching avidly. Told myself a few hundreds lies as to why i shouldn't train it. Got physically fit and healthy and ended up doing a few classes with Philip Graham way too long ago. Got sick and had to knock training on the head.

Appear to be over everything and hope to be starting for the second time soon.

Favourite domestic fighters are Tim Murphy and Owen Roddy for the show they put on at my first live MMA event. It was a great fight.

dunkamania

Started doing BJJ in UCD, started watching MMA after that.

Cant watch any other sports now

Nothingcompares

dunkamania wrote: »

Cant watch any other sports now

QTF

callaway92

I love watching it

I first trained martial arts when I was about 12 doing TKD. I got to something like a yellow stripe (or something, long time ago now) and then gave that up. Went a few years without doing anything and then was introduced to Judo in school. Enjoyed that for what it was but didnt get too seriously into it. A few of my friends had been training Brazilian jiu Jitsu in their school under David Jones and one day I ended up having a "challenge match" with one of the lads and after a bit of sloppy wrestling I ended up tapping to a triangle. 3 days later I was down training under David Jones in Next Generation and I've been there ever since. Blue belt under Chris Brennan now. I've also trained Muay-Thai in Warriors but the last year of college (evenings after work) has made getting there with any regularity next to impossible. No MMA fights for me as of yet but hopefully I'll get in once I get a solid break from work/college where I could focus on training and know that i wont have to miss classes.

Would also like to get into reffing at some stage.

Massive fan of MMA, Ill watch any MMA, anywhere, not org specific. whaat i love about it is that most MMA fighters are down to earth guys. i've had the pleasre of meeting a lot of UFC and PRIDE vets, I've had the pleasure of training with some of Irelands finest martial artists and one thing they all have in common is that, for guys who effectively could beat the turd out of you, they're all unpretentious and grounded.

So in reality I'm just a massive fan of the sport.

vasch_ro

I am definately a fan and have been for a very long time, since I saw my first UFC's 1,2, and 4 on VHS NTSC tape which my karate instructor had picked up in the states. I had always been fascinated by martial arts in general and read anything I could get from Donn Draeger and Stephen K Hayes etc. Took my black belt in Wado Ryu, Niall my instructor, knew I would like the UFC tapes and they wouldn't play in his machine, watched them one night with my brothers and we were both shocked and hooked.
Some time later John Kavanagh invited the Karate club to an open mat in St Andrews were he rolled with me for about a few minutes and gave me an intro , i went to a few seminars by JK and then joined the UCD BJJ club, where Dunk and few others here were already rolling. i loved the club really really loved it, there was a great group of people and always a really great atmosphere at training(thanks O'Reilly:)), it was just really good craic. Anyway living in Bray and travelling to UCD was a little too much and I joined NG Loughlinstown which was SBG affiliated at the time and got on really well there, although it took me a good while to settle in and get to know everyone, but once they knew your were serious enough about training and in for the long haul, they opned up I got on great with everyone and have really enjoyed my time there(and continue to) with Dave Jones ( Thanks Jonesy!!). With this progression also grew my love of MMA , I watch all the major events, UFC, Pride,Dream, Affliction,SHOXC, WEC, Elite XC, Cage Rage,Strikeforce and Ring of truth. I really like the WEC events and I think it will grow given time, dream still needs to bed in but I have enjoyed the cards to date.The highlight of my MMA fanship was attending Pride 30 in the Saitama Super Areana in Tokyo closely followed by UFC Belfast and Newcastle, followed by the Ring of Truth events in the ringside club. Its a great time to be fan as MMA is really taking off, the UFC have viable competition and they are coming to Ireland who would have thought !!!!

Killme00

Ive done alot of cross training in the past. Initially i stuck to Kung Fu,Boxing and Kickboxing for about tens years before i went to university in Edinburgh. After training with Rick Young i decided to add Judo to my game and joined the university judo club. After a few years laziness, I very recently started doing BJJ and am going to start doing the Muay Thai there too. I've recently turned 30 and hope to have a few MMA fights before i am too old (i'll have to shift a good bit of weight first though).

CHD

I just like to watch it.

Roper

Killme- I just saw your sig! Who have you been talking to?

Killme00

Roper wrote: »

Killme- I just saw your sig! Who have you been talking to?

For the paranoid among us, the truth is out there. In fact its right there...


http://developer.boards.ie/you.php is great fun but it will get old quickly

Dragan

Roper wrote: »

Killme- I just saw your sig! Who have you been talking to?

It's a genetic thing, i swear.

cowzerp

My name is Paul Cowzer aka the Red bull, aka Daddy cool!
I started my martial arts in kenpo as i wanted to be like bruce lee! went for a few months and learned zero, a few patterns that where totally pointless and got sick of it fairly quick, then i done boxing as i wanted to be in a tough realistic system, i loved it from day 1 and trained 5 days a week every week for years,

moving to rush messed up my training and i was only able to train in my old club 2-3 times a week so ended up training on my own a lot, i stuck with this for a few years and done fairly well but not as good as i would have if i could train like i wanted in my club!

I wanted to learn some new stuff but wanted it to be tough as doing a martial art that was soft would have drove me mad, all i could think of as been tough was Ultimate fighting! eventually i found a club but it was not what i thought, it was mma

loved it from day 1 as it had the toughness and loads of new stuff that i knew nothing about, it was great to feel like a beginner and knowing i'd loads to learn again, anyway this got me training arts seperate, muay thai, judo, bjj and still boxing, now im running my club for 2 years and am loving seen the sport become mainstream,

i only really took fights to gain experience initially as i would feel like a cheat teaching mma without ever doing it, but now i fight for the fun and to challenge and fix weaknesses, i study mma stuff all the time, dont know how my missus takes it tbh, anyway i love mma and want to be part of helping it develop in ireland, Long i know but thats after me editing it!

Congrats to you lads and the forum.

I wouldn't be a huge fan but if it's on tv what beats watching two people kick fuk out of eachother

t-ha

Fan and fighter.

Did traditional (non-contact) kung fu for a while but gave it up for general fitness/strength training. Told Roper on a training forum that Jiu Jitsu (regardless of it's effectiveness) was a sissy way to fight. He invited me down to 'de-sissify' it for me - thought I was going down to get my head kicked in but himself and Clive just went through a few of the basics and showed me some stuff & I thought it was cool and kept it up ever since.

Done some submission tournaments (gi and no-gi), MMA league fights and a C-class fight. Would love to get another fight but am writing up my thesis and it's hard to get into two things fully (plus I'm super-fat right now) so I'm doing jitz when I can for the moment and a bit of boxing down in UCD. Once I'm finally Dr.t-ha though you can fully expect me to start terrorising some local MMA events, or even fighting in some...

Fozzy

I saw UFC 2 about ten years ago and I just became hooked instantly. Seeing a small guy like Royce Gracie beat all these big guys just amazed me

I couldn't really watch it regularly until Sky Sports started showing some UFC highlight shows. I'd tape it on the Thursday night and watch it as soon as I got home from school on Friday. Great days

Back then I was the only person I knew who was a fan of MMA. Now a lot of my friends are fans

I'll watch anything I can get my hands on. The great thing about MMA is that even if you're watching a low-level show and the fighters aren't the most talented, they can still have a great exciting fight

gimmick

Just a watcher of MMA. Mostly UFC, but watch whatever will be on the various channels.

Good to have a proper MMA forum now.

ShawnRaven

Recent fan.

Was more of a Pro Wrestling fan until Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn appeared around 97-98 and dismissed it for being too real. Then a mate convinced me to watch UFC 66 as he didn't have Bravo at the time so i was recording it for him anyway. I'd heard of Liddell and i'd heard of Ortiz and i'd heard of their previous fight before that so I watched the whole lot.

Before i knew it, i was watching it every month and getting my hands on the older stuff to watch, and before i knew that i ended up watching it more regularly than Pro Wrestling.

Only been to the one live show, being 72 in Belfast last year, boring-ass main event blown away by Griffin/Guida in the undercard. Awesome atmosphere though. Was lucky enough to be cageside for it and met Dana White, Bruce Buffer, Rampage Jackson and Joe Rogan during fight intervals. Would have met Randy Couture as well had i not been dragged away ten seconds earlier.

Well done on the forum, folks

dlofnep

I'm JOB. I've been a fan of MMA for about 10 years or so. Met into my friend Shane a few years back and we dabbled in a little BJJ - prior to that, there was nobody here in Waterford so I was just a couch-fan. Competed in amateur MMA a few years back where I proceeded to have seven shades kicked out of my by the infamous Owen Roddy.

First MMA event I attended was Cage Warriors 8 where I saw Dan Hardy & Paul Daley fight very early in their careers. I also attended an Eddie Bravo seminar where I met the infamous John Kavanagh and rolled with him. Naturally, I tapped him six ways til Sunday*

*Note, this may not be entirely accurate.

I've been training Judo, BJJ and recently started Muay Thai. I think MMA is one of the greatest sports in that most people who watch it, also train so they become very knowledgeable of it.

That's about it.

Diabhal Beag

I am a future spectator.I really want to see what all the hype is about.I know a few names,Coture and Kimbo etc and of course Brock, but I would like to see more.Is there any Irish group btw?

Smellyirishman

Just a watcher atm. Good to see you/we don't have to be shunned in the Pro Wrestling forum any more .

getz

i start martial arts. judo at school-==in the 1960s i moved to th london karate club under charles mac and kanazowa -shotokan-then in the late 60s moved to manchester-and trained in shukoki --then gosin karate i am now in my late 60s so i only teach now as a cover or guest in these styles my biggest claim to fame is that in 1968 i finished in the last 16 in the european championship

bjj-fighter

Started watching MMA when I was about 9 or 10,Started training in SBG when I was 12(I'm 15 now).I love it so much it basiclly controls my life now haha

arybvtcw0eolkf

I'm more a fan of Irish MMA than the UFC tbh.

I've never fought MMA, I never intend fighting it as I find it hard enough getting to grips (pun intended) with Judo.

Although at 42 and probably twice as old as some of the guys here, I'm inspired by most of you.

RNCFAN

Not a fighter - got into it as a Fan when I seen an article in Loaded (back when it used to be good) on Royce Gracie and from there got some tapes to watch.

Perfect fit

Names Tommy, im 22, im a photographer from kildare - mainly do model portfolios etc but do the shows as often as they come up:) been into mma the past 3 years, train with tom the tank egan down here in good owld newbridge when he has the time to beat me up:D build websites for a good few irish clubs and fighters and do loads design work for jk ( the mighty cot posters you see around your gym) life ambition is to work for myself full time and get into the ufc as a photographer. which is lookin good for ufc 93:p