With all this MMA history talk Ive a question

rovert

What is credited as the first MMA match/card in Ireland?

Clive

I think the first event was on 14th November 1999 down in Limerick.

Then there was this one on 24th September 2000 in Belfast.

The first cage show, as far as I know was Cage Wars 3 down in Galway on 31st August 2002.

That's off the top of my head, there could have been others!

Kent Brockman

I remember years ago (it could be 5 or 10-great memory:rolleyes:) tht was supposed to happen in Temple theatre, but it was hammered in the papers as 'Human Cock-fighting' etc etc and apparently raided by cops and cancelled....

Obviously my memory of this is very vague and I have no factual info. Anyone remember this?

shenanigans1982

Kent Brockman wrote: »

I remember years ago (it could be 5 or 10-great memory:rolleyes:) tht was supposed to happen in Temple theatre, but it was hammered in the papers as 'Human Cock-fighting' etc etc and apparently raided by cops and cancelled....

Obviously my memory of this is very vague and I have no factual info. Anyone remember this?

I have a vague memory of this as well but I don't think it was as far back as 99/2000.

Dancor

Kent Brockman wrote: »

I remember years ago (it could be 5 or 10-great memory:rolleyes:) tht was supposed to happen in Temple theatre, but it was hammered in the papers as 'Human Cock-fighting' etc etc and apparently raided by cops and cancelled....

Obviously my memory of this is very vague and I have no factual info. Anyone remember this?

This was about 5/6 years ago IIRC. Didnt even happen for the cops to raid it. Lack of interest was the reason it was cancelled. It was called something like ''Fight Night'' or some ****e. No affiliation with MMA or anything, they were just looking for normal lads to kick the crap out of each other in a tournament for a grand prize.

Nothingcompares

when exactly was the first show in the point? mid 00's?

Tim_Murphy

Nothingcompares wrote: »

when exactly was the first show in the point? mid 00's?

The first Cage Rage was 2007 I think. The Rings show was maybe two years before that I'd say but I'm not sure.

Dermot McGrath ran a few MMA shows years ago in Limerick, I remember reading about them in Combat magazine of all places. One of the guys I used to train with in Limerick competed in one of them. I'd guess they were late 90's or so.

Valmont

I know it wasn't the first show, but the first one I heard of was the Ireland vs. England farce in the point. I think one of the fighters in the main event refused to come out. Nothing like pandering to the nationalists to sell a show!

Fozzy

Valmont wrote: »

I know it wasn't the first show, but the first one I heard of was the Ireland vs. England farce in the point. I think one of the fighters in the main event refused to come out. Nothing like pandering to the nationalists to sell a show!

Was that the RINGS show? They always based their fights on country vs country teams, I wouldn't blame them if they didn't know about the history between these two countries

I heard about the main event guy not coming out before, what was his name? He did eventually come out, didn't he?

Pride Fighter

Didn't Gegard Mousasi fight on the rings show?

Fozzy

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Didn't Gegard Mousasi fight on the rings show?

Yeah. Was it an Ireland vs Netherlands theme then?

Roper

Mousasi fought John Donnelly at 84kgs and beat him by sub in rd2 I think. He looked a cut above the rest of the guys that night, but I wouldn't have guessed I'd see him as he is now, in fact if I remember rightly John gave him a right go in the first round.

The theme was Ireland versus England that night. JD's original opponent pulled and Mousasi stepped in at short notice. It was also the night of a more infamous incident, the protaganist of which went on to star on the front page of many papers a few weeks later.

cowzerp

dancor wrote: »

It was called something like ''Fight Night'' or some ****e. No affiliation with MMA or anything, they were just looking for normal lads to kick the crap out of each other in a tournament for a grand prize.

If its the same show that im thinking of it was called fight club and the paper promoted it as a savge MMA type night, it was actually boxing with martial artists fighting instead of boxers and the crowd decided the winner, it was real low class stuff!

arybvtcw0eolkf

Roper wrote: »

It was also the night of a more infamous incident, the protaganist of which went on to star on the front page of many papers a few weeks later.

THERE YA GO

dlofnep

Valmont wrote: »

I know it wasn't the first show, but the first one I heard of was the Ireland vs. England farce in the point. I think one of the fighters in the main event refused to come out. Nothing like pandering to the nationalists to sell a show!

I remember that. I was in the front row. I remember the guy who didn't come out was shot dead in a pub a few weeks after it.

His manager or whatever came out, some auld fella named Jimmy took the microphone off this Russian mob looking guy, and started complaining about the lack of pay or something to that effect.

The event was shady as feck.

I remember Mick Leonard won his fight and the crowd went nuts, due to the Irish fighters being hammered otherwise. Although in fairness, they were up against the likes of Gegard Mousasi.

dlofnep

And yeah, I think the first Cage event was in Galway.. It was on that Underdogs documentary.

Killme00

dlofnep wrote: »

I remember that. I was in the front row. I remember the guy who didn't come out was shot dead in a pub a few weeks after it.

His manager or whatever came out, some auld fella named Jimmy took the microphone off this Russian mob looking guy, and started complaining about the lack of pay or something to that effect.

The event was shady as feck.

I remember Mick Leonard won his fight and the crowd went nuts, due to the Irish fighters being hammered otherwise. Although in fairness, they were up against the likes of Gegard Mousasi.

I was at this event too, what a waste of money.

Karatekrazy

Roper wrote: »

JD's original opponent pulled and Mousasi stepped in at short notice. It was also the night of a more infamous incident, the protaganist of which went on to star on the front page of many papers a few weeks later.

Please explain.

Tim_Murphy

That Rings show was a disaster alright. 1) C class fights, 2) a crowd who knew nothing about MMA and 3) a Main Event fighter who was only brought into sell tickets and then wouldn't come out and fight. Mick's fight was sweat though in fairness.

There were shows in Galway back in the day which had Thai and MMA on the card. The MMA was called Xtreme Fighting or Vale Tudo or something. Don't know anything about the shows, just have seen the posters in Dave Joyce's gym.

mirwillbeback

Tim_Murphy wrote: »

That Rings show was a disaster alright. 1) C class fights, 2) a crowd who knew nothing about MMA and 3) a Main Event fighter who was only brought into sell tickets and then wouldn't come out and fight. Mick's fight was sweat though in fairness.

There were shows in Galway back in the day which had Thai and MMA on the card. The MMA was called Xtreme Fighting or Vale Tudo or something. Don't know anything about the shows, just have seen the posters in Dave Joyce's gym.

Used to train with Jimmy Curran back in the day, was always a gent to me though he did have a big reputation. I'd met him at one of JK's shows in the Ringside about 3 months before the Rings event,and he wasn't in the best of shape, so I couldn't believe it when he was mentioned as main event, wouldn't have been possible to get into good shape in such a short time.
Was very sad to hear he was killed, and though he was no angel, as I say he was always dead sound to me.

Mickk

cowzerp wrote: »

If its the same show that im thinking of it was called fight club and the paper promoted it as a savge MMA type night, it was actually boxing with martial artists fighting instead of boxers and the crowd decided the winner, it was real low class stuff!

I was a doorman at the temple back then and worked that night. It happened in the stadium in the end and the main event was a monster of a south african called Monet who chased Dave Cowley (who was also on the front of the Sun a while ago) around the ring for the three rounds and bullied him but couldn't knock him out. Then it came for the decision which was down to the crowd and the announcer said "Lets hear it for Monet from South Africa" ,his mates cheered, "Lets hear it for Dave from Dublin" everyone else cheered and he won 10k! It was copied from a program that used to be on Sky 1 in the late 90's.

cowzerp

Thats right but the big south african was a complete knob and had no respect for his opponents and turned everyone off him by been like that, my mate was fighting him the fight before and injured his shoulder, he would of beat the big lump otherwise!!


ps, i think he won 500 and a knuckle duster not 10k

arybvtcw0eolkf

mirwillbeback wrote: »

Used to train with Jimmy Curran back in the day, was always a gent to me though he did have a big reputation. I'd met him at one of JK's shows in the Ringside about 3 months before the Rings event,and he wasn't in the best of shape, so I couldn't believe it when he was mentioned as main event, wouldn't have been possible to get into good shape in such a short time.
Was very sad to hear he was killed, and though he was no angel, as I say he was always dead sound to me.

+1.

I worked with, and trained with Jimmy.

I was at the R.o.T. show your talking about too, Jimmy was there with his partner and two children.

On the run up to the show a few of us tried to get Jimmy out to train with us, but he simply wasn't interested.

And whatever about his reputation for hard drinking etc he didn't deserve the death dealt to him.

As for the Mornay -V- Dave Cowley fight, it was simply a case of Mornay showing up to fight and Dave wasn't that interested, two sound lads too. Pity it went down to the crowds choice as Mornay was a deserving winner.


.

rovert

Sorry lads if I’m raking up bad memories about the past I naively made the thread as I was genuinely curious about it.

mirwillbeback

Mairt wrote: »

+1.

I worked with, and trained with Jimmy.

I was at the R.o.T. show your talking about too, Jimmy was there with his partner and two children.

On the run up to the show a few of us tried to get Jimmy out to train with us, but he simply wasn't interested.

And whatever about his reputation for hard drinking etc he didn't deserve the death dealt to him.

As for the Mornay -V- Dave Cowley fight, it was simply a case of Mornay showing up to fight and Dave wasn't that interested, two sound lads too. Pity it went down to the crowds choice as Mornay was a deserving winner.


.

I know Dave as well, a bit of a " celebrity " around Dun Laoghaire.

arybvtcw0eolkf

mirwillbeback wrote: »

I know Dave as well, a bit of a " celebrity " around Dun Laoghaire.

You and I have likely crossed path so!.

.

arybvtcw0eolkf

rovert wrote: »

Sorry lads if I’m raking up bad memories about the past I naively made the thread as I was genuinely curious about it.

No problem, we're a small community here. Some of us have history through training in various clubs, sparring/competing against easch other over the years or in the case of a few of us we've met through door work or know other's through it.

.

arybvtcw0eolkf

dlofnep wrote: »

I remember Mick Leonard won his fight and the crowd went nuts, due to the Irish fighters being hammered otherwise. Although in fairness, they were up against the likes of Gegard Mousasi.

Going through my HD and came across a few photos from that event.

I believe the first photo is Leonard celebrating his win..



A defeated Colm O'Reilly.

Although this photo does him no favours as this was a cracking fight with both lads going hell for leather throughout.



And Andy Ryan working some G&P on Rob Broughton.

Andy lost, if I remember correctly by Kimura - but in his defence Andy was suffering with an horrendous flu entering the ring that night and should have probably withdrawn from the fight.



I've a few more from this night, but I'm pushed for time today. If anyone is interested I'll get 'em up tomorrow.

Just found Andy's defeat (sorry Andy )



And Jimmy Currans opponent Rodney Moore waiting for Jimmy to come out. Sorry the photo is piss poor quality, but I was in the upper balcony of the old Point Depot & these photos were on the end of my flash range really.











.

arybvtcw0eolkf

And finally (for now) the late Jimmy Curran -V- Rodney Moore clipping from the events programme.



R.I.P.

n.b. a few of us who knew Jimmy got a laugh from his D.O.B. in the programme - 1969!!.

Mods, sorry if this is a little scattered but I'm just working on the photos while home during my lunch break and thought some of the younger/newer members might like to see this stuff.

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dlofnep

Good pics, well done. I still have my ticket here. I had the best seats in the house - first row, bang square in the middle of the ring.

I remember Colm's fight - It was a cracker... I couldn't believe that so many non-mma fans were there though.. The people sitting next to me kept asking me questions like "Why are they on the ground.." or "Jaysus, their gloves are small for a boxing match".. Whatever way it was promoted - the crowd didn't have a clue!

And who were the shady gangsters promoting it? I swear, they would have been perfect for the role of Evil Villain #2 in some 80's russian gangster movie.

TwoKingMick

Wow, look at me. I was ripped. I don't remember being that ripped.