Gary Morris - MMA Ireland Interview · Ireland news

Summary

An interview with Gary Morris, president of MMA Ireland. Hear from Gary about what MMA Ireland and about the upcoming GAMMA European Championships in Athens, Greece.

AI summary AI-generated from the transcript

Gary Morris, president of MMA Ireland and head coach of Morris Martial Arts in Carrick-on-Shannon, gives a short MMA Ireland interview that covers his path as a former professional fighter, coach, and referee. He describes MMA Ireland as a collection of clubs across the island of Ireland, not only the Republic, that train together with a long-term aim of Olympic MMA. Clubs still compete nationally from time to time, but he says the day-to-day work is building each other's athletes and growing the federation so it can rival Ireland's other major affiliation. Over the next five years he wants MMA Ireland, working within GAMMA worldwide, to be part of an Olympic pathway, while adding that other avenues exist if that does not happen directly through GAMMA. The immediate priority is athlete development from grassroots. He traces the GAMMA Ireland programme from a single athlete on an early trip, then small teams, to a squad of 27 now travelling to Greece for the European MMA Championships 2026, and he hopes they bring back a large medal haul. Behind the scenes, he says coaches have been building athletes in Galway, Roscommon, Dublin, County Meath, County Kerry, the North, and Leitrim. Anyone wanting to get involved can contact Morris directly or through the GAMMA Ireland info email he gives. He names fellow coaches Ben Davis, Paul Havlin, and Paul Cowzer, and says clubs that stay away are the ones missing out.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Right. >> Yes. Gary Morris, president of MMA Ireland, also head coach of Morris Martial Arts in Carrick and Shannon. Um, former professional fighter myself. So, I've been there with the fighting side of it, coaching side of it, and also refereeing at most of the tournaments now, too. So, uh, I have a nice broad and range on on what we're looking at within the sport itself. >> That's awesome. MMA Ireland is a collection of clubs within Ireland, the island of Ireland, not just a republic that we work together with the grand goal to be Olympic MMA in the future. However, nationally at the moment, yes, we compete every now and then against each other. We work alongside each other quite a bit to build each other's athletes up, to help each other grow as a club, to help each other grow um help people grow as people and as athletes. And then obviously the the grand scheme of things is to to grow the actual federation of MMA Ireland uh to to rival the other big promotion uh the other big affiliation in Ireland. >> Goal for MMA Ireland over the next 5 years is fingers crossed uh within Gamma worldwide we're going to be looking at the Olympics. If that isn't something that happens directly through GMA, we do also want to be aligned or where we're in a position that we can potentially um be part of the movement that goes Olympic band. If not, that is also okay. There are different avenues that we have that we can travel with. Um but right now the main goal is obviously athlete development that we have done from grassroots level the whole way up to what we have now. Our first tournament when we competed as GMA Ireland, we had one athlete go out. Um, sorry, not that wasn't the first one. That was the second one. We had one athlete go out. The next time we had a small team, the next time we had a small team. We've been working behind the scenes here in Ireland between Gway, Russ Common, Dublin, County Me, County Kerry, up north, uh, myself and Literum and a couple of other counties. We've been working behind the scenes building these athletes up, getting them ready, and now we have a massive team of 27 people going out to Greece for the European Championships. So, we're hoping to bring a a huge hall of medals back with us. >> Awesome. >> Look, if you're looking to get involved, you can contact myself directly, Gary Morris, or you can come through info@gamarland.ie.net. Um, but outside of that, most of you would know me. Most of you would know Ben Davis, most of you would know Paul Havlin, Paul Cowser, you know, some of the coaches that are involved with us. You know the level of coaching that is involved with us. If you want to come on board, I'm not going to beg you guys. You're the ones missing out if you're not with us. >> Awesome, man.