Paddy Doak | Evolution Fighting Championship · Ireland news

Summary

Step into the cage with Paddy Doak at EFC11 for his unforgettable MMA performance! After a year of jiu-jitsu training and shedding over 25 kg, Patty faced his first non-head-strike bout with nerves of steel—landing a massive slam, tuning into his coach’s corner shouts, and…

AI summary AI-generated from the transcript

Combat Confidential catches Paddy Doak right after his debut at Evolution Fighting Championship (EFC1). Doak says he is not from the white-collar MMA side of the promotion; he picked up martial arts about twelve months ago through Monarch Jiu-Jitsu after starting for weight loss and mental health, dropping from about 100 kg to roughly 74–75 kg. This was his first MMA bout: three or four booked opponents pulled out in the prior weeks, and James Young was the only man still available. Doak describes the walkout and cage as surreal, struggled to hear his corner early, then heard his coach shout to slam Young to the wall—a slam he landed despite Young being taller and heavier (Doak cites about 73.8 kg for himself versus roughly 75–76 kg for Young). The bout was no head strikes; Doak was disappointed at first and says he had trained for boxing and standing shots, but still found it exhausting and learned from the experience. He turns 23 the day after the interview (birthday on Saturday) and plans to keep going in MMA as far as he can. His takeaway from the night: avoid jumping a guillotine in round one because his arms were spent afterward.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Applause] All right, everyone. Uh, welcome back. Um, EFC1, uh, Mr. Patty Doke. There you go. Right on. Fair play. Um, all right. So, were you yourself part of the, uh, um, was it the white collar MMA thing? No. Um, or they just called you in? Yeah. Right on. Okay. Um, I was going to say cuz it it looked like you you definitely have some uh ground experience in there. Yeah. Give us a little background on that. So, I've been training about 12 months. Okay. Um, really started out as just like losing weight, but um I found Monarch uh jiu-jitsu and locker golf. It was a blessing. So, um I've been training for about just just short of 12 months. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Um like what what is it that kind of drew you to it? Uh to MMA or MMA, jiu-jitsu, anything? Uh it helped my mental health. Okay. Um so I just stayed stayed doing it and just grew the urge to compete. Is there uh something specific that you were looking for? No. Uh well weight loss. I was I was severely overweight. I was like 100 kg last year. Really? Yeah. Holy Yeah. Um so I'm like 75 74 now. Um yeah, severely overweight and just wanted to do something I enjoyed. Well, huge congrats on that, man. I guess I would never have guessed that at all. Wow. Big boy. Yeah. Um I you know that's speaking similarly to that that's what drew me into it you know because I was uh I was pushing almost 130 kilos. Oh wow. Yeah. You don't look a bit of a no. I I appreciate that cuz I dropped down to about 109 and then I went back up a little bit you know and um yeah know that that's what drew me into it and um so yeah I think it's awesome that uh you were able to you know definitely get that out of it. um you like what is it that you do to keep motivated? How do you how do you stay you know it is tough you know and like you know what do you stay to yourself to to stay motivated? Well, I don't think it's motivation. I think it's uh discipline. Okay. I can uh just stay stay eating good and a good routine of training and stuff like that and like good lads to train with you. I think it's just the perfect trilogy, but no motivation, just discipline, right? Uh how many MMA fights have you had? First one. This is your first one. Are you going to continue on with this or stick with jiu-jitsu? For sure. Ah, MMA. Like I went through four opponents from like four weeks ago. Oh, really? And fair play to um James Young. Um the only guy that I could get a fight against. So fair play to him. Right on. Yeah. Um you know, so okay, so you're in this is your first MMA round or MMA uh fight. Yeah. So what was it like kind of just standing in the cage, you know, when it come time like and the the ref shut the door and it's just you in there or you two in there? Like what what's that like? Yeah. Uh weird. So weird. Like even warming up it was weird and okay like got into the cave like walked out and like like people I do not have a clue who they are were just singing to the top of their lungs in my walk out tune and I was just crazy weird surreal weird. Yeah. Now um did you did you have a hard time hearing your coach in there? Cuz I know like a lot of fighters myself included on the first fight like you know you can't really hear anything and it's weird cuz it's so loud but even then like you don't hear it. Like were you able to kind of pick out your coach's voice? Um not initially and then I heard my coach rolling um at the very end when I when I had his back standing he was shouting slam on him to the wall. So I heard that like he was he was screaming. So that was the only thing you heard. I think you you definitely did that cuz that was a big slam uh that you threw in there and that that was was very good um to to be able to see and if I am correct he's a bit he's quite a bit taller than you. Is that right? Yeah, he's probably heavier, too. Like um 7 I think I heard he was 75 or 76. I ran him up from 73 last week. So I'm probably at like 738 right now kilo. Right on. Um but that's my favorite thing to do. But pick do the I pick them up and right on. Uh like what what um so this is a no head shot uh uh fight. Like did you how did you feel about that? Like were you okay with that or um I was disappointed initially and to be honest, I underestimated how tiring it is regardless. Yeah. Um cuz like I said, I had four three or four opponents pull out and we we had been uh drilling for a boxer or standing head shot. So, we had grappled a lot um throughout training and stuff, but um disappointing, but I I I learned a lot from it. My first fight, so how could I be coming? Yeah, exactly. Okay. So, this was a um so your first fight here um it was a no head shots around like what what what do you see for yourself like you know kind of future wise like where do you where do you want to take this? How first of all how old are you? Uh 23 22. 23 on Friday. Friday. Good way to uh start my birthday week. Day before my Yeah. day before my birthday. My birthday is on Saturday. Is it? So So is Rowan. Oh yeah. His birthday Saturday too. Right. Um you know so like uh what as far as possible? Yeah. As far as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Um Okay. So, like um like is there anything you're taking from this that you're going to apply like or give me something like a lesson learned from tonight that you're going to work on? Don't jump a guillotine in the first round and stay on because my arms were absolute jelly after. But, um brilliant experience. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant experience. Look man, uh I'm I'm keep this short. We'll get we but get back out there. Um and look, I appreciate your time and I hope to see you again and I hope to give you have a talk to you after another win. Thank you very much, brother. Thank you. [Music] [Applause]