Kian McCarton | GladiatEire FC 1

Ringkasan

Kian McCarten just landed a slick submission victory at GladiatEire Fighting Championship — and chatted with me to talk about more than just the win. Real talk about sacrifice, experience, legacy, and why Irish MMA is absolutely thriving right now. Don't forget to like…

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[Music] Um, all right, everyone, welcome back. I need glasses off. I hate them on. All right, everyone, welcome back. Uh, Gladiator FC, uh, with Mr. Ken McCarten. Y um, first of all, congratulations. Thank you, sir. Um, I'm asking everyone like what tell me what's going through your hand, you know, when they raise your hand there. Obviously you got the submission there, but like they raise your hand, it's official. What are you thinking? Yeah, like happy. Do you know what I mean? I feel like there was a few times in the fight where I probably pushed too too soon for a finish and lost a position. So Dar just said to me going into the just relaxed like the finish will come. Once we're in win, good grab position, the finish come and like it did it did it came. I was on his back through a few shots. He lifted his chin. I felt it boom straight away. So happy elated happy but staying staying grounded, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's just another win and then now on to the next one. Yeah. Uh did did he was there anything in there that surprised you? Did he did he do anything that were like, okay, you know, you know what I mean? No, I knew I knew he was going to be hard to finish. Uh to be honest, I thought once I got him in any sort of arm bar position, it was going to be it, but obviously he's been he's been drilling arm bars, you know what I mean? Nate beating with an arm bar. H So in that end of the second round when I had him that arm bar, I thought was tight. I thought going to be on good position, but you know what I mean? He done well to roll over. So that surprised me a little bit, but just stayed calm, nice and relaxed. There's a good good couple arm bar attempts from yourself there. Uh I you had his back a lot like uh um for a lot of the fight it seemed like. Um like obviously you're very comfortable on the ground. Um is that something you like you know you train to do just immediately take someone's back like that? Cuz it was it was very much like you just you know just sat them down. It looked very natural is what is what I'm I've been grappling at a high level for a for a long time now in SBJ. Like I have great coaches there. Obviously John is the head coach at the gym and then I have my jiu-jitsu coach who's taught me nearly everything I know in jiu-jitsu and then I have Richie Smullen as well showing me the MMA side to the grappling. So I have like have solid people behind me. You know what I mean? So I know all my positions work and I know I feel comfortable wherever I go whether it be on the ground or on stand up. My stand up needs a bit more polishing up and uh I'll just keep working with boxing coaching and sparring and whatsoever. But I'm I'm comfortable 100% on the ground. Like I feel like I could go on the ground with a black belt to fly away black belt no problem. I would I wouldn't struggle. Did uh do you have a plan coming into this? Uh yeah, relaxed. Nice and relaxed. Wherever Wherever I found my shots, I was going to stay more on the feet bouncy, but I knew uh once I got to the ground that first, the takedown was going to come easy enough. So, uh going into the second, I knew pushing back up against the cage, take him down and nice and control, relax few shots, and I'll probably get finished. came around. Excellent. Um, talk to me about like just your what what's general preparation like for you in um coming up to a fight like like the week of like what what do you do? Yeah, the the week the week of the fight is normally it's kind of easy. It's all sharp sessions, you know? Yeah. Focusing on the weight, but training camp and well training camp I always I'm always training. I'm always looking to improve. So, it's just boxing pads, sparring, MMA sessions, jiu-jitsu, uh, wrestling, strength conditioning. I'm mixing up, doing everything. I'm doing strength work. I'm doing everything. Everything the the lads above me are doing what I'm doing as well. I'm trying to do it at the best of my ability while trying to work. You know, it's hard, but you know, if I want to get to the top of the sport and I want to I want to do this as my career, I have to sacrifice a lot of [ __ ] for something new. Yeah, 100%. Um, speaking of your career, um, you know, like what what are you what are you planning on doing next? Uh well I'm fighting uh Shay Cleveland the 25th of May. Okay. H for the Iowa say that's Yeah. So so that's gonna be a good fight. You know what I mean? Me and Shay fought before in 2022 and it was a good fight and he's only gotten better since then and I've only gotten better since then. So I think that's going to be a great fight. Hopefully next week he comes out of his fight with Ben Matt and no injuries and we we get to fighting. H I'd say from there that'll probably be my last amateur fight. You know what I mean? That'll take me up to 20 amateur fights and there's not many 20. Wow. There's not many people in the country, especially at flyweight, that have 20 fights. I took every hard fight I could ever take. I took Shawn out fights. I took [ __ ] last minute fights. I took the hardest fights on IMAPs. I never bitched. I never moaned. I Yeah, I might have lost every now and then, but [ __ ] me. Like, I feel on top of the world when I fight. Experience. It's good experience, too. Good experience. If you look at the likes of Kon Clark, he didn't have the best amateur record. Now, look at him 10 as a pro. Absolutely. And yeah, he he didn't get to fight in the world tournament because of injury, but he's probably the best Phantom in the world at the minute. 100%. Yeah. 20 fights. Wow. That would be 20 when a fight. Yeah. I think uh the only other person I can Alexander Sullivan comes to a mind 30 I think which is that's unreal. Yeah. And considering I only made me amateur debut in late 2021, September 2021. Yeah. You you've been you've been very active the past seven years. So yeah, absolutely. I love the fight. And as I said, if I want this do this as my career, I need to have these days. doesn't need to have them [ __ ] days where I feel like really low about myself cuz I lost a fight or I didn't perform well. And I think today, this fight was was more for my family, my friends, my coaches. Like the past few fights, I haven't performed well. And I was more disappointed and upset about myself for letting them down. Not really myself. You know what I mean? I'm very hard on myself all the time. But that's the people I want to prove to to who I am. They if I could say tomorrow I'll fight [ __ ] Ian Gary and I'll beat him. They believe me. You know what I mean? So that's the kind of people you need to you need to impress. No, no, nobody outside of the cage. No, no one else that's here that I don't have affiliation with or anything like that. Like it's family, friends, coaches. Do you have anyone that uh in mind for a pro debut? No, no, no organization like I'm open for all offers. You know what I mean? I think my experience will stand to me when I go pro and h I show my levels at pro, especially when I have all them weapons. Like I'm I'm eager to throw elbows now. I'm eager to throw knees. But whatever comes uh when the when the time comes I'll think about you know for now I'm focus on shaking I'm not going to overlook him I know how good of a he is right on um okay so I I ask a lot of the SPG guys this um when when you're looking at eventually going pro like you you are definitely going to make this a career and you know your team knows this John knows this knows this um like do they kind of do they sit you down they have a talk with you and like this is kind of the path we need to be on or they just kind of take it step by as a coach and no, do you know what I mean? Like there's no in MMA, it's not like football. It's not like you sign a contract and you play 100 games, you know what I mean? You might sign a contract and then that falls through or you lose that fight, then you get dropped. You know what I mean? There there's a rough plan. Everyone has a rough plan. Coaches tell you how you have a rough plan and you all come together and you agree and you see what's best for you and your career and you go from there and then you take a fight by fight after the rough plan is set in place. Okay. Yeah. Um, give me your opinion on the state of Irish martial or Irish combat sports at the moment. striving. Absolutely striving, you know what I mean? Striving for the [ __ ] right reasons as well, you know what I mean? There's no there's no bashing us in the media on like world world [ __ ] media, any [ __ ] like that, you know what I mean? We're striving. You seen last night Cage Warriors. Like that was crazy to see. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that was a fantastic card to hold everything. Lads that I I trained with on the I trained with and competed with on the Irish team, Ko, you know what I mean? And then like Alexander Sullivan like you said as well, he was there. And then like there's other lads like young lads still like Kieran Brady, Max Ley, [ __ ] Connor Connor Solomon. Like there's all these lads and then we have other big shows. We have PFL boys on and PFL in Belfast in a few weeks and then lads in the UFC and people people everywhere, do you know what I mean? So for for such a small country where it's it's mad the amount and yeah, it's nothing but inspiring to especially to train with all them lads day in day out. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um all right, look, give me um last question here. Um, give me a piece of advice that you would give to somebody who's interested in combat sports, but maybe they're just a bit nervous about, you know, going to their uh, local gym. Yeah. Like, what would you say to them to get them through the door? Do it. [ __ ] do it. You know what I mean? Like, I guarantee you like the the highs of standing here right now, whether you win, lose, or draw after a fight, you'll feel on top of the world. You feel you'll feel better. You'll feel walk down the road with a bit more confidence. And it's not about being the hard man and punching people around all the time and, oh, I can beat him in a fight. It's not about that. Like just it makes you a better person.