Ciaran MaGee | Valor Combat Series · ข่าว Ireland

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At 31 years old, with just a few months of training, Ciaran McGee stepped into the cage for the very first time — and walked out with a hard-earned victory. In this honest and fun post-fight chat, Ciaran reflects on his journey from spectator to fighter. Whether you’re a late…

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Combat Confidential catches Ciaran Magee immediately after his debut at Valor Combat Series. McGee, 31, says he had only about four months of MMA training and entered with extreme nerves but came out euphoric. He describes holding back in gym sparring against stronger teammates, then switching on in the cage after his opponent thanked him for taking the fight—a remark he took personally. He says he bloodied his opponent, won the bout, and needed his coach to remind him to strike because he favors jiu-jitsu and rarely goes full power in the gym. He grew up watching Chuck Liddell, Maurício Rua, and Rampage Jackson and started training recreationally until a friend-coach talked him into competing; he regretted that choice until fight day. Despite calling himself one-and-done and planning to retire undefeated rather than fight again, he intends to keep training. He urges newcomers to overcome the fear of walking into a gym and praises the culture, cuts the interview short to watch a friend’s bout on the same card, and argues that grappling-focused undercards (as some promotions including ONE Championship do) help jiu-jitsu get recognition outside major grappling circuits.

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All right. First of all, everyone, welcome back. Um, Valor Combat Series. Um, I have Mr. Kieran McGee. Kieran McGee. Yes, sir. You, too. Um, there's your opponent there. Um, all right. First of all, um, congratulations. Thank you very much. All right. Um, Like tell me about it. Like what what was uh All right. First, hold on. This is your Would this be your first time in the ring? My first fight. Yes. Yeah. Um what's that like? Do you know I'm actually 31 so I'm a lot older than most people? Yeah. Still young, but a little bit old to be starting MMA and I've only really been doing it the last 4 months. Okay. So, I've probably never been as nervous in my life doing anything then getting into the ring today. Yeah. But I absolutely loved it. I'm ecstatic. It feels quite euphoric. I still I'm not back down here yet at the minute, but I haven't felt this good in a long time. I'm a really dry mouth. You got some Is there water anywhere or? H Don't worry, mate. Go ahead. Um yeah, know um I remember my first time. Yeah, I was And um No, I think been a bit a little bit older than you were. Um yeah, so like anyway Yeah. like 32, 33. Um, it's very, you know, very similar sensation coming out of it. Um, what was it like when the ref or when they closed those doors, it was just three of you and there, you That was probably actually the calmst. Yeah, I've been I had in my head. I'm going make quite a joke about it in the gym. I'm quite not relaxed, but I've only been doing it for 4 months. Yeah, I train with a lot of people who are a lot higher level than I am. They have a lot more ability. So, I maybe do it at wrong times and I do it quite often. Okay. I never go really 100%. When I'm spawning or when I'm in the gym because I know I might catch someone and I do look at it the wrong way. I could catch them with a heavy shot, but nine times out of 10, the vast majority of them fellas could just take my head off in the gym if they want. So, I feel a bit apprehensive throwing. So, I use it sort of like a play spa. But I knew in here and my coaches have been saying to me, you better not take it easy because I'm the type of person who hit you a heavy shot and then apologize for hitting a heavy shot. But I've been saying to them, I was like, don't worry, when I get in the octagon, it's not going to be like that. I promise you. And they're like, no, you need to be able to switch it on. And I was like, I'm not that type of guy unless you need to be that type of guy. Then when I get in the octagon, I just had my head put it straight on this [ __ ] just put it on him. He walked past me earlier and he walked up to me and I just sort of give him my knuckles as a s of respect and he says to me, "Thank you for taking this fight." And I sort of looked at him and was like, "What do you mean thank you?" And I felt a little bit like Michael Jordan in the last dance. I took that [ __ ] personal. So I was like, "Well, I'm going to make you at the end of this fight think [ __ ] I shouldn't have took that fight against him." So, I just wanted to go in and show my coaches that I can be aggressive and I can put it on people and I can enforce my game onto them and see how they react. And he was quite busted open and quite bloody. So, after the first round, I was [ __ ] after it. But I knew it was like as long as he doesn't really get the better of me, then this should be my fight. And it did turn out that way, right? Um, yeah. I know in in in my first fight, um, I it sounds funny, but like I forgot I could hit. Does that make sense? you know, cuz like when when you're sparring in the exactly the same way yet um when you know when you're sparring in the gym, you know, like you don't you don't really go, you know, obviously you don't go full power and then I'm more of a ground guy anyway. I like jiu-jitsu. So like um it was only for me hearing my coach screaming, you know, hit him. Yeah. Where where I remembered I clicked and I can actually hit the guy. Yeah. Um that's awesome. You only been doing this a few months now. Um you know, what was it that kind of got you into this? Like what what even what even made you I've loved mixed martial arts from always a teenager like I sort of grew up with it was Chuck Liddale the champion at the time Shogun here who Rampage Jackson they were the guys that I kind of grew up watching and we used to play the UFC games on the Xbox back in the day and I've loved it for a long time and I've always wanted to do it but I actually went to do it recreationally as a hobby had no no plans to fight. It was just to train feel a bit confident about myself and it was my coach you know he's one of my friends he says to me I think you should give it a go and actually get in the ring and I said yeah I'll give it a go and I regretted it every day up until today. All right. What would you uh like what are you taking out of all this? Like this is Honestly, I would like the anchor my retirement today. I'm one and done. Feel like I'm going to be sick to give you the head up here. Don't know if it's adrenaline dump, but yeah, there's definitely a bit nauseous at the minute. Yeah, but genuinely have loved it. Great experience. I told everyone on my friends I'm either going to retire with one loss or retire undefeated. Um Like are are you going to stick with training at least or like definitely going to train? You're not training to fight? No, I'll continue to train, but not the fight, man. I just wanted to give it a go. Stick with the stick with the jets because uh you know, for me, my my thing was like, you know, when I started, I was already I was older than you. And um I I didn't like the idea of getting kicked in the head. Yeah, exactly. Especially when I'm it's not a career for me. So that's that's why I stick with the Jets. And uh you know it's it's a beautiful art. I love it. I mean it really is. It's so much fun. It's amazing. Um look what would you would you give uh what piece of advice would you give somebody who's like kind of dancing around the idea of you know dabbling in some combat sport. Honestly, even if you're not going to fight, go into the gym, overcome your fear. It's the initial fear of actually getting in the gym. Once you get in there, everyone's nice to you. No one looks at the new guy and no one ever judges the new guy and says, "Oh my god, that guy's [ __ ] He's just coming into the gym." You'll get your hands shaken. People will talk to you straight away and they're happy to help you. It's one thing that I found if you go into the gym and you're nice to people. They might kick the [ __ ] out of you, but at the end of it, they'll tell you exactly what you've done wrong. As long as you're a good sport and you don't have an ego, they'll hurt you. They'll not kill you 100. They're not. They'll not kill you, but they'll let you know. They'll hit you with a few shots and say, "This is where you went wrong." But it really is. It's one of the best things I've ever done. And it's definitely the best sport that I've ever been into as well. Yeah, absolutely. Um, what uh what was I going to say? Um, I don't know, but can we make this the last question? One of my friends is fighting next and I can't wait to see him. Absolutely. All right. Here, look, we'll end it now then. Uh, I appreciate uh um I appreciate your time here. Thank you. And um you know if you're ever doing uh you know um like jits or anything like that um you know come back in the ring and do something like this again. I want to do something like I love it when uh promotions have u like grappling events on before. It really is. It's it seems like the new way forward for a lot of promotions. One championship do quite a lot and there's a couple of others that incorporate BJJ as well. It helps put a spotlight on jiu-jitsu as well because uh you know I don't think it unless you're on like you know like the IBJF or the uh uh ADCC or something like that it doesn't really get the recognition it deserves. But look man I appreciate your time. I know you want to go watch a friend. Pleasure to meet you. Absolutely. Right. [Music]