Sean Carmody interview

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Sean Carmody is an amateur MMA fighter representing MMA Cork, he holds a 3-2 record and will compete at Elite fighting championship for the flyweight title against Adam Mcdonagh. we speak about his new Jiu-jitsu gym in Cork, trying to balance being a husband, father, fighter…

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Okay, I think Mr. Sean Clancy it's a pleasure to have you. I think you're probably one of the most interviewed guests over the past 24 or 12 months I would definitely say. I think we've spoken before in the Elite Fight. Uh, all of yours and you've got a big one coming up on Elite Fight Championship. So, I want to thank you very much for your time. Um, you've got the big one, you've got Elite, you've got Adam McDonagh and a stacked card. How are you feeling being part of a fighting for the title and being part of this card for me which I believe is going to be historic with the amount of pro fights and I believe there's like somewhere between 25 and 30 amateur fights. So, how does it feel to be fighting for the title on it and how does it feel to be part of the card as a whole? >> Well, in terms of fighting for the title basically now this is my third title fight and the novelty of fighting for the title has kind of worn off which is probably a good thing. Uh, because you know you'd be more relaxed like you're not stressing like uh, but there's also like you can just concentrate better I think on what you're doing because you're not worried about losing or winning the title because I've already been like this is my third one in a row now. Um, I think I'm just like very clear headed going into it because I will say like I had a lot of experience like competing in general when you're competing for like a prize that everyone wants, you know, it does really like ramp up the intensity a bit. But now this is my third time doing it I think I could do it with much more clarity. Um, being part of the card is obviously brilliant. It's I love fighting at the hometown like I love having my family, my wife, my kids they're like my mom it's just pretty it's just brilliant you know, having everyone who I know there is great for me and just only have to drive an hour home and like only have to be there like three or four hours before a fight. Not having to like just you have to take a 6-hour drive the day before that everything is just better. And then there's the terms of like how many pro fights are on this card as well. Like honestly, Barry and Skelly they've outdone themselves here. Um I it's going to be very hard. I do not how they've done it, but it's been very hard to replicate something like that in Cork. Like I've tried to tell everyone like you want to come to this card because if you're an actual MMA fan, like look at all these professional fights like the entire main card is going I thought I was actually going to get a chance to be on the main card this time, but no, I'm not. Like [laughter] we've got like nine professional fights, you know, and there's been talks of more. Like I've seen like it on the Instagram page like oh, another pro fight incoming or they're looking for a pro fight or something like this. So, they could be like going up to 10. I don't know like it's I know there's obviously a chance that some will fall out. That always happens like on fight weeks and crazy happens cuz people make excuses for not making weight, but overall like the card is absolutely stacked. If you're an MMA fan, you want to get down there. Like even if like you don't care about the local scene, like you're going to get to see all the next people going on to Cage Warriors, Octagon. We saw that now with both Brian Manning and Roland Degan. The guys who are headlining that go places. I think Ryan Shelley is headlining this one. >> He is indeed and you've got Amy Scully just underneath as well and for me she's she's she's a global kind of cuz she she's only back from Australia. She's done a huge amount of IMMAF. She's someone who I've got really high hopes for. Sarah Ellis Sheridan, Ross Kearney, Jake Knight making his debut. You've got Tommy who's competed He's over from Norway. He's going to be fighting Jake making his debut. Although he's not from Ireland, I consider him part of the scene cuz he's been on Elite so much. Uh Byron Kennedy, man Ryan said like man, it's endless. I think that Alex Fegan fight he put up that one that one did fall out. There's so many fights and like you said, these people who are going to be in the next and there's like that anyone of them could have main evented. Do you know what I mean? That sort of a way and it's just like like you're saying I couldn't even get I couldn't get onto the main card. It just show what talent they have and and like I've I've given them shout-outs as well. Like fair play to what they're doing because it's going to be hard to replicate. It's closest was Case Kostner, I believe. The one I done the Arcland there recently. They had six pro fights. I believe that's the most I am researching it to see, but I don't think it can be replicated. And then it's top-level amateur fights. But in terms of your fight and your opponent Adam McDonagh, we seen him on the last show. From what I believe he's well known around the jiu-jitsu scene, very high level jiu-jitsu. How what's your kind of approach to an opponent like that because usually when you go in, you're obviously the strongest grappler. I don't know what his level is, but you know he's going to be proficient on the on the ground as well. What's your thoughts on your opponent and how are you preparing for him? >> Well, look, I mean, like he beat my teammate Alex the last day. Alex is good grappler, so uh yeah, he's obviously good on the ground. Obviously, I'm going to favor myself, you know, I think I mentioned in other interviews we've been in divisions before and I've I've never fought him before, never had a match against him, but I've always beaten the people who have beaten him. Um but MMA grappling is different like just because I'm better with lapels and other types of grips, you know, um it's not always applicable. And he's a physical specimen as well. Um built like a Greek god, so he's going to be strong, he's going to be tough. Um I'm not really caring about his grappling experience to be honest like the grappling side of it is the easy side for me. I know he has a bit of a K1 background and a karate black belt. That's the side that interests me more because it's the side I'm I know much less about even in my own personal career. Still working on it, still developing it. Um but in terms of jiu-jitsu, I'm I'm I'm not concerned. My brother's like Stuart and Shay, they're the top guys. Uh but Stuart's one of the top guys in the world. Uh Shay is insane as well, you know, and I do just fine against him, so I'm not worried about any kind of jiu-jitsu. >> Yeah, cuz cuz like that I seen I I I believe he's got from looking at his profile he's got a good few medals as well and I think they're a mix of between BJJ and and K1 as well. And obviously you've spoken before about kind of you wanted Yeah, obviously your jiu-jitsu is there. You were looking to improve your striking improve your striking. Now have you seen that improvement since your last fight which we'll touch on in a minute or or since you've kind of started MMA? Can you see the improvements as it happens or does it have to come to a live competition for you to actually see the improvements? >> I see the improvements in training for sure. Um but you don't know how you're going to react in a pressure situation, so that's where the real improvements show. Uh in my last fight against Brein, shoutout to him, uh I didn't really do as much striking as I wanted to. Um we had a big game plan to wrestle. He He had Yeah, he did everything perfect. Um was really tough. I've I had a big second round against him. He winded me in the first. Um and we started trading a bit on the feet in the second as well and I was actually like, "Oh [ __ ] like I'm actually not that bad anymore, right?" I just remember like from my first amateur fight where I basically just ran towards my opponent Yeah, looks like something from women's boxercise. Like it wasn't good. Um and yeah, I had my second fight pretty quick afterwards and my third fight I got dropped, so and then yeah, I just wrestled all the other ones. Um but touching on my last fight like I was humbled a bit to be honest, like I kind of I didn't see myself losing the fight at all. Um but styles make fights, you know, the team KF lads are good. They tend to take a bigger break between their fights. They don't rush anything. Everything's methodical. Like they don't have many amateur fights from what I've heard. Um tends to have like maybe five or six and go pro, which is obviously fine. Um because they make the adjustments in that time. So, yeah, Brain honestly very good. Uh would like to potentially get a rematch again in the future cuz it it Although I lost like it was only a split decision, there wasn't a whole lot in it. But, I felt like even though it was split, that the right decision was made and I I'm not going to complain. I felt like I did lose. Uh wasn't by much, but I did lose. >> Yeah, and that's one of the things I liked about it as well cuz I cuz I was about to ask you that or say that to you cuz I couldn't remember if it was you done it publicly or or personally, but I remember you saying that you didn't feel like you won even though it was was a split. You felt that it was completely Brain's. Like that you you you envision yourself going in and winning, but once you kind [clears throat] of once you kind of like let the loss settle and stuff, how how do you feel about it now looking at and and has it changed anything in your mentality going forward? >> Um well, obviously like it was at the time like I won't say it's an exactly a confidence knock, but it isn't some way because I was on a three-fight win streak. I was submitting everybody. I was high off of my wins getting believing in my own success a bit too much maybe. Uh I didn't slow down my work rate like this is taking nothing away from him. Like I worked like a dog for that fight, you know? Um I wouldn't have worked any harder any other way, right? Um I worked hard, but I just really believed that it didn't matter, you know? I was just going to I was just going to bulldoze, but I didn't and that's what these things are for, you know? You just got to move on and like it sucked. And I remember like going home and just feeling like like oh, what the [ __ ] is this, you know? Um especially like cuz when you're a parent as well doing this, it's this is like on a much more like personal level now. When you're a parent doing this, you spend a lot of time away from your kids doing it doing it and then when you fail like that, it's nearly like you you failed them too in a way, which can sound kind of silly amateur, you know, because it's whatever, but the amount of effort you have to take to be a solid amateur, you're still training like a like a professional, you know, when you cuz everyone who's fighting for the amateur titles are the guys who will be turning pro, you know, these are going to be like the guys who are going to be the next kind of ones coming through. And yeah, then you like I you know, I I didn't look at all the small things I missed with them like, you know, they'd be like a whole entire week I wouldn't take them to bed, you know, I wouldn't read them a story and then especially when you don't get the success you you would get from that. It It's home pretty hard like, I'll be honest, but that's all part of it, you know, you win, you lose, it doesn't matter if you're fighting or you know, anything in life really. It's just how it is. >> Yeah, and I you said that you might think it sounds silly, but it doesn't really sound silly to me cuz obviously as a parent myself, whether you're amateur or pro, they don't know that, they don't care. Not that they don't care about that, but like whether you're amateur or pro, time away is time away regardless of of what stage of your career you're at, you know what I'm trying to say? So, I can understand like you said, if he is a but like they whether you win or lose or draw, you should be immensely proud of yourself and I say that to anyone and they're obviously proud of you. Like for people if someone goes in and they they go zero and 10, they set in the case 10 times more than people who would talk [ __ ] would actually go ahead and do it, you know? So, and sometimes you win, sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail, but if you look over time, people who've had these losses in their career usually go on to have more successful pro careers because they haven't [ __ ] chosen the easy fights, they want the hard fights and and they've learned a lot of it, but on the topic of obviously speaking about your family, we're not going to go into super personal, but you've also got your own gym that opened there a couple of months ago. So, talk to me about how it is to manage being a coach, uh a father, and a husband, and a fighter? Like, how have you managed it? Have you found different things there to make that easier for you to transition into it, or you're still in the figuring it out phase? >> We're still in the figuring it out phase, to be honest with you. Like, uh I had to quit my job to start uh the gym, which should hopefully give me some more free time and some money shortly. Um I'm very lucky. My wife has been supportive, and uh she's still working for the minute. Um like, I'm working in the gym trying to build it. It's not that I'm just being lazy, or well, not hardly lazy, cuz I'm fighting, obviously, but um it's not like I'm not working, either. I'm just trying to build something for the minute with my other skill set. Um So, yeah, it is tricky, honestly. It really is, and can be stressful, especially, you know, like when the gym's not quite making money yet. It's doing good. Like, we've got uh like, 30 members now. We've got a brand new beginners course starting. All the spaces filled up for that. Like, we're growing at an at an extremely fast rate. Um I can't complain, but it's just like, you know, like in business, like, profit's marginal, and as I'm learning, like, you just need to cover those costs, and then once the money comes in, that's absolutely fine. You'll have more free time. You'll have a better sense of self-worth. Um But, uh honestly, if it wasn't for my mom and my wife right now, uh you know, things would be pretty uh pretty pretty [ __ ] I'll be honest. But, um Yeah, you know. One of those things. >> Yeah, I like that they say behind every good man is a is a great woman, and obviously, the great woman is your wife, and then you've got a great woman as your mother, as well. So, you've got two great women then to help you through this, cuz like that, a lot of people think success just comes, and it doesn't. They don't realize. See, like you're talking about working. It's the work in the dark that no one sees, and like, do you find that people, especially nowadays with Instagram and stuff like that, people put just the flashy and the successful stuff out there and they don't get to see what it takes to be a fighter or a gym owner and stuff like that. Do you think people think these things just come or do you think internet has maybe warped people's mind into thinking everything might be easier than it is? >> Well, it's part of the advertising. You want to make things look easy no matter what it is. Um because it looks better for you. Like if you're saying, "Oh, this is easy." You're the fighter. It makes you look tougher. Uh everyone who actually knows about it, like knows you're bullshitting them. Like when everyone says, "Oh, this was the best camp ever." Bro, don't even [ __ ] kid me with that [ __ ] Like when is it ever the best camp ever? You're still getting injured because you're trying hard all the time. You're in a calorie deficit. Like what is good about life right now? Like you can't tell me that this is like the best camp ever. Afterwards, maybe you can take a slant to view on it, especially if you get the good result, you know? You can be like, "Oh, this is this was amazing." Yeah, okay, fair enough. But at the time you can't be lying and saying, "Oh, camp is great." You know? So, it's all about the advertising. Same as in business with gyms, you know? Like even though like you're not always making money, you've always got to make it look like, you know, we're we're always progressing here and you've got to show the good parts of it because no one wants to join anything that looks bad, you know? Um so, it's just like, yeah, you've got to be in these things you have to be a little fake as well, you know? Um fake it till you make it kind of thing. So, that's my take on that. It's it's part of the advertising. >> Yeah, so fake it till you make it. That was I I went to college to do business and stuff like that and that was one of the things I took away with me. We had some sort of a lecture on fake it till you make it, wasn't it? I was like, and that's how I started doing this was I was just like, right, I'm just going to pretend like I'm supposed to be here and now I am where I am. But I I really want to I will once we get off here. Like I said, whenever you post the stuff about your gym, just tag me. I'd always say I'd always try and help fighters. I'd always try and help. And that goes to anyone that's opening a gym or a business or a clothing thing. You've obviously on my Instagram. It's just a clothing brand after clothing brand after clothing brand of this like if they do more views or it can help someone, I'm this this is what I'm here for. It's to try and help fighters cuz I genuinely care about people like yourself and others around the scene. But in terms of going forward, obviously you're not looking past Adam, but would that be it for you then for the year and concentrate on kind of the gym and stuff like that or you looking to get out one more time? >> Uh no, I'd say it's going to be that something crazy comes up. Um which I don't think much can entice me at this point. Um I'd say that's probably it. Uh for the year and to be honest like I'm happy at the moment with that because just a lot going on in my personal life, building the gym and whatever. Uh adding two camps in that basically since I started the gym uh wasn't my best move. You know, you need to be you need to be a bit more focused on that too. And uh I've had a lot of focus obviously on the camps. Um but and sometimes, you know, maybe not as much as what I should have had because I was like doing stuff with the business and whatever, you know, but like I said you know, you just you just have you These are things you learn from. It's like character building, so um yeah, it's probably it for me for the year and then we'll just see what next year brings um what fights bring next year um I plan to take it a bit slower next year because there's not too many people in the flyweight division anymore. Like I think the only guys who I haven't fought is Ricky Kevin and uh Ben obviously, so there's not too many fights there and those lads might be turning pros at any point now, so uh that makes it even less. So I'm going to take some time to uh like to get my own skills better and we're going to see what fights we got offered then. And we'll just make we'll make decisions based on that, I guess. >> Yeah, I I say you're right. I say Ben probably has won more amateur and going pro. I don't know. I can't speak on that personally, but I I I can't see him being too far away from pro because he has kind of just gone through the division and I were a weird stage where there is the the more experienced guys are going to start transitioning. And then there's a lot of kind of newer entries like the likes of Adam and stuff like that. And then there's this weird middle ground where there's not a huge There's no other sort of a way if they migrate to pro. There's that weird middle ground where there's people that you you probably going to fight everyone around the same experience and you kind of need people like the likes of Adam I know you're competing against Adam, but people have come in that only have one or two fights. You need them to kind of get their experience up as well then to compete competing with you. >> Yeah, so like yeah, that's the thing with like uh Adam has has it kind of good because he had a jiu-jitsu background so and a kickboxing background. So he's not just a guy who's going in like one and oh, you know, and then he's coming in because otherwise it does feel it at that point a bit like bullying. Like it's not saying that they don't have a chance or anything, but it's in MMA like especially if you have no experience in other combat sports. It's a tough sport to go in, you know, like it can be very daunting. Uh if you're not if you don't have like, you know, 50 60 70 jiu-jitsu matches at least and a couple novice fights like you're still going to be getting nervous, you know, and that can play a big role. So it's it is a lot about being comfortable as well and that can play a lot. So it's hard to match the more experienced guys with those guys, too. Do you know? >> Yeah, no, it is You see that that happens a lot of divisions. Lightweight is another division that is at and it's just it's just one of those periods and then all of a sudden in like next year the flyweight all of a sudden people will ramp up see like Jake Duncan had a really good day. Well, I know you fought him, but there's there's people like Jake that I'm really interested in seeing Ricky again. I want to see him fight again. Uh there's there's loads, but look, I'm going to let you go. I want to thank you so much for your time. I wish you best success with the fight coming up and the gym and like I said if there's anything that you ever need a hand with you always know just give me a text personally. Um is there anything you want to say before you go or anyone you want to shout out? >> Yeah, actually shout out to you actually for getting that collab with Octagon. That shows like you've got you're getting a bigger reach now and all the work you're doing with us as fighters like isn't going unnoticed, you know? I know that's with one of the biggest stars like Brian um who's obviously like Octagon seem quite fond of him. Um but still like you're you're getting out there and you're giving us also an opportunity to get seen by those guys as well, you know? So and like hopefully build better pro careers from that. So that's super appreciated. Shout out to my gym and all my teammates. Um Yeah, a lot a lot of work's gone into this fight camp and look, it'll either be or it won't be and I'll see you all November 14th. >> Perfect. Obviously I won't be seeing you and me and you know the reason why everyone will probably know about it fairly soon anyways, but yeah, thank you very much for the kind words. I really appreciate it and and see with Brian that collab, I covered Brian from his first fight. So it wasn't like I just picked Brian. So in a sort of way and that's what I love about this is in a couple years it could be cuz of you I'm getting that collab in a sort of way. So and that's that's why I love this. You don't know who's going to go where. A lot of the people we talked years ago might have been superstars have left us for. It's just it's a crazy sport. It's a crazy time, but I'm super appreciative of yourself and everyone who supports me and what I do. So thank you very much and enjoy the rest of your day, son. >> You too. Thank you very much, man.