Two Time World IMMAF Champion Amy Scully! IN DEPTH | EPISODE 36 | AMY SCULLY

Summary

Dave sits down with SBG fighter Amy Scully for a chat about her career so far.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] okay so I'm here with Amy Scully double world champion from imfs um it's been a fantastic year for you um but to get to where you are and become a double champ of the imass which is a huge huge Accolade for yourself your gym and people involved where did you start what brought you into MMA and thank you very much for your time as well thank you for having me um well it all started when I was just too bad at football and hockey and all that in school and like was getting bullied out with that and um my brother was doing MMA up in SVG and my mom wanted me to do something just to keep fit so she threw me into Jutsu uh up in Gracie Baja and done drum and then I was actually not too bad at that so I kept at it and started competing and I loved competing so just kept at it and then over Co all the gyms closed so I just started hitting the bag at home and I was like can maybe mix This Together see what MMA is like and then when I came back after Co started training SG and then yeah the rest is history and obviously you went to SPG your brother was there was that was that the only reason or was at the lik obviously you've got John caver Conor McGregor uh Kea Crosby the the women that have come out you've got Danny mccor Sade kav did they they have in a factor and an influence on your decision or was it more so just the the kind of family thing I think it was just the family thing like I just wanted to be go somewhere where at least I had my brother there with me you know what I mean cuz usually when I go into places like I do get a bit nervous and stuff like that it's always nerve-wracking going somewhere new so I was like I'll go my brother goes and see where it takes me and yeah I'm glad I did and like that I like you had done jiujitsu beforehand so uh you'd been in a gym environment but going to an MMA gym some people find kind of overwhelming and I know you had your brother there what was like talk to us about your first day in SBG and and how welcoming it is cuz there's this misconception of MMA gyms that it's all Meat Heads it's all violence it's not it's I find them one of the most welcome places you can come across what was your perception going in and then what was the actual outcome of you going in and on what was the big differences you found well to be honest the first day um I was in the teens class and it definitely wasn't the most welcoming I had like neon orange hair and I kind of stood out you know I was wearing like bright bright rashguard and stuff like that and I definitely stood out um and I kind of smashed a couple of the boys on the first day so I don't I don't think they liked me very much cuz I was just some newcomer looking kind of weird coming in but um after the first couple weeks and especially once I moved up to the adults and started training the pro class like like to Rich and Gary really took me in and started like looking after me and kind of they're kind of the people then that welcome me the most yeah and we've seen throughout your career thus far that Gary and and Richie have been a big part of your team talk to us about G we we all know kind of Gary Rooney and Richie smin as Fighters talk to them about coaches and mentors and friends and training partners and what they mean to you well like you know especially like Richie is my biggest inspiration like he trains so hard I see the work he does and he inspires me to work hard like he's pushed me to my limits again and again and again and he sees the fighter that I could become from day one like I was looking back on uh videos of our first like lesson together and I was like so bad I don't know what he saw but he saw something that um that I couldn't see and like he believed in me and um he's turned me into an animal like the stuff he' put me through was tough tough sessions up in Arlo where I'd want to cry but um you know like he believed in me and it made me the athlete I become today so I'm so grateful for that and I just look up to him as you know a great mentor and Coach yeah and like that you you've done extremely well so far in your career and I think you're going to have a you've got a very bright future ahead of you as well I believe as well once you kind of won the medal last year you had to go back to your your you went back to your school was it was it yeah back to school yeah what was that like uh it was Grand like it was just finish off school you know um I had to lock in for the last couple weeks and got a decent leaveing so that was one of the conditions you know if I wanted to keep doing MMA I needed to be able to have other options so I just put the energy that I put into studying or into training into studying for a couple weeks and managed to get like a decent enough leave and start finish Stu but um it didn't change much like it was it was same same and but what was it like going back with with the gold medal like into the school where was where people like wow did they realize you done this sort of thing no I'd finished school by the time I got the gold medal I got silver medal when I come back to school yeah so um it was no people weren't people didn't really care that much I don't think anyone took me seriously until after I finished school and then after I won the gold medal then I got people from school texting me being like Oh Well Done stuff like that but um beforehand no I don't think some of them talk seriously but most people didn't no and that's that's say you always find that when when people are coming up people will kind of not dismiss what you're doing but they won't pay attention but all of a sudden when you when you start doing you start winning then people start messaging you and even like I feel like being a girl and also being tiny like a lot of the lads in school like they're not going to you know they're going to be like oh like I can beat you in a fight anyways or whatever so it's just I had to prove them all wrong and now they're all like well done so that's a I think especially with young males as well as an ego thing they don't want to be SE seeing given props to female that is smarter that I'm not going to lie to you you're probably going to beat their ass you're probably going to choke them out I'm confident I could I confident I could um but talk to us about your your first ever competition um the nerves the lead up to it the preparation and kind of your thoughts going into it because obviously you've done so many now but I'm interested to see what your mindset was going into the first first MMA yeah first MMA yeah um well it was the first youth one I did was actually down in Cork for the Nationals and I had no one in my division and I literally only started an SBG that summer and it was down like was around this time probably what was it three three four years ago now and there was no one in my division so I had to go up to the 61 kilo Division and I was like you know what  it I'll just say yeah see what happens so I weighed in at like 45 like I wasn't even like at weight like I weighed like 45 kilos I was Tiny and then I came in and I and I beat the two of them so I got the gold medal and I was well impressed with myself so I was like you know I think think I'm going to keep going with this you know mean I loved being able to punch like you couldn't do head shots but it was cool to be able to mix everything up throw a couple kicks and um it just made me hungry to keep going to be honest I can imagine didn't and especially like 4 going in the 45 and in the 61 character it just shows cuz a lot of people have that conversation does strength outweigh skill and in Jiu-Jitsu it doesn't seem to because like and what is the reasons for that for people that might not understand so explain like cuz you can manipulate P you can explain this yeah I mean you can manipulate Parts you mean you can use their strength against them almost sometimes it's an advantage because they're so much stronger they can push into you and you can just manipulate their body to move a certain way like I'd say if there was head shots could have been a different story with the fight you know big smack in the head by someone 15 kilos heavy then you'd probably be a lot worse but um I was managed to I had my jiujitsu and it was just you're able to use you know turn the corner even on takedowns and stuff like that like it doesn't matter if they're much bigger than you you can usually if you have the skills you can kind of get your way through it yeah cuz we seen up in uh liati we've seen um Le Davis who's one of the kind of Jiu-Jitsu guys coming out at the minute I remember he done the thing with Emanuel Thompson who does prospect MMA and there's a the vast difference in way and I think he subed him I don't want to embarrass Emanuel I think it was no I think it was like nine times in 5 minutes or something like that that's it yeah but Emanuel done it on the basis of being able to show people that this is what can be done but you talked about your weight there as well so like how hard is it for you to find now matches regionally because you've only I believe it's only one region that yeah I only have one Regional fight that's it and how hard is is it for you to find fights because it's such a there's very few of you in the country at that we and one of them is actually your teammate as well so how hard is it for you to find matches regionally it's definitely difficult like cuz even now especially now being double World Champ like a lot of people that are there they don't want to fight me either so um I'm trying to find anyone that I can but uh I'm moving up a weight class up to 52 so get a bit bigger and hopefully get a couple more fights even in the UK or something like that but um it's been pretty Dreadful so far trying to find fights even before the worlds last year the worlds last year was my first amateur fight and I was looking for fights the entire year and I couldn't find anyone so that's why I like the IMA you're able to get like I got three fights in last week and you know can kind of get a couple of them in at once so I don't have to wait once yeah cuz I I say as a fighter that's frustration frustrating because you've you've done the Jitsu you've learned to mix in the MMA with it you you've gone to a good gym you have a good crew around you and then being able to get the competition time is is something that obviously strg with so so talk to us about your first ever IMF competition cuz like you said that your first amateur fight was IMF what was that like was that D going into it or were you just happy to get match I was just happy to have fights to be honest I wish I had more I only had two last year to get the gold so I wish I had more but H whatever way the brackets turned out I ended up getting a buy but um yeah like I was excited like definitely nervous but I feel like I don't get nervous where I'm like dreading it I get nervous that I'm just like you know I want to get in the cage and just kind of show that like all my hard work cuz I put so much hard work in I just want to be able to Showcase I don't get to Showcase it enough and I'm glad I was able to you know get in and show it last year and this year yeah and and that's one of the things I I've watched your imfs and I've watched obviously uh the the fight you had recently but I've never seen you kind of compete live in MMA I've seen you compete at kjx against Lisa Houston in grappling and the likes of that the the grappling act the likes the king stuff was that kind of stuff just to get you onto into an event type of Arena because obviously D Ms and uh just say cage leg cage conflict clan war show they're different because I'm if you've got the loads of mats going or loads of cages going this is this is more of an event type thing were you doing that to kind of get used to the event type of thing or was it just to keep busy um yeah Richie just wants wanted me to get more experience like doing the whole walk and getting into the cage it's a whole thing like it's very different even coming into my finals fight in the imaps like you get like a proper walk out and everything like that was completely different to the other two fights that week it is something that like you know it's a lot more daunting and you're looking up at everyone and like in the imaf they had about like 10,000 people there it was full of people all from all usbekistan locals and stuff cuz it was just they could just all come in and watch so um and even with Clan Wars like that was that was definitely like you mean it almost like fueled me up because everyone down there was kind of like supporting me because it was me and Gary on the card so you know we kind of had are everyone kind of supporting each other but um yeah it's completely different to just Happ to do the IM offs yeah no I was talking to someone the other day and they said sometimes when they when they done from doing a regional show then they went to the imass they felt like not that they warm warmed up but after doing reason show they felt a bit flat going in cuz there was no walk no there's no nothing you just kind of go out there's two other cages competing it's just silence and then the cage door closed they went oh it's it's go time um but obviously you came in Judy IM talk to us about the first medal you won what it meant to you and and did you envision winning it going into the tournament the first world yeah yeah um I definitely envisioned winning it coming up to it though I split my knee open in my first Spar so like it was fully split open and whatever way the stitches were put in they weren't put in like properly so I literally couldn't bend my knee for like 6 weeks um and it was still open coming up coming like flying over to Albania for the world so that was definitely something that like made me feel a little bit more like nervous kind of coming into it like I was like oh have I done enough and stuff like that but um being able to go in there be still injured like my knee opened back up after the first one so I had to wear a KNE bra for the second one so they didn't see it they wouldn't stop the fight but um being able to win the medal like it was the best feel like a cried straight away like it was the best feeling ever and I just remember seeing my mom in the STS as well and I was just like Jo me everything I do is for her and make her proud and you know hopefully be a good pension for her one day one day but um no it was just it was amazing it was the best day of my life and and that's pretty cool cuz we know these these IMF uh thas is not fed uh we were speaking just before on camera Conor McGregor helped helped not you personally but helped everyone out and he's helped it previous times before um to have your mother at an event like that is cuz that's costing her time money stuff like that how does that feel for cuz she is your biggest supporter yeah how does it feel for you to have her there with you for these moments it feels amazing it's nice just to have someone that's you know raised me since I was a kid like just being there and seeing like the person I've become like I'm an adult now I'm not like not a little baby anymore and you know I'm just showing her that you know she's raised a good kid and you know I'm going to make her proud oh and and you definitely are so far and there's plenty more to come but you did have a loss you you have got a loss talk to us cuz you've been on such a run and you like you said you were beating people that was 61k you were going in and you were doing all this win what was the first loss like how did you take that did it mentally drain you or did you just know as part of the game talk to us about your feelings um to be honest I just felt angry that was kind of the main emotion that I felt I just felt angry just with myself you know like I came out and it was like 45 seconds and I was submitted like it was you know like that you know so it was definitely like a horrible horrible feeling but I just remember immediately just wanting just feeling angry and getting back to the gym then that Monday and just like training training training really really hard just cuz I was just like so disappointed in myself like yeah I just felt horrible but I kind of just turned it into motivation that I'm never going to let something like that happen to me again not that quick anyways you know it's just it definitely was a a blow yeah and like that especially if someone have said to me if it wasn't there on the records I would have said that didn't happen to Amy scoly OB because your background but what I liked about what you said there was that you just went back into the gym started training do you think sometimes amateurs take losses too hard and like cuz when you win you're back to training maybe you might take the Monday off I don't know yeah well I was back Tuesday I was here on Tuesday night anyways so and I come came back on the Monday um and I think when you win you're back you're back in nearly straight way do you think um sometimes amateur take the loss too hard and feel sorry for themselves cuz you just need to get back in whether it's a win or loss you need to just get back in and keep improving what would your advice to be to someone who's who's lost takes their first loss but realistically like our losses in amateur they don't mean anything like I was angry just had myself but I wasn't going to feel sorry for myself and start moping about and you know thinking it's the end of the world no like when I go pro you know in a couple years time and I'm winning there or even losing there no one's going to think about that fight way back when when I lost so it doesn't you know it doesn't matter you just have to keep keep going and not stop because if you let something like that stop you now you're not going to be able to make it when you're a pro yeah no and I really like the at as such a young age and it's got to do with your surroundings between your family and and your coaches and your training partners that have kind of in that mentality into you and obviously it was in you already but they they amplify it one of the things I like about you before we go on to just the last words as well was a lot of people ask me what you think I should do for promotion and I kind of send them to your content cuz I think what you've done is quite unique I think you and yourself is quite you you won't find another fighter or or personality like you I think you're quite unique there's no other Amy Scully um and just the way you present yourself online and promote yourself I think is just absolutely fantastic what brought that on and and how what kind of process is it to to get these videos out because it might only be a minute video but that's a that's a couple of hours in in recording talk to us about why you started doing that and the effect has had on your following and and stuff like that uh I started doing it just because I wanted more fights like I felt like if I had a following and people wanted to come and support me then shows would be more interested and have me on their card because if I can show I have bunch of people behind me that buy tickets and stuff like that then it might make them more inclined to kind of work a bit harder to try match me so I started with that I just wanted to get a bit more of a following have a base and also for when I go pro like followers are currency like if you don't if no one knows who you are when you go pro then it's going to be you I mean you're building yourself up for when you go pro whereas I want to be already built up before I go pro that people know who I am and kind of what I'm about so that when I do go pro might have a couple more options so that's how it started um just doing the little Vlog showing people what I do every day also just to show people that you know I train really hard and you know I put everything into the for like I'm not just you know I don't know feel like it's not enough people taking me seriously maybe it's the haircut but um I just wanted to show people like the hard work I put in like every day and just let people like step into my life and see what I do and also inspire people then to train you know hard themselves even if it's not an MMA and whatever they're interested in but uh that's how I started then doing those videos and I like them as well cuz why I do these types of ins is I want to get people to see the person behind the fighter cuz a lot of times people will see your 15 minutes or however long the fight last and that's kind of what they see in a nutshell whereas I know the work you go in behind and is that something you want to see as well and let let them in like you have to get up like everyone else you can do extraordinary things in the cage and you do things that only 1% of the population do but you still have to live life like everybody else do you think people forget that from the outside I think so yeah I think even just showing people just show the highlights of you know you're doing your fights you're win your fights but realistically it's every day going to the gym going to the gym grinding hard you know and just um yeah like I just wanted to let people kind of into into my world and see what it's like being an MMA fighter cuz a lot of people think especially with UFC fighters and stuff like that that they're living the high life and their you know like sha Amal and is Lamborghini and stuff like that but you know he still trains hard every day like I don't doubt it so you know I just want to let people in on that yeah cuz I think a lot of people think it's a lot flashier and it's a lot more Glitz and grammar than actually is because it's a lot of hard work there's a lot of sacrifices and and things you don't get to do that normal people I say normal people but civilians uh might might H get to do but going on to obviously what you've just come back from with G um going into it obviously there was a lot yourself and Fufu were two people that were highlighted obviously because of of he got gold early this year and you got gold last year how did it feel to be pushed like that by IMF cuz I just kept seeing you every every time I went to IMF it was Amy Amy of Fufu Amy of Fufu um how did it feel to get that push like that and that they were so so behind you going into the tournament it felt great and it just goes to show that my hard work putting into those videos kind of paid off because before I even went over like last year when I went over to Worlds I know I hadn't won it yet but you know like there wasn't much coverage or anything like that whereas this year before I even came you know they came to the SVG and did an interview with me and Nate and some of the lads so it was nice to see that like the hard work I put into the video is building a bit of a follow and that kind of paid off cuz they had a bit more interest in me this year to kind of promote me and show and like the videos even I did like they did well so like I think my final video was like half a million views or something like that so like it's it's insane that's pretty cool cuz I remember me and you done it live I want to say it was before you went to the world last year or was it this year for the Europeans I think it might have been last year U but I remember at the time that live had quite a few people on it and I was like well I don't usually have this many people on it and then I seen the views it done after it kind of just shot through the roof and it just showed everything You' done till then had kind of spiked it up but going over as team Island what does that mean to you and one of the other things is obviously you're so quite close with people when you're winning and just say uh someone there has a loss how hard is it to try and balance your emotions to kind of with their emotions or do they understand it's part of the game they've lost they just want to be happy for you I think like if you're getting to the IMF level you have a bit of a cop that you know you know if you lose you lose and you know if you're winning then you mean you kind of let let the people that win feel great like when I lost in Serbia like I you know soed for a couple minutes and I picked myself back up and then I stayed for the rest of the week and supported everyone else you know open to their fights and stuff like that so I think like you let people be happy if they win and then also I supported everyone then who lost and you know made sure I was there for them and stuff like that but um I think like when you're at that level you know like you know you let people have their moment as well as also being there for people then when they lose yeah cuz you could see the guys that were out there they were in the crowd most of the videos I was seeing was from uh competitors that were with you and they were out there supporting you and and how does that feel to like what does it what does that kind of unit and bond create with these people like do you stay friendly with them after after these tournaments cuz I would presume when you're with a group of people for a week there is some sort of a bond with them what like talk to us about that and what that's like well like a couple people from Team Ireland you know we I get close with like Jordan Scully like we have the same last name so we bonded over that but um to be honest like we're not much of a team like I this year we had a lot of SVG people so that made a big difference cuz I obviously trained with them and know them all but um compared to last year like it was only I think four of us from and then it was just those four and then you know the rest of Team Ireland went and did their own thing and stuff like that so I feel like it's something that maybe we could all improve on like the imma you know whatever doing more Squad sessions and stuff like that because this year was you know there's only 12 of us there wasn't that many but um a couple other times it doesn't really feel like there's a team Arland you know it's just kind of whoever from which team does what yeah I I think like you said with more group sessions a team bonding day something fun exactly yeah yeah Jo uh could could influence that that but you got the second gold right you got TKO as well which is something you really wanted talk to us about how that came about during the fight and your feeling in after cuz I know that was something you really wanted cuz you subbed everyone yeah I wanted show I can punch a little bit as well but um I watched she actually had fought India the day before so I was able to stay and watch that and I could just see by the way she walked like she would looked like a good boxer but you know the way she just moved I could tell she couldn't couldn't grapple a wrestler or she wasn't even thinking about it even in her fight so I she just came in I swung a big overhand right and just like went straight for the double got on top and then um just started smacking her in the face I guess and how did that feel to get to TKO was it like I done it was it yeah cuz I was I saw like the arm bar and I was like you know I'm just going to I'm just going to go for like I don't think she has the grappling to if I want to irar her I could so I just like put my hand on her face and just start whacking around I was like this feels great I'm going to keep going until your man stops me so yeah it was good it was great I was great to be able to get the TKO victory yeah and then obviously getting the gold medal again what did that mean to you what did that mean to your family and what like you more so but what did that mean you get the second one is is it's hard to get the first one yeah and especially with you being pushed a lot of people would look at you and go well that's the person I want to beat because if they beat you they take your momentum you that's s way and then next year if they go in they're getting that push so you've a bit of a Target on your back people are going to try and uh they're always going to try and beat you but there's that little bit extra I think what was it like to win that second one um it was good like I from the start like even wearing the golden kit like you know mean you kind of stand out like whenever you're watching this five cages on and you're watching you see someone walk out in the golden kit you're like oh that's the one I'm going to watch now for the next you know 10 minutes or however long it'll go on for so and even with imaf pushing me and stuff like that I definitely felt there was a lot more of like you know I had to prove myself you know like if I messed up then it was all that promotion stuff would have been for nothing so um I defin felt felt a lot of pressure and also ending up going against the girl that beat me in the Europeans in the final I think that was the perfect way for it to play out but um it definitely I definitely felt a lot of pressure going into that like I needed to make sure and show that all the improvements I've made like how hard I trained since since that loss all paid off and it did and it was amazing it felt so good is it mad and it's mad how it went full kind of circle like that as well and it's kind of like a chapter close on on that loss but um like you've done fantastic so far you do have a fight confirmed regionally uh in December how do you feel about actually getting the fight regionally and and being able to fight in Ireland albe it's not in Dublin it's not too far but like you can have a lot more people travel to the fights like what would that mean to you it feels great like it meant the world to me even at Clan Wars to have like my whole family there not just my mom like you know I mean my dad my brothers and everything and even all my friends and stuff they all came down to support me so it nice to be able to have that again and just have everyone be there when I win cuz like after every win in the IM M it was just back to the apartment and you know and sit down for a bit with my mom and go yay and then you know that was it like there wasn't much so um it'll be nice to be able to have everyone and like it'll be nice to be down even it's nice to be even have a night night down in Cork and stuff a little celebration then after I win hopefully in uh December so it's going to be nice to have everyone there it's a it's it's going to be my first time to see you life so I'm really looking forward to that the show is really well run it's only a new show um so I'm looking forward to that but I'm going to let you go I'm going to ask just one or two more questions as well okay so when kind of cuz you're doing so well in MMA and there still is a point that you need to to get there or your aspirations what you want to do when you're finished and done obviously you're not thinking about that now what if you had a word or sentence that you wanted people to describe you and what was what would you want people to think when they hear Amy Scully perseverance just you know getting back up again every single time and just like no matter what happens I'm just going to keep going and never stop and that's it that's what I want to be remember just someone who worked hard and um went as far as I like I don't care how far you know I don't know how far I'm going to get in this but I just want to be someone that never gave up and just kept going no matter what and no matter what was thrown at them and with the kind of influence now of of women's MMA and stuff like that and like you said when you came in you were under sized to a lot of people and there might be a lot of of females out there that might be like that and are anxious to go into MMA because of it what would you say to them cuz we've obviously seen your success but yeah we've talked about how you've kind of got there what would you say to someone who's got doubts because they might be a bit smaller they might be female just do it I mean like look like a look what I've achieved I've always been the smallest in my class I've always been the smallest you know even in the gym downstairs I was probably the smallest today so um just do it like if you have the skill and the grit to train hard then like there's no reason why being a little bit small is going to stop you from doing something like you know you just got to do it and get big maybe but I'll see how big I can get but um no like even even with that though don't be afraid to like get a bit bigger and stuff like that like I know a lot of girls probably the thought of the scale going up and stuff like that yeah it is true though even like with myself like even though I'm like going upper weight class so you know don't be afraid to put on a bit of muscle and also don't be afraid to just do it like it doesn't matter if you're small yeah know I want to thank you so much for your time you had had an incredible career today and it's only the amateur stage of it as well so I'm really excited to see you fight live like I said and I'm really excited to follow this journey you've been an absolute amazing atlete and person to this stage and I want to thank you so much thank you so much for having thank you thank you