IUR preview with Decky McAleenan

Summary

I sat down with show runner Decky McAleenan about his upcoming show this Sunday in the canal court in Newry. We speak the two title fights and a few other fights.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] so we have fighter team captain and promoter of your Fighting Championship Mr Dey melen with me today as usual it's always good to talk to you before after fight before fight for show um this show you've got coming up a very good show uh you've got Michael Shields obviously and Jed poo for the feder weight uh title and then you've got Alex Fagan versus Jordan Scully which is another fantastic fighter rematch this on your show there's a host of other fights um oen Dy and Evan stands out to me also shayam and Roman David there's there's a lot lot more on it we're not going to go into all them we'll just touch on a couple of them but how are you thanks for joining me and and how is it for you we Ron what Thursday so a couple of days away from the show how is everything there's been no more issues with pull outs and stuff I'm assuming the card is as the stands now at a minute is it yeah yeah he things thanks for having me back on uh no the the at the minute is is as stands like there has been a few few chops and changes this week so there has been uh with Rioni he's com in to fight Dennis uh Dennis sanovich with uh we were training Monday morning and Sean popped the rib or done something to his rib and we're only going over like specific thr a possessional rounds trying to take it handy and whatever happened Sean Sean's an absolute animal like see for for fights like you you be talking to him he's he's off a boxing thing this week and of a MMA fight this week and then he's last MF he actually landed down we had an inter Club on the following morning and he landed down with his gum shield and Ballard and W in just in case someone needed an opponent like so so he's G he's G the fight but uh he come in the gym on Tuesday and just by looking at him he sort of knew that the fight was off that sort of way so we sent him on to hospital Sebastian told him go up the hospital and get checked and stuff as of then I I was like right that's that fight off jic when you just by his reaction knew that the fight wasn't going you can't fight with I know myself it's it's an injury that you can't walk around and it's not for at for an AM much fight it's not fair putting them through that don't to maybe take another loss in a fight we only going in at maybe 40% so uh started looking for an opponent and lucky enough that fight was easy enough made so it was uh both way sort of jumped at the think it was confirmed within 10 or 15 minutes on Tuesday night that that seems pretty seamless considering obviously Reena just fting Liverpool last weekend with cage Legacy and he's obviously wanted to get straight back to it as well I said the day before because he done the day before over in the UK obviously he's probably still down and in weight and there was another fight change I'd seen this week as well but did year the Sarah Elli Sheran and Khloe fight I think is cursed I just I really I really think it's cursed obviously they had a really good first fight obviously I think Chloe had a locked in the arm end of one of the rounds and I was like I'd like to see that again but you've tried to make it a few times now and unfortunately someone's got hurt or someone's had some sort of injury leading up hasn't it yeah the last I think the last one s was sick and wasn't fit to fight and then this one then H I was actually down a cage conflict and got a message off Khloe uh given her a ring just she didn't want with everything like linked to the fight she just didn't want me getting a mess from her coach saying that that's her right draw and she wanted cuz we sort of give them the opportunity and stuff she wanted to have like a conversation and tell me what was what was wrong and what they tried to do and stuff but what I said how at the end of the day if you don't have a coach that you can trust if your coach pulls you out of a fight if you're not going to listen to their advice there's no point then being your coach so someone like uh even taking the girls out of the equation just like I trust Rodney M's decision he's been about the game a lot longer than I have so if he says someone's not fit to fight he's not doing it because he's not doing it just for whatever reason like J so trust his opinion and then with what was wrong with Chloe like she was she had a couple of stitches under her eye and was trying to work around it and still willing the fight but then she ended up sick and couldn't just it wasn't getting better and she couldn't she couldn't work around it so uh your health comes first and I think it was the right call she made yeah it was and I I seen the gas actually she sent it to me I think Monday or whenever whenever no it was after when I was talking to you actually I was talking to her the next day see how she was and she sent me it's kind like that that cook could have easily opened up again because it was it wasn't a nice cut it wasn't an overly be cut it wasn't a nice Cut and then obviously the BR Manning and bch fight obviously fell true that was an exciting one is that a fight you tried to make before and fell true before as well yeah no no I think something's telling me something happened to Brian couldn't take the fight I think so all I don't know whether he had taken the fight and then something had happened or he had a fight down in Cork or there was a fight somewhere he was fighting so I don't I don't know but there something telling me as well maybe two shows ago I tried to make the fight but U I think now I've tried a couple of times to get bran on and just turn and two just hasn't added up like you know so um it's great now to see he's turning pro uh and like I said if if he can work something to get him on as a pro fight on the on the next show then maybe that might be a thing like yeah no he he would be good to get on and uh with the the all the theatrics around it but then when he goes in he's he he backs up his performance as well he's been on a streak of his life but we could stick with the fights that you have obviously you've got Michael Shields who was a really really good guy out of Fai and you've got Jed poo obviously who was Jess's brother who's gonna be looking for his first title this is a rematch that happened on cage conflict um you initially had trouble matching uh Michael like what is it just are we at a stage where a lot of the feder way to kind of have transitions like to Solemn Simons T Theos have all kind of transitioned to Pro and we've got a new batch in and there's only a certain few that would have the same experience as Michael or is it just your shows at the end of kind of the blocker shows and everyone had been pre-booked yeah it was a a bit of both like and as well like a lot of a lot of Fighters now up north have ended up in FAA so like a lot of the the higher end featherweights at the minute or train our Michael's teammates so that are still left and then you have the likes of the ones that have just went pro uh then Eden no he had obviously like I would have give Aiden another shot just because the fight only happened on a week's notice Let the two boys have a fight Camp H and Aiden was booked already for kid's conflict H so there was I know know there's been people matching from there's been matches made on uh from January for me like you know like it's mantal so is for some amateur matches have been made that far part like by like sort of I don't even think like I try and match maybe 8 to 12 weeks out from a fight like Jo like to let the amateurs be amateurs don't be treating them like pros don't be giving them bloody 16 week fight camps like you know yeah um I like I like sort of as I said having it a be bit more relaxed at maybe like the next shows my next show is in September and like I haven't even a mission of even where to start with that like Jo I'm not even going to look at that for another a couple of weeks like because don't because it's not right on an amateur because then like you could be there could be something in the back of their mind on if they want to bck a holiday and then the sort might feel guilty for going on holidays or Whatever Whenever really trly just go on enjoy yourself don't like it's amateur at the end of the day he's aren't getting paid he's aren't getting much for it like but other shows are kind of know you if you're fighting for us you're not allowed to fight six weeks or four weeks before it don't like and you're not allowed to do this and you're not allowed to do that and you have to do this you have to do that so maybe it's just something I might have to look into maybe trying to match my November show here at the weekend or something like you know yeah if that's what people are doing like but no it's it was one of them things it was just a list of things there was a busy busy month or so in ours MMA like there was shows I think at one stage there was bloody shows Saturday and Sundays like you know yeah I think was chaos chaos was on the week before K conflict was there yeah he started with the EFC in Cork then he had cage or chaos Clan Wars then the week after cage leg CK's conflict and now we're at this week that's so that's what six shows in four weeks yeah so it was it's busy like it wouldn't really count cage Legacy because it was an English show like there wasn't that many our amateurs on it so so like that's that didn't really do much to the mix like but uh all the other shows obviously with people like it's great obviously to get them all all fighting and getting the different parts but like there has to be something done where the show's near enough need to to trying to to help each other instead of getting greedy and just be like well I'm going today and instead of going next week maybe leave it three weeks yeah and stick another show on and then maybe what will happen is then yes you might lose the fight but you might gain two or three J I find with with going like a week before or a week after Things fall through and like maybe like yousef's fight fell through on kids conflict yeah and now you're able to get him on this one Jo like if something happened and there was something on next week then you might be able to get them on Jo like on the next one like Jo just sort of if people work together we bit but that's not always the case so um instead I just bro the shows and then as always we're yet to put on a disappointing card like don't Fighters want to fight in my on my show and that's that's the thing about it like it's a fighter fighter run show four Fighters with no biasness no like if you're coming to Y to fighting y lad it's there you're you're you're there to win Jo like and you have every opportunity to win it's not it's got nothing got to do with me or my club on who who anyone is Jo like in in like fight related it's completely completely open to anyone and it's just a place to test you to test the amats test your skill to try and help them learn on the job like you know because that's that's pretty much what amateur is in it you have to learn to serve your time with amateur get your experience and just know that you're in for a fair fair crack of the whip yeah no and that's why you do have the return that's what one of the points I was going to bring up there's so many retiring people but what you said there about communicating with each other I'd like that because the traveling twice a weekend every weekend obviously I actually missed the bus for chaos because I said I wasn't driving I missed the bus by a minute cuz my other bus was late but if I had have made it that it would have been one week in Cork then it would have been Derry Dublin and then obviously cage leg in UK then it was Belfast as in now going to be in Nori just means it's a h and then there's going to be four five six weeks of nothing I know obviously there's verus and Premier next month but then there's not other than you you've got your shows booked for the year so hopefully if it were they spread out by a week or two weeks or something like that would be nice but that would mean there's a lot of uh people trying to work together in that and I don't know how that would work but your show obviously you've got loads of people back Alex Fagen is someone who's featured heavily on the show he spoke to me uh yesterday and he really really loves working the shot and he said he really he was he this is where he wanted to get the title shot because he'd been on it so much when you were making that match and you were looking at them the two boys that been on the show before and obviously Jordan won last time and I think it could be could be completely different this time how you how much are you looking forward to that fight because I think that's a very fun fight yeah yeah that it's a brilliant fight it's a fight here we could set and argue for the next half an hour on which one of them is going to win and then you could just flip the switch switch sorry and argue that don't to change people and then argue about that you think the other person's going to win like so uh you'll probably not get a better match fight than that anywhere that could be like I really don't know where who has the upper hand where J like so it is it's uh I was talking to actually someone in the gym the other day that decid to think this is going to happen I's like no sure he's a he's a whatever I didn't even know that there then's going to win there like so uh it's that'll be an interesting fight so it will H we give we Michael he he got the main event slot just due to the fact of he he came in like he was really willing to fight anyone to defend his Bel against anyone he uh came in in a week's notice not even six days notice after after a loss on cage conflict which was R be off decision by the SS of things and uh got the win and like he I think he was like he wanted he he's one of the Champions that wanted to defend his belt he didn't want to be sitting holding the belt and know maybe having an off fighting kid conflict on his home show he's like no I want I'm I'm the Champion I want to defend my belt on that show like so fa play to him and as I said wouldn't to take on anyone H Jude was one of the people that they ask for because of uh because of the the Split Decision lost the last time so like it's not as if he's like had that Split Decision lost and not don't trying to like stay away from people and do whatever so he took took the fight and then I think it was the second time maybe I asked that then Jude was available to fight so uh yeah it was it was just one of them things that that's a fight that that actually worked out and it's a fight that I'm looking forward to as well yeah and I think that one's going to be completely different cuz uh I was talking to Jed and that's why he was saying him and he doesn't take him and Michael perir both are their best and they're both going to go out and try and finish it because they don't Michael definitely doesn't want to leave it to the judges and I don't think H Jed does either and like you said what I like what you said about Michael about wanting to because like that he could have easily just fought on cage conflict um and just went oh and then you're that Bel be sitting there vacant you wouldn't have a a title fight for it but the fact that he wants to take ownership of belt and defend the belt and the fact that he wanted to go and kind of get that fight back as well just shows kind of the character he is I've met him in person a couple times and and like he just wants to scrap like in less than two years he said this will be his 12 fights so uh a fair play to him but there's another fight obviously Roman David and Shay Leon which was initially obviously supposed to be senon senon got injured I believe it was I I'm not sure exactly what it was but he's out but this fight as well is actually a cracker Roman David who we've seen against Conor McCarthy on your show one of the best fight of that year as well I he I've been told he gets it hard to fight to get match sometimes over here he he travels to the UK a lot him and Shay that's a banger of a fight that's a very good fight yeah no I've I've trained with think I've trained with SH but I've trained with Roman and solid all round so he is big strong F he's only getting bigger so he is as well like I think his days a lightweight are done now so as you said as well he had that fight with Connor which was a cracker so it was so uh this is sort of I'd say sh and Roman are kind of like the turn now of the the buyser on the verge of do like the the higher end experience plays where they were just maybe like the likes whenever whenever they fall Conner and stuff they just weren't at that level just yet yeah uh experience- wise and stuff now I think that that's doing like two or three more fights off either of these boys and that's that's ready to go probably ready to go pro now but Jo like the last two or three fights just to build up way bit of momentum before the GoPro test themselves against them couple of people Jo H I think that'll be that'll be a fight not the blank like J both the boys are solid everywhere like yeah both have good strike and they're both strong and they can both uh I think just so many fights that that could be fight night that could be fight night that could be I think there could be a very that could be a very good fight um and Shay is always comes to fight and Roman like we said we see M of how good that fight was um who else is that who else we got usen Daly so someone obviously you know very well cuz he's your teammate H he's on a bit of a tear he's three and 0 he's looking to go 4-0 um he's been very good and you've got Evan from MMA cork who seemed to be on every show every week now um I I like that fight they're kind of like we were talking about the transition of people leaving to go pro and people coming in these are kind of the New Kids on the Block but they're making they're making names for themselves at the minute aren't they with their performances they are inde yeah this would be now the first short to step up in competition I think for the two of them not like not that the people that they were fighting before I know I know obviously Evans fought um the loss on Evans record it's Alex Alex K he's fought Alex jonck obviously Alex is very very good so like that loss is not to be ashamed of but I think now H this would be like the first sort of for o this would be the first one now stonic has has experienced a few J like has the positive record and J like it'll be a we Step Up in competition for him so we are see as I said it's like no easy fights each fight for ocean has been a test and now this this fight is 5050 this is going to match skill speed TR to everything sort of we'll see how he gets on with this one you know like this is as I said we've matched this that this is a good test for him so um hopefully he gets a job done he's he's looking well in training he's moving rightly he's sharp he's strong so uh he's weights in a good place everything's good and said ev's a brilliant test so let the two boys at it yeah know it is a very good test and I talked to us as well one thing about usen he just ooes this just pure confidence does he and but but obviously you need to have confidence as well but it's obviously the graph that he's put in because he told me when when he started to it was years before he actually got to compete and he just St at on you said he was ready there was no if buts or maybe it was when you said or when when he was allowed to compete he was allowed to compete um so he he was never naturally talented so he wasn't that's probably at the start like he didn't have he wasn't like the most coordinated a person he wasn't strong he wasn't so faty like if you were to say like what physical attributes you need to be a fighter or an athlete he just didn't have them you know but years and years a hard work and then just as probably towards his maybe 15 16 he sort of Comm into a Rel League of his own then so he did and it started the all the the the sort of the how quick he improved J like said we got nowhere with him a we bit at the start and then just like overnight then he started to improve and improve and improve J as he got that bit bigger a bit stronger bit fitter everything just started to click together so uh I that's just like he's one of them like motivational stories near enough like Jo like lucky didn't Jo like at the start nothing nothing was working for him and just for the sheer love of the sport and hard work Jo like not nothing give them at all like Jo as we said we we held them all fighting for a long time and you had the likes of Roy ay aen Fox sh fighting every near off every other weekend and oen still just kept showing up and trained as much as they did and then all of a sudden whenever hit maybe 16 17 he's just went on went on a we T and then whenever we got him he fought a few of them no head shot competitions yeah it just didn't it didn't suit like he didn't do he didn't do well at them at all but then whenever we got him into like the novice rules fights he just took off like Jo he done he he fought a bu down in Fess he fought someone M I think he fought someone M show then fought in Fus then fought micho and then went amateur and Jo like done rightly he's doing right amateur now like you know so like that last fight was a dangerous dangerous opponent like his record was what three and six or something at the time but three and six three and five but that means he's he's won three fights asan only had three fights that was as's third fight Jo like so them six losses were six Jo against six decent people so like that man could have knocked a out of any stage of the fight so that it was a good test to build him and look he keeps keeps improving and he just seems to be in enjoying it the more he gets into it the more and more he enjoys it so it's hard to watch his walk outs with his with his bandana on but don't you like to Bandana just but he he loves it so let him out it like that's the it's the only thing about him he loves it so just let him let him do his own thing and as long as he's enjoying it as long as he get smileing his face and he's enjoying it then who are we to say anything about it yeah no and that's 100% he seems to be enjoying himself um like you said one thing that strikes me his attitude to be that disciplined to when he sees those boys fighting a lot of people be like  this I'm out to another gym who'll put me into fights you know the sort way but for him to stick with it and like you said to have like going into a sport where you said like he didn't have all the attributes that you really should have but then to then just turn around like I said just shows if people are out there and they don't think it's going together the way it should do it will just keep going and like I said he's he's looked like a beast at amateur and at ver I believe it was uh Morgan Clemens faced was was Cameron Clem's little brother who would be quite credential himself so he's been on a tear but is there any other fights that you like there like I said I can't think of any off the top of my head but there is obviously we know the show is really well matched all the time um is there any fights that s out you that people might not think of that go under the radar you do this to me all the time and I don't have the fight cach me but is a I'm looking forward to seeing D tomman B brother is making his debut yeah it's a te fight s is but there's H strikes involved okay so sorry strikes to the head so strikes the head just no ground and pound is it just no grounding pound yeah just the the normal sort of noice rules with Shing guards and stuff so uh that'll be interesting to see I've never never trained with a uh with ien with d BR before done a bit of training with d obviously he's part of the team and everything so like I have good connection with d but as I said I never even knew he had a we brother and then didn't even know he had a we brother F so it's um it' be interesting to see how he gets on uh who else do we have uh the lad Andrew ranking we have him up from Steven mer jym I haven't uh haven't had anyone from Steven's gym on the show before so it' be interesting to see see what they're like uh Andrew Rank and he's making his debut against uh kelc crossy from D gym yes so so that'll be that'll be an interesting fight to see uh I stuck a couple of K1 fights on to give a couple of orb I was about that was that was that just was that something people were calling for or it was O you were going to explain that and I really interrupted you uh yeah no it's just it's it's hard for the boys like J because there's no uh there'll be no sort of tie boxing or or K1 fights in J in around the area and like all the boys you will probably whenever you're down you'll probably notice their faces from either setting up the cage or taking the cage do stand about the staff t-shirts on if stand about the staff t-shirt on t-shirts on doing nothing like but the least of the staff t-shirts on be doing too much work like B putting up and taking down the cage but um the there's a couple of boys there that that have worked at the show are now going don't to give them get a we care one fight on it it's entertaining it's fast-paced and it's a fight like know so and it's it's another someone local that gets the fight in their Hometown so the two boys that are doing it are buzzing like Isaac he was saying he's thinking they wearing the staff t-shirt out as the walkout t-shirt like you know but it is it's it's a bit of fun like and as I said I don't mind K one's a good high Pace sort of action it should be anyway so and then whenever the boys as well I get the experience actually fighting in the cage like so it's um it's just something always I never I never put loads of fight like loads of K one fights on but three or four every now and again isn't uh isn't too bad I don't think no it's not and like you said it is good for people who watch MMA and they might be only going to watch certain people and stuff they mostly want to see standing fights as well so that would a lot of people that would be more casual viewers might enjoy that as well even though a lot of your fights a lot of fights on your card are usually very good but the standing game a lot of people like more and then plus if you have people who are really good at uh jits but they want to work on only striking it's a good Outlet then for them just to to feel what it's like in the cage to strike and work on their striking in a competitive situation as they opposed to just training as well so and like that it's it's good to mix it up but there was another fight the you you fight um he's who's actually very good as well he's had a couple of good wins there recently that's a fight I like fight I think that's a fight that came about last Thursday or Friday just like Joe yse had said look Sam's out injured um any chance you could get me and I yeah de on and then it happened to be I think I messaged them and then they they were like yeah we want to get he's I think he's heading back home soon and they were like we want to try and get him fighting every weekend just before he goes so same again that fight was done I think the longest part that took was waiting on party to replay so it was basically everyone else wanted to go it was just making yeah you can't you can't be going through fighters to make fights so just whenever PTY got back to me dad he said y ysu's been on to me he wants to fight so it's good to go so uh there was no and this would be the first time as well we have the sator boys on I know the two brothers this years from the Jiu-Jitsu scene like but uh it' be interesting to see how they get on it good to have them up yeah it's good because I know it's obviously there was someone from limc MMA on the card as well um I've seen them at the show with cor as well which I think the cor show I think the cor show was good for a lot of the sou clubs I like it that there was sgo and mayo and and stuff like that I never seen that shows before and now obviously they're looking out at towards the other shows like your shows to try and get on as well but it's it's good to have new people on it's good like that and you have always to return and you've got like KF are always on it um with good you have a good relationship where everyone that comes on to the show and like I said it is always returning ones but it's a fantastic show I will be there on Sunday I I think since the start I missed one because I was hung over I think for the second one I've been gone but I won't be missing anymore I'll be seen you on Sunday I got to let you go thank you so much for your time I'll see you then is there anything you want to say before you go no just thanks again to everyone for for making the show happen it's h wouldn't be wouldn't be where it is without the fighters you know and then obviously youve got all the sponsors and everything that are back in me behind the scenes J like so um thank you I appreciate every better help from everyone perfect I will see you uh yeah I see you on Sunday I'd be coming up with J I'll be up nice and early just walking around wrecking everyone's head before the show I think we're getting the set up on Saturday night so thank God early yeah not be an early start Sunday this time I'd say that's much better than having to get the early start is it that you know waking up it's just kind of just wake up relax get your breakfast and go usually it's like wake up I've slept in a bit it's like and all the bo are at the waiting for me coming down like that's usually what happens like I going to blame the we fell across the street and say that he's spping you're so man you're so man but thank you I really appreciate your time it's because I know you're busy and uh we will talk on Sunday perfect see you then all the best