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Written by MarkLeonard
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 07:47 |
The Kingfisher Sports Hall in NUI, Galway was the venue for the first round of the MMA League this year. Saturday, March 6th, and a host of MMA fighters descended to get weighed in and begin creating their Irish Amateur MMA legacy. So too did Point Blank members Dom, Bobby, Connor, Mosi, Johnny, David, Gary, Mike and Sean, and right from the get go the lads started working to bring home as many points as they could. First out for PBS was Sean Conroy against fellow League veteran Paul Keenan. The pair began an energetic back and forth but the tussle was cut short when Paul inadvertantly struck Sean to the head (illegal at the league) and was disqualified. Over on the other ring Mosi made his debut against talented Spartan Northside grappler Sean McDermott. Though Mosi fought hard, he was never bale to settle in the match and it wound up not going his way. Mike took to the floor for his first match, that was going well for the talented lightweight, but he was to be denied points on this occasion, falling foul to a well taken guillotine from Uli Stanke. Both Sean and Mike came back for their second matches fiercely determined and their efforts paid dividends, netting draws from their second matches.
Gary was in centre stage over on ring two but found it hard to generate momentum against the very strong Wexford MMA fighter Michael Skrajny. The pair were the only veterans in the welterweight division and as such had to fight each other. When Gary's opportunity to wipe the slate clean came he took it in spades, keeping Skrajny on the back foot for the majority of the match, and being inches from finishing an arm bar as the bell went. Connor McNevin's first match of the tournament in a hard fought draw, Connor was in the ascendancy for most of the match, but couldn't convert his takedowns and positional dominance into a submission. His second outing was against one of the most experienced teen grapplers in the League, Karl Redmond. Connor fought well against the veteran from SBG, but fell foul to a triangle administered by the long legs of Redmond. Despite being trapped inside a tight submission for almost a minute Connor refused to give up and continued repeated escape attempts until the very end.
Bobby returned to the teen division as reigning champion from 2009, but found immediately that the going would be even tougher this year. Though he took back to back wins in his two fights, both were hard fought and close to the end. Bobby was his usual picture of calm in the sea of contained violence however and calmly worked through technique after technique until he got the wins. Sean Conroy's second match was against Pankration standout Dave McNamara, Dave is no stranger to us in Point Blank as he often attends the Saturday sparring classes. Sean worked dilligently to secure a takedown, but for most of the round Dave defended while peppering back leg kicks and punches. Sean demonstrated the composure of a League veteran and didn't flinch once; when he found himself taken down and mounted he continued working hard until he had the position reversed and could mount some offence from on top. Time became the enemy however as there was nothing left on the clock at this point. A determined and solid performance from Sean though, and a great result against a fighter like Dave.
Rounding out the day for Point Blank were Johnny and David, Johnny netted the coveted three points from Tom Hogan in his first outing, Tom actually did the beginners course in Point Blank so it seemed very Civil War esque when the two fought, Johnny's second match didn't go as he had hoped, an early takedwon had him on his back for a large stretch of the opening minutes, and when he reversed to take top his momentum had been robbed. He fell foul to a submission late in the match after a goal mouth to goal mouth struggle that either man could have taken. David Mullen's introduction to the League was a high intensity battle with reversals and position changes enough to make it reminiscent of a BJ Penn match. Though he had the momentum numerous times, he oculdn't manage to steal a submission from under his opponent finishing with a draw.
A great day for Point Blank all around, lots of things to work on, but generally a tremendous performance from our lads, well done guys!
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Written by MarkLeonard
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Monday, 01 March 2010 09:04 |
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For many people a four hour drive is a daunting prospect, especially when you are coming back the next day, but for Paul Hickey, Paul Delaney and Jason Quinn it was only the start of the adventure. The first promotion run by Top Pro Kilkenny Lightweight stand out Myles Price in White's Hotel, County Wexford. The event entitled "Hell's Rage" took place in a fantastic venue, the ballroom in White's hotel suited the event, plenty of room for fans and the cage, long bar to keep dehydration at bay, and two big screens so any action on the ground that unsighted the fans and good changing rooms, warm up areas for the fighters. The only hiccup was the event didn't get started until half 8, an hour after the scheduled start time. The delay was caused by the doctor taking too long to do pre-fight checks, but as he was only drafted literally the night before, we can't really blame him either!
First fighter up for Point Blank was Paul Delaney. Paul had put in a tremendous amount of work for this fight and was fiercely determined that he take home the win. Round one started fast with Paul's opponent, Brendan McGarry of Top Pro working into clinch from a lead leg turnging kick, after some scrambling he got Paul down, and worked hard to try and net a submission from on top and guard. Paul remained calm, killed the angles negating any attacks and worked back to his feet. After some more scrmbling the pair wound up on the mat again with Brendan back on the offensive. As round 1 came to a close, Paul hadn't been able to land much offence.
Round 2 told a very different tale however, Paul had figured out McGarry's range and timing and was now able to circle off form any takedown attempts, landing shots in the process. Round 2 was a big round for paul as he began landing heavy shots towards the end of the round as well as dominating throughout. Round 3 had the visibly tired McGarry on the back foot more and more, he attempted a scissors takedown which Paul stepped back out of. Paul landed some big shots again and put the Kilkenny man to the canvas, Brendan couldn't answer referee Dave Jone's calls to get back to his feet and Paul got the win by TKO. Paul semed to have enough in the tank for another two rounds, so all his extra trainign defintely paid off!
Second out was Jason, facing a bit of an unknown quantity in Shootfighter Andrew Connolly. The first round started with a blistering exchange betwene the two big men. Andrew was making use of his slight reach advantage ot land strikes but Jason negated it by closing to clinch and putting the dubliner on his back. Jason kept him down for the duration of the round landing damage and working for submissions that although not successful took a toll on Andrew's cardio. Round 2 and Jason started to land his strikes as Andrew began to slow down. Jason began following up jabs with right hands and started landing more often.The damage accumulated on Connolly and as Jason sent him crashing to the mat after a tremendous barrage the referree called a halt to the contest awarding Jason the win by TKO. Though Jason had certainly felt the effort of dealing with a game opponent like Andrew his fitness carried him to the win for a tremendous debut performance.
Last out was Paul Hickey facing Dean Barry of Next Gen Arklow. It seemed as though Dean had brough the majority of Arkolow with him as calls of "There's only one Dean Barry" clarified that its not as common a name as one might think. Round 1 started badly for Paul as Dean began landing strikes from his slightly superior range right from the off. Paul began trying to implement the game plan and get the taller man on his back, but struggled in doing so, as the Arklow man had great savvy in the clinch. Paul's continued efforts were rewarded toward the end of the 1st round as he got him down and immediately began to land damaging ground and pound. The second round started with Paul struggling from the weight of his constant takedown attempts in round 1. Dean landed a flurry of shots that rattled Paul long enough for Dean to get top position on the ground and force Dave Jones to step in, a disappointing night for the Pitbull, but a good performance nonetheless against a very talented fighter. The main event was particularly entertaining, though unfortunately not for the usual reaosns. BJJ purple belt Marchin took on Miles Price, no stranger to us in Point Blank. Marchin ran across the ring at the start of round one landing a strike then jumping up to pull guard. Marchin's ground was top notch, no doubt abotu it. Myles struggled to keep safe as submission setup after setup were thrown by the groundfighting Pole, but keep safe he did, twice more Marhcin threw guard against Myles and tried to submit him, at one point he had Myles in butterfly guard and had control of Myles weight briefly, this obviously gave Marchin renewed confidence as he shouted "Ha ha I have you now". Myles escaped and got back to his feet. From then on the match consisted of Marchin throwing an ineffective strike and jumping to the ground or being punched by Myles and him jumping to the ground (occasionally being knocked to the ground), each time he would stay there and gesture Myles to come into his guard. Myles would wait for him to stand up and then score with more strikes. The Referee eventually had to dock a point from Marchin as he was continually stalling the fight and very slow to return to his feet. In round two Marchin continued with his antics, which looked to be down to a lack of cardio, and in the end after Myles had landed him on the ground with a particularly solid combination, he stopped the fight awarding Myles the TKO victory. A tremendously succesful night for Myles as a promoter and a fighter! |
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Written by MarkLeonard
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Saturday, 20 February 2010 14:49 |
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There are busy times ahead over the next couple of weeks; First up Enda, Paul Delaney and Paul Hickey, and Jason take to the cage in Wexford on Saturday the 27th, this event is promoted by Myles Price of Kilkenny Top Pro, no stranger to the Point Blank faithful as he has fought in Tribal Warfare multiple times and is the host for MMA League Kilkenny. For the first time he sees a Cage event from the other side putting on his promoting hat, but taking it off to fight in the main event! Our lads have trained very hard for the past 8 weeks in preparation and are all as fit as humanly possible, and rearing to let it go inside the cage.
Next up, the following day in fact Mike, Gary and Sean are stepping into the San Shou mat in Finglas in Dublin. Mark and Ben blazed a trail in this event in December and its a great chance for fighters to test out their stand up and rudimentary clinch techniques. The lads have been putting in the extra rounds in the gym working their stand up to the point where they are all finely honed striking machines.
The following week the MMA League returns to Galway for the first round of 2010 and a slew of Point Blank members are taking the safe, fun and easy way into MMA with their first couple of amateur matches. Also the returning fighters from the League last year are getting back onto the tables in the veteran division.
Last and certainly not least, the day after MMA League Galway, UFC fighter Marcus "The Irish Handgrenade" Davis is running a seminar in Point Blank Gym, the seminar is now full, but what an opportunity to train with one of the most dangerous strikers in the UFC!
A busy couple of weeks to be sure! The best part about having the gym so busy is that everyone else training in the gym gets to train in the same classes and gain competition level fitness and skill, without ever having to step onto a mat or into a ring!
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Written by MarkLeonard
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Friday, 29 January 2010 09:12 |
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Sunday the 7th of March, Point Blank Gym will play host to current roster UFC fighter Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis! Marcus is one of the most popular UFC fighters at present and a quintessential stand up fighter. Marcus will be passing on some techniques that have helped him inside the UFC Octagon.
 The numbers will be limited to 16 for this event, so the first 16 people with their fee paid will be on the list and it will then cut off. We want to have enough room to work with Marcus and not be tripping over each other.
Bookings for this event will be taken from Monday. |
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Written by MarkLeonard
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Tuesday, 19 January 2010 10:43 |
The first event of the Year for the gym takes place in Wexford on the 27th of February in White's Hotel, Co. Wexford. Paul Delaney, Paul Hickey, Enda Fenton and Jason Quinn take to the cage for the inaugural Tuff Nuts promotions. The promoter Myles Price is well known to many of the Point Blank faithful as he has fought in a number of Tribal Warfare events, he turns the tables this time out as he promotes his own show.
Best of luck to the Point Blank lads as their training kicks into high gear. More detailed information on the fights will come along closer to the event. |
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