Offaly fighters win bronze medals at European MMA championships

TWO MMA fighters from SBG Tullamore won bronze medals at the European IMMAF championships and a third also performed very well at the event in Italy.

Last Sunday, Ronan Deegan (22), Jordan Scully (19) and Andrew Barrett (25) flew to Lignano Sabbiadoro near Venice along with head coach Kieran Davern.

Ronan Deegan (pictured below with the other medallists) came home with bronze at senior lightweight level after beating the Ukrainian Dmytro Kovalchuk (21), Vojtech Khol (23) from Czechia and Radostin Georgiev (19), Bulgaria, before losing to the 22-year-old English fighter George Staines.

Andrew Barrett also competed in the senior lightweight division and in his first bout he won by decision against Aria Afrasiabi, the 29-year-old Swedish champion, before bowing out to the Ukrainian Ivan Kurelaru (23), who went on to reach the final.

“He had two tremendous matches and the whole team at SBG Tullamore are very proud of him,” said Jamie Davern, SBG Tullamore.

Junior welterweight Jordan (pictured below at the medal presentation ceremony) also won a bronze medal after defeating 19-year-old Giorgio Boccali of Italy. He was then knocked out by the eventual silver medallist, the Serbian, Ognjen Micovic, also aged 19.

The three young men were representing Team Ireland which returned from Italy with a total of four medals, one gold and three bronze – and two of those bronze medals were secured by Tullamore fighters Ronan and Jordan.

Jamie Davern pointed out: “They are the only people from the Midlands to ever medal at European level.”

She added: “All three of these young men have huge futures in the sport. Their dedication, commitment, technique and grit shine through at competition. We have no doubt that these young men will continue to rise through the ranks of MMA in Ireland and are names to watch out for.”

Head coach of SBG Tullamore, Kieran Davern, received huge praise for his exemplary cornering skills throughout the whole competition having coached and cornered many of the Irish fighters throughout their bouts.
Kieran was recognised very publicly throughout the competition for his efforts and work as a world class MMA coach.