Irish MMA fighter joins FSE

Monday mornings can be depressing sometimes but this morning I woke up to a Twitter-feed popping with exciting news for Irish MMA fighter Aoife Murphy.

You may have seen an interview Aoife did a this blog in September when we discussed the challenges of finding fights in Ireland, and how much she just loves to fight.

So she's just in the past few hours gone public with this news: 

So happy to finally announce I'm a member of Fresh Start Entertainment!!@jayfreshstart @DeanoCmac #wmma #IrishMMA https://t.co/ccGPRkL9vU

— Aoife Murphy (@Efi_Murphy) October 18, 2015

She's pretty excited as you can imagine. Jay General is well-known in the women's MMA scene as he manages Invicta Fc's bantamweight world champion Tonya Evinger and British fighter Molly Mccann. Three of the women on the last Invicata card were from his stable.

Jay told me: "I believe the female lightweight division is under developed and wide open. So I was online watching fight video of some potential clients and came across a tweet from Aoife about her being a lightweight fighter.

"So I reached out to her because I ws surprised when I saw she fights at 155lbs. I thought she was a lighter weight fighter. I really enjoyed our conversation and felt she was a determined athlete with a ton  of heart and a desire to be champ.

"These are charcterisics all of my clients posess and I felt Aoife would be a great fit for FSE. I honestly believe she will be a champion at 155 and it's an honour being able to work with her."

Of course she's not the first Irish woman to hit the international cage, joining the likes of Aisling Daly and Catherine Costigan.

Some Aoife Murphy factoids:

1. Yes, her name is spectacularly Irish, It's pronounced " e-f-i" as in her Twitter handle 
2. She's from Dublin, fighting out of C-Mac Gym, and stands 6ft tall so has the reach from hell as far as opponents are concerned. 
3. You can have your hair cut by Aoife in her day-job where she works with her mother and sisters. 
4. She has big-love for her mother, saying: "Without her I couldn't live and train the way I do or give all this focus to fighting, I'm very grateful to work with her, she's an enormous support and inspiration to me."
5. She prefers to cut weight by diet, seeing it as safer and more professional than some of the traditional last-minute saunas thanks to her Dublin trainer Dean O' Sullivan

Is she ready for the international stage? Definitely, she told me:

"I'd prefer to be more active and to be able to fight on the big shows in Dublin and Belfast but at the same time the opportunity to travel and fight international opponents is one of the best parts of this sport. It's a bigger challenge as a fighter and a privilege to be asked to perform for someone else's home crowd and to help make their show exciting." 

And how committed is she to getting experience for MMA: 

"Well, beggars can't be choosers, I'm crying out for fights so I stay open to different disciplines so I can be active. 

"MMA is my main focus and the sport I enjoy best but if K1 is all I can get I'll do that, if there's nothing on the horizon and I have the itch to compete I'll look for a BJJ comp. I'm happy once I'm active and being challenged," Aoife said. 

Aoife Murphy on Twitter           Her Dublin women-friendly gym C-Mac      FSE on Twitter

(Post updated Tuesday Oct 20th w extra quotes)