Mugendo stars
IN preparation for the Mugendo Open championship on the 9th & 10th of February in Sligo’s Knocknarea Arena, Michael McDermott, Head coach of Sligo Mugendo took four of the full contact fighters to Derry to get some warm up fights recently.
It was the selection day for the Northern Ireland WKU team and had fighters from all around the North.
The Sligo Mugendo team had some experienced fighters such as Billy Dolan Geary and Niall McDermott and less experienced such as Oisín Lee and Tahir Khan Dulia, but it was a learning day for all.
Billy got the show off to a great start giving his opponent a standing count in the second round and again in the 3rd round when the bout was stopped in his favour.
Tahir was next up for his 2nd full contact fight against a tall opponent from Castlederg.
Tahir found it hard to come to terms with the taller fighter’s reach but gave it his best over the 3 rounds. He was beaten on a split decision.
Next up was Niall McDermott, the most experienced fighter of the group, against an experienced opponent from the Fight Club in Lurgan.
McDermott who has been National full contact champion for the past three years but of late has been concentrating on hurling with his club Calry and the Sligo team.
This was a cracker of a contest with the Lurgan fighter coming out strong in round one but McDermott levelling up the bout in the end of the round.
In round 2 McDermott upped the pace and dominated the round.
Round 3 was in similar fashion and McDermott ran out with a unanimous decision.
Oisín Lee was the last of the Sligo fighters.
He got through to the final and got an experienced fighter from the Body Shots Gym in Belfast called Ben Robinson.
Oisín started well and was ahead at the end of round one.
Robinson upped the pressure in round 2 and was scoring with strong punches with Oisín using his kicks well.
Round 3 saw Robinson continuing to pressure Lee and running out the winner by the narrowest of margins.
Sligo Mugendo Head Coach Michael McDermott said: “Overall it proved a great start to this season as the club has a great bunch of fighters with full contact potential.
“This year we have expanded the Mugendo Open to include full contact,low kick ,and K1 fighting on Saturday the 9th on February in the Knocknarea Arena.
“This will be a good opportunity to see these fighters in action,” he added.