In the meantime; thanks to the lads for doing us proud!

K-1 : 90.0kg : Daragh Kennedy (Kokoro) v. Robert Miskow (Top Pro Kilkenny) – Win RD1
MMA: 70.0kg : Patrick Sheridan (Kokoro) v. Levi Keogh (Total Submission Fighters) – Win RD1
MMA: 73.0kg : Felim Burke (Kokoro) v. Carl Holmes (Total Submission Fighters) – Loss RD1
MMA: 77.0kg : Josh Coughlan (Kokoro) v. Bartosz Miskow (Total Submission Fighters) – Win RD2

We’ve received nothing but glowing feedback from fighters, promoters, fans and reporters. They all seem to be singing the same tune. The lads put on the finest technical displays of the evening and we’re delighted with their performance.

Thanks to the ever present Kokoro Army for showing up and supporting our lads. At one point; the Kokoro Crowd were cheering so loudly they managed to drown out the local crowd.

Great Stuff. Well done lads!

STRIKERS will maintain their strong striking skillset whilst aquiring a solid grappling base.

GRAPPLERS will continue to grapple regularly and put their skills to use against active striking opponents, all the while developing their own striking skillset.

ATHLETES may well already have a head start in this exciting combat sport since strength and conditioning is a significant element of success. Athletes know what it means to dedicate themelves to a goal and the long road of self development.

Give us a call to discuss your options (087) 792 8363.

Adopt, Adapt, Improve. It’s not just for Boy Scouts.

As an experienced fighter, you may be wondering how to get involved in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Would you like to test yourself in MMA competition? Now’s the time to give us a call. We’ll help you tailor existing strengths to the sport of MMA.

Last August I reported on Clan Wars 2 and was overly impressed by the display of MMA I witnessed that night. The next in the series, Clan Wars 3, on the 12th Feb 2010 at the new Sense Nightclub at the Glenavon House Hotel in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, certainly had a lot to live up to.

I knew Clan Wars 3 was going to be an improvement to the last show and speaking to Paul Mc Laughlin and Chris Tweed the Clan Wars promoters I knew they had put in a lot of time and effort into planning. Yet again the Clan Wars team comes up trumps on the professionalism and quality of the show, it’s no wonder they are getting the recognition with many of the top flight UK MMA magazines and have guys from all over Europe looking to get involved with this top event.

I will firstly start on the venue. The Glenavon House Hotel has done a great job on the refurbishment of the old nightclub. They have opened two levels and installed a top of the range sound and lighting system and have fully modernized the club. The new open levels makes the nightclub a perfect venue for MMA event as it has a cauldron effect with spectators looking onto the cage watching the competitors do battle. The venue have also installed a large state of the art LED screen over the dance floor which had a live mix from the four video cameras positioned around the cage operated by the professional P4TV filming crew who where flown in from England to record the show for the airing on LA muscle TV, sky Channel 281 where you will see some of the best MMA events on their Monday and Thursday Fight Night features from 9pm.

The large screen and professional mixing looked fantastic coupled with the fighters walk way which had the walk in arch, lights, smokes machines and flame effect blowers which wouldn’t have looked out of place on any of the bigger shows in the USA, the quality and small details Clan Wars put into their shows is what makes the show so special and its no surprise they have been approached by some of the UK’s top MMA magazines and fighters from all over Europe looking to compete at the show.

As well as the filming crew the Clan Wars promoters invited over the UK’s leading sports photography team Fighterpics headed by Sean Keating. Sean spends most of his time traveling to shows up and down the country covering the professional photo shoots for some of the UK ’s biggest events. He has also been to America to cover shows in Madison Square Gardens, MGM Arena and many of the UFC shows. He is freshly home from his tour with no other than Mike Tyson to whom he was doing the photography for in November 2009. I got a chance at the show to speak to Sean and ask him what he thought of the show, he replied ‘Marc to be honest I am speechless about the high standard I have witnessed here tonight, I have covered hundreds of MMA, Boxing and Muay Thai events in my time but this is one of the best shows I have ever had the privilege of working on, very few shows leave me gob smacked or lost for words but these guys have put on a hell of a show! From the excellently matched fights to the productions value and to the down to earth attitude of the promoters these guys are going to go far!” This is a huge complement for the Clan Wars team coming from one of the most respected figures in the UK’s MMA / Muay Thai /Boxing scene!

The fights themselves where fantastic, it was good to see some of the amateurs getting a run out at the start of the night to get the chance to fight in front of a capacity crowd. The headline Amateur fight was for the featherweight ISKA Amateur Irish Title between Joe Fry from the IFS gym in Antrim and Ryan Martin from the IMMA gym in Ballymena run by Rodney Moore. Ryan had done his homework and knew Joe was a fast submission fighter so tied the fight up well, Joe was unable to show his submission skills but put his Judo and wrestling to good use by controlling the fight in a dominant position and racking up the points with striking from side control.

Also invited as special guests to the show was the multiple BJJ World Champion Leo Negao and head instructor of the Urban Krav Maga street defence system and Senior BCA instructor Stewart Mc Gill. Leo and Stewart were called to the cage to present the title belt to Joe Fry with a load eruption of applause and cheering, the fans definitely appreciated the achievements of these two Martial Artists.

The C-class fights seen a step up in action with some excellent battles that went back and forward with excellent displays of well rounded MMA from good striking to great submissions.

After the C-class fights it was the chance for the Pro fighters to step up to the cage and show their skills, the Pro fighters were fighting with full pro rules which includes elbows on the ground. The first fight was the semi-final for the welterweight title between Richard Gorey from Kilkenny Top Pro and Mike Reid from Gracie Barra in Belfast. Richard Gorey was the favorite for this fight and probably the favorite to take the ISKA Pro Welterweight title with a perfect 4-0 record. This fight turned out to be fight of the night with it going back and forward with both striking and grappling, Mike Reid pulled off one of the best armbar reversals seen in a long time and managed to get back to his feet. This was a true battle although in the end Mike was able to capitalize from the mount and finish Gorey with Ground and pound!

The second semi-finals was between Mervyn Muholland from Juku Ryu Ju Jitsu in Larne against Mark Gibson from Elite 400 in Craigavon. This fight had all the markings for another war with the two fighters well up for it. The fight started with a flying knee from Mervyn to which Mark was able to dodge and secure a good takedown. Mark is a well-conditioned fighter and has strong wrestling but Mervyn is a strong grappler with slick submissions and caught Mark In an armbar to secure his place in the welterweight finals.

The final bout of the night seen the rematch between light weight fighters Alan Hannon from Combat Sports Centre Limerick against Darren Hughes from Sudden Impact in Magherafelt, this was a rematch for these two lads after a previous war a few years ago so both fighters were hungry for the win. This fight lived up to expectations also with it going back and forward with some awesome striking and ground skills, both guys were battered and bruised by the end of the contest. Darren Hughes hailed victor with a unanimous decision.

I mentioned before in the Clan Wars 2 report about the professionalism and high quality of the shows and asked Paul Mc Laughlin about this to which he replied “ We want to provide a professionally run event to promote Irish and UK MMA. We wanted to take it a step further and offer the highest standards in safety and quality, which we found through the ISKA. The ISKA have been doing Martial Arts events for decades and are world recognized. They have extremely tight health and safety regulations put in place for the safety of the fighters and for the quality of their shows – this is the major factor that made us want to work along with the ISKA and the partnership has been working fantastic!’

The Clan Wars MMA event seems to have fantastic momentum and drive to keep improving and each event just keeps getting bigger and better. I’m looking forward to Clan Wars 4 already– something tells me its going to be the best so far!!

Tony Souza is a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu directly under Ralph Gracie. He’s a long history of working as both coach and fighter with Team Ralph Gracie and we’re delighted to announce that Tony has now officially joined the coaching team at Kokoro MMA, Dublin. We made Tony’s arrival official, with a BJJ for MMA workshop, this morning and we had a blast!

We’ll post pictures, a short run down of the workshop and confirm the times of our new No-Gi BJJ programme later today. We just wanted to make this short announcement to quickly thank Tony for his time today and we’re DELIGHTED to have the highest ranked BJJ instructor in Ireland come on board at Kokoro MMA!

If you’d like to continue training No-Gi BJJ for MMA under Tony Souza, he will now be coaching every Tuesday & Wednesday evening from 18:00-19:00 at the Dublin gym.

Kokoro MMA Members: 5€ per session
Non MMA Members: 10€ per session

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US AND START TRAINING!

Kokoro Mixed Martial Arts are Dublin’s Premier Gym for Beginners MMA Training Classes. Kokoro are 100% dedicated to Irish MMA. We offer training derived from Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Kyokushin (Full Contact Karate), Greco Roman Wrestling, Submission Grappling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), Judo and MMA. Experienced and sport specific coaching in a safe environment.

Let’s hope that the Kokoro Army will be out in full swing to support our guys as they put their respective K-1 Kickboxing and MMA skills to the test;

27th February, 2010
TOP PRO CAGE SHOW
Whites Hotel, Wexford.

K-1 : 90.0kg : Daragh Kennedy (Kokoro) v. Robert Miskow (Top Pro Kilkenny)
C CLASS MMA: 70.0kg : Patrick Sheridan (Kokoro) v. Levi Keogh (Total Submission Fighters)
C CLASS MMA: 73.0kg : Felim Burke (Kokoro) v. Carl Holmes (Total Submission Fighters)
C CLASS MMA: 77.0kg : Josh Coughlan (Kokoro) v. Bartosz Miskow (Total Submission Fighters)

27th March, 2010
RUMBLE IN RUSH 3

C CLASS MMA: 73.0kg : Jonny Origan (Kokoro) v. Lee Metcalfe (Rush Fight Academy)

There are also a couple of national and international submission tournaments that we’ll be competing in during Q1. So, busy, busy, busy….!

Our Starter Concepts courses (aka. Group 1) and Core Concepts courses (aka. Group 2) have been revised and improved upon. We’ve a plan for every session through 2010 and we’re certain that we can expect gains over and above the incredible results we experienced last year. We’re always looking to improve on our methods so we’re really looking forward to the introduction of our revised programmes.

We’ll get started with our Quater 1 programme in 2 or 3 weeks time. Stand by for lift off!

Take a look at our schedule below. Regardless of your experience level (from new starter to experienced fighter) you’ll find something for you. Head down to “MMA 1″ on Monday night and you can train for free to see if Kokoro is what you’re looking for. Please, no spectators, just get stuck in and see if it’s for you. All our training is progressive so you’ll be training at a level of intensity that suits your current level of experience and fitness.

For more extensive information; just take a look at our complete schedule.

Technical progression is constantly and consistently put to the test in all Kokoro Gyms. Dublin continues to lead the way with the final event of 2009. Congratulations to all involved in todays Level Assessment!

Each participant was evaluated during Mixed Martial Arts sparring. We were looking into posture, posititioning and various strategic concepts applied accross the five components of Kokoro Mixed Martial Arts;

1 – Striking
2 – Dirty Boxing
3 – Takedowns
4 – Submission Wrestling
5 – Ground & Pound

Toping off a truly incredible year; the sea of white shirts continues to grow and Kokoro takes a great leap in its history. On this day, not only did we award our first ever blue shirt, but they were earned by TWO of the cornerstones of Kokoro Dublin. Well done to Jonny Origan and Johnny Bowden on making this a historic day for Kokoro

Congratulations to everyone involved.

Yet another day to be proud of all that Kokoro has become!

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US AND START TRAINING!

The Kokoro Mixed Martial Arts Winter Submission Tournament for Beginners went down a storm this weekend. Forty members of Kokoro MMA Dublin, across five weight categories, got themselves a taste for tournament format submission wrestling on our competition surface. And we had a blast!

Congratulations to all that took part. We were particularly delighted to see so many first timers. Some of the guys that got stuck in have been training less than a month! Fair play!

The atomosphere was superb and thanks to all that made the day a success. In particular; thanks to our core referees: Derek Coleman, Paddy Coleman, Johnny Bowden, Jonny Origan.

Visit the HIGHLIGHTS section to watch the video.

MEDALISTS:

Heavy Feckers;
Gold: Rob Adam
Silver: Daragh Kennedy

Fairly Heavy Feckers;
Gold: Johnny Bowden
Silver: Stephen Webb

Mid Life Crisis;
Gold: Josh Coughlan
Silver: Louis Smith

Eat More Pies;
Gold: Jonny Origan
Silver: Aaron Douglas

Midget Tossers;
Gold: Keith Roddy
Silver: David McCormack

- The weighin takes place at 10am SHARP and closes at 10:20 SHARP.

- The rules meeting is at 10:35.

- First match at 10:45.

- Anyone that misses the weighin window cannot weigh in late and will not be able to participate (since the brackets will be completed immediately after the weighins).

- Following the weighin, weight categories will be decided upon based on the numbers in attendance.

- Whilst this is a submission wrestling exercise; we’ll be working on the basis of MMA judging criteria (effort to finish, control, effective grappling in judges opinion etc).

- There’ll be one referee/judge for each heat match. The semi-final and final-matches will have three judges (including the referee).

- Additional rules, for the safety of all participants, will be covered in full on the day.

- This is a training exercise, please use the level of common sense and safety considerations that you would use in a typical training session.

- We’ll be doing our best to ensure that your first match is with someone of similar experience.

- The tournament will run for as long as it takes to reach a final in all weight categories.

- We’ll aim to use a tournament format that ensure’s at least two matches for each participant.

- Even if you’re knocked out early, it’s courteous to stick around for the whole event and support those that are still in.

- Ensure that you bring enough water and food (sandwiches, fruit) to keep you going throughout the day.

- It’s WINTER; so bring a few changes of training clothes and change into something warm and dry before/between matches.

- We’ll be using the wrestling surface and competition grappling surface, please remember that no food/drink is to be brought onto the mats!

We’re expecting around 50 participants – so this should be a blast! I’m sure we’ll have earned a few beers at the Christmas Party at 20:30 on the same night!

Hard work pays off. Period. Just a few days ago, Johnny wasn’t sure that he would be fighting at Ultimate Conflict V, following the withdrawl of his opponent. It’s testimony to his mindset though, that he stayed 100% focused on being prepared to fight, training with fingers crossed!

Fortunately for Johnny, Fra McCaffery found himself without an opponent too and a quick match up was arranged. Fra fights out of Progressive Combat Belfast, one of Ireland’s strongest camps, so we knew this was going to be a great fight.

McCaffery was bigger, stronger and very tough, but ultimately Bowden was the more skilled fighter on the night and dominated in all technical aspects of MMA (striking, clinch, takedowns, grappling) and scoring criteria (control, agression, effort to finish etc). After three rounds, each a display of rock solid technique, Bowden was awarded a well deserved win.

Congrats Johnny!

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US AND START TRAINING!

It’s been a crazy weekend but it’s been worth it! Some forty or so volunteers from the gym have been working the whole weekend to get our new HQ up and running. We’re pleased to say, that training at the new place has begun!

Thanks to EVERYONE that made this possible. We’ll post alot more info and photos shortly coverinng the build and the opening nights.