Fighter Profile Name: John Donnelly
Club: Team Ryano, Baldoyle, Dublin
Fighting Weight: Welterweight
The motivation to fight can take many forms. For some it’s about compiling an impressive record. For others it’s about claiming a title or testing yourself against the best. John Donnelly fights because he loves it.
As it turns out, he’s also quite good at it. His eight year fight career has seen him take on international class opposition while competing on some of the biggest MMA stages in the Ireland and the UK. Without being motivated by belts and glory he is now regarded as one of the top welterweights in the country.
Donnelly describes his early sporting life as quiet normal. He boxed for a while as a seven-year-old and played Gaelic football, soccer and swam competitively. The turning point for Donnelly came as a teenager in the mid 1990s when his father, Peter, who trained in combat sports mainly for fitness, brought home a copy of UFC 3.
Hooked
After heavy rotation in the family video recorder, father and son were hooked on the new sport. The problem at the time was nobody in Ireland really knew what MMA was and there was nowhere to train in the fledgling sport. With the encouragement and support from his father, Donnelly began crisscrossing Dublin to train in boxing, judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu two to three times a week.
His first foray into competitive MMA was via amateur competitions in Northern Ireland with Andy Ryan, who would go on to become Donnelly’s head coach at Team Ryano. Casting a glance down Donnelly’s pro-fight record, two names immediately jump off the page. He made his MMA debut at Extreme Brawl 3 in London in 2003 against Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley.
“That fight didn’t really go to plan,” Donnelly remembers with a smile of the first round TKO stoppage. The baptism of fire, however, was followed by two wins in 2004. Then Donnelly found himself in the ring with former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi at Rings Bushido Ireland in 2005.
“I love fighting. I love the training, I love the motivation fighting gives me.”
However, it wasn’t the prospect of facing a more experienced opponent that Donnelly was worried about. “Walking out in front of 5,000 people in the Point Depot and knowing they’ll all be watching you in the ring was more of a worry than the fight,” said Donnelly. Following an arm-bar loss to Mousasi, Donnelly’s went 1-3 in the MMA ring taking his overall record to 3-5.
While some fighters might have questioned whether they were cut out for the fight game, Donnelly was not and never will be concerned with the win-loss columns. “Records are for DJ’s,” jokes Donnelly. “I love fighting. I love the training, I love the motivation fighting gives me. If success comes, it comes. To be honest, even if I’d have kept losing I’d still be fighting, that’s what it means to me. I just really, really enjoy it.”
Thankfully, Donnelly kept fighting and a natural athletic ability combined with his incredible level of commitment meant he also started winning.
Win or lose, Donnelly returns to training at the Team Ryano gym almost immediately after a fight, nearly always before he knows when he’s fighting again. His day begins with some cardio work (a run or swim) before starting the day job. He heads to Team Ryano after work for two and a half hours of sparring, BJJ rolling, grappling and MMA drills five to six days a week. On the rare occasion when there’s no class scheduled, John and his father Peter can be found sparring or hitting the focus mitts by themselves.
If there’s a fight in the works his day looks pretty similar but the intensity in training goes up a notch. Donnelly’s recent four fight win streak that began in 2009 coincides with a drop in weight class to welterweight.
His first weight cut before fighting Dave Cullen at Strike & Submit in the UK was relatively easy. His constant training regimen means he’s never too far from his fighting weight. A day of abstinence and an afternoon in the sauna before weigh-ins usually sees him down to the 77 kilogram limit. At 6’1’’ with a thickly muscled frame, he now steps into the ring an imposing welterweight rather than an average sized middleweight.
Up next for Donnelly is the main event at the Rumble in Rush 5 on 26 February. He will face tough American Dustin West who is coming off a devastating seven second knock-out victory at Strikeforce Challengers 13 at the beginning of the year. Win, lose or draw, Donnelly will be back in the gym looking forward to his next fight in the MMA ring.
Fergus Ryan
