The life of a professional MMA fighter – an Insider’s Blog

Over the couse of the next few months, Owen Roddy will run us through what life is like as a professional mixed martial artist

For the last twelve years, Owen Roddy has been fighting out of Straight Blast Gym in Dublin under John Kavanagh. That gym is home to a few of the biggest names in MMA including UFC fighters Conor McGregor and Gunnar Nelson as well as Ireland's own Cage Warriors welterweight champion Cathal Pendred.

Roddy has also cornered for Tom Egan at UFC 93 and McGregor himself at his last bout in UFC on Fuel 9, as well as owning his own gym in Charlsetown out in Finglas called Primal MMA where he has a couple of promising fighters coming through, so it's safe to say that he's earned his stripes.

Before we hand over to Owen, you can check out his highlight reel here:

With this being the first of a number of blogs, I thought it would be a good idea as an introduction to run you guys through my day to day routine, to see what it's like to be a professional fighter.

I get up in the morning and head out to my first session, which happens at around 11am. I would concentrate on Brazilian jiu-jitsu in which I have a purple belt, or a striking session, and around lunchtime there'll be another session and then one again in the evening.

When it comes to MMA, there are three main aspects: standing striking, stand up grappling and ground work, so throughout the week in my sessions at Primal I try to get a good mix of those in.

I'd be training five days a week and probably be doing three sessions a day, and with each session lasting about an hour and a half to two hours, in total I would train about 5-6 hours a day myself.

In between these, nutrition is key to keeping me on track. A good, clean diet is essential in any sport, as well as for your general health. When I'm training, I go on the Paelo diet, which means high protein content through meat and vegetables and very low carbs. You can also go for the Conor McGregor special and snack on blueberries!

When I get into the gym, I do some sort of strength training tow to three times a week, often with the Irish Strength Institute in Malahide, and I'd be doing some sort of strength training two to three times a week.

If I'm training for a fight, I'd give myself a six week training camp, training three times a day and getting at least three or four weight sessions within that a week.

Preparation for the fight would also include some pretty old school stuff in the form of strong man sessions. One of the best pieces of equipment for letting you know that you're in shape is the prowler, which is basically a sled with weights on it that we'd push up and down a car park. We'd also be flipping tyres, or hitting them with the sledgehammer. This is great endurance training, but it also avoids any muscle loss that you might get from some of the training we do.