Tipperary athletes among the medals at European MMA Championships

Four students from SBG (Straight Blast Gym) Clonmel competed, with three winning medals, at the IMMAF European Amateur MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. 

IMMAF is the elite of amateur MMA in the world and many athletes have gone straight from IMMAFs into the UFC. 

Four students from SBG Clonmel fought in the national championships to win a place in Team Ireland. Ireland placed second overall in the championships, only beaten by Ukraine, who had three times more fighters on their team and were also funded by their government to take part, compared to the Irish competitors who had to pay their own way, down to the kits they wear. 

Charli Connelly won a bronze medal to go with her bronze won at the World Championships last August in Abhu Dhabi. Charli, now 16 years old, started in SBG at the age of 8. 

Benas Whelan started as part of the Rockwell College TY programme a year and a half ago and won two out of three fights to claim the bronze, only losing to the eventual gold medalist. Ben age 17 and Charli, 16, both fought in the cadets category (12-17 years) while Kevin Walsh fought in the junior category (18-21 years) and 28 year-old Gerard Ryan competed in the senior category (21-plus). 

Gerard has been training at SBG for eight years now and recently won an Irish title. This was his first IMMAF Europeans and he showed he can compete at that level, losing a very close split decision against the eventual bronze medalist. 

Kevin Walsh, also an Irish MMA, BJJ and wrestling champion, finished the number one ranked seed in his division with a guillotine choke submission after 20 seconds of round one. This victory was over a representative of Team Bulgaria. 

Kevin lost a close split decision in the final that could have gone either way to take home a silver medal.