One of Ireland’s favourite mixed martial arts competitiors Ais “The Bash” Daly is fighting in the states this weekend, here’s our preview…
By Fergus Ryan
Around the 11 O’Clock tonight while lots of Irish 24 year olds are thinking about what to get for last orders, one will be standing on a scales in Kansas having not had a drink in weeks.
Aisling Daly will need to weigh no more than 126lbs to proceed with her fight at Invicta FC 3 on Saturday night.
She’s never missed weight for a fight before and having caught up with her recently she told JOE she’s on course to make the weight again.
Back in the US of A
Ais ‘The Bash’ Daly is in the US to take part in the all-women’s MMA promotion, Invicta Fighting Championships third show. Daly has some previous experience in the US having won and defended the North American Allied Fight Series (NAAFS) ladies flyweight title in 2011 in Ohio, she has also fought for Bellator Fighting Championships in 2010, which was in Kansas as well.
She was due to make a return to the Bellator cage earlier this year but an ear infection prevented her from travelling.
Invicta FC was created in early 2012 by Shannon Knapp and Janet Martin with the view to providing Women’s MMA (WMMA) fighters a dedicated promotion and outlet for talent. After UFC parent Zuffa had purchased Strikeforce, many female fighters on that roster had contacted Knapp for representation knowing the UFC had never promoted a female fight. Also, UFC president, Dana White had remained sceptical on WMMA due to his views around the lack of depth in the weight divisions.
Ladie’s Night
Since their first show in April, Invicta FC have received strong support from the MMA community in the US, including, ironically, Dana White who would be familiar with Knapp as she too worked at Strikeforce and the UFC amongst other US MMA promotions. Indeed the continued success of Invicta FC would go some way to providing the depth in the divisions that Zuffa/UFC say is the stumbling block to them promoting WMMA.
Having travelled the world and fought on some of the biggest promotions around Aisling has found her experience with Invicta one of the better ones, “The experience has been great so far. Invicta FC have been amazing to deal with, so professional. I’ve never been so well looked after.”
As always Aisling is buzzing when speaking about the upcoming fight, “Preparation has gone so well, I’m very excited to show case the new skills I’ve been working on. I’m expecting it to be a tough and exciting fight. I think I have the edge all round if it goes the distance. But I’ll take any opportunity I can to finish it.”
When we caught up with her on Wednesday (two days before weigh-in), everything was on course, “I’m about 129lbs right now so it’ll be an easy cut for me. I’m really looking forward to the fight.”
Hooliganism
The only difference for Aisling in the preparation has been the absence of her long-time coach and head-man at SBGi in Dublin, John Kavanagh. Aisling’s training camp crossed over with Gunnar Nelson’s preparation for the last UFC event in Nottingham. Stepping into the breach is fellow SBGi stand-out, Paddy ‘The Hooligan’ Holohan.
Paddy has been a fixture in Aisling’s corner, backing up John Kavanagh for many of her fights. Paddy also fights at 125lbs so his progression to chief second was a natural course of events. “I’ve a great relationship with Ais as we’ve been training together for so long and I think that’s important. She knows my game and I know her game, she has helped me develop as a fighter and it’s just really great for me now to be able to help her anyway I can. I need a holiday after this camp as Ais has been givin’ me hell on a daily basis. This is gonna’ be a scary Aisling Daly to fight.”
Aisling (13-3) takes on Barb Honchak (6-2) on Saturday night. Honchak is currently ranked 3rd in the ladies flyweight (125lbs) division, ahead of Aisling in 4th place. Invicta FC 3: Penne vs Sugiyama will be held on October 6, 2012 at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. The whole event will be streamed live on the Invicta FC website. The event begins at 1800 local time with Kansas being about 6 hours behind GMT.
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