JOE chats to Darragh O’Conaill the Irishman appearing on a combat sports reality show stateside.
2012 has been a break-out year for Irish MMA and combat sports in general. The increase in popularity and participation in combat sports is being matched by the achievements of Irish fighters on bigger and bigger stages. The next fighter to blaze a trail for Ireland will be Darragh O’Conaill in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu reality show held in the Washington, USA.
We spoke to Darragh back in August last year when we profiled the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Ireland. To highlight how popular BJJ and grappling competitions have become in Ireland you only have to look at the number of competitors turning up for events. The largest competition held in Ireland to date was the Irish BJJ Open held in February this year with 265 competitors. Last weekend Barry Oglesby’s Grapplepalooza tournament attracted 213 competitors, where Darragh’s East Coast Jiu Jitsu Academy took the team honours.
Darragh is one of the most successful Irish BJJ competitors on the international scene. Earlier this year the BJJ brown belt and head trainer at East Coast Jiu Jitsu Academy took gold in his weight division and silver in the absolute division at the European No-Gi Championships. His dream to become a world champion was dashed two days before he was due to compete due to injury.
The devastation of having to wait another year to compete in the Worlds has been replaced by ecstasy thanks to a loyal following of Facebook friends. We’ll let Darragh explain how the events unfolded.
“I saw Lloyd Irvin posting about a reality show he was running to find a top ranked BJJ player to fight his star pupil at brown belt, Keenan Cornelius. He was looking for BJJ players from all over the world and there was a particular discussion about who should represent the UK. I went to bed Tuesday night thinking about it and woke up on Wednesday to see my name being recommended as someone who Lloyd should have in the competition. Lloyd posted that if I came forward myself he’d consider it. So I posted and we sent a few direct messages and I’m now headed to Washington for one of the biggest opportunities of my life!”
Lloyd Irvin is a 3rd degree BJJ black belt and former world champion. In 1999 Irvin became the first American to ever defeat a Brazilian BJJ black belt in competition in Brazil. What makes this even more amazing was that Irvin just received his brown belt 3 days prior. Irvin is head coach of Team Lloyd Irvin, one of the largest BJJ affiliates in the US. He has also got close ties with Alliance MMA where UFC fighters Dominick Cruz, Phil Davis, Brandon Vera and Alexander Gustafsson all train.
Irvin is known for providing incentives for his team to strive for higher achievement. This latest one involves a reality show, “The Next World Champion” (you can check episode 1 below) that documents the efforts some of his BJJ team are making to become world champions in 2013.
Episode 2 will feature Irvin’s brown belt star pupil, Keenan Cornelius, as he attempts to overcome a cast of international challengers in preparation for the worlds. Cornelius is the person to have won the grappling ‘Grand Slam’, which is double gold at the 4 major IBJJF championships in a single year. Check out Kennan in action here.
And this is where Darragh comes in.
“Basically, two mates Joey and Rowan started posting and then I made an appeal and now I’ll be flying to the US in December and I can’t begin to describe what this means to me.”
Darragh is pitched against some of the best grapplers in the world but naturally he believes he is not just there to make up the numbers, “If I can beat the others guys and I believe I can, well then I should be able to beat Keenan and win the whole thing.”
We’ll keep you posted on Darragh’s progress and keep an eye on YouTube for the second episode of “The Next World Champion” that will feature Darragh.
Darragh wanted to thank everyone that posted and supported his cause on Facebook.
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