Ahead of his fight with Brazilian Wilson Reis at Cage Warriors in Glasgow this weekend, JOE caught up with ‘Rowdy’ Owen Roddy for a word.
By Fergus Ryan
It seems Irish MMA has an embarrassment of riches at the moment with ‘Rowdy’ Owen Roddy (11-3) next to fly the flag. Owen is currently riding a seven-fight win streak, which stretches back to March 2008. What’s most remarkable about Roddy’s rise to the top of the featherweight heap is how much else he has going on in his life outside of his fight career.
Owen began training in MMA as an 18-year old in 2001 and made his debut fight in 2005. Though he didn’t have a traditional martial arts background, he more than compensated by surrounding himself with the men that built the sport in Ireland.
“I was playing football and looking to do something else,” Roddy told JOE.
“It’s the usual story; I saw a video of the early UFC’s and decided to give it a go. I found John Kavanagh who was training with Andy Ryan, Dave Jones and Dave Roach and a few others and it just went from there.”
Busy, busy, busy
Outside of his fight career Owen has a busier life than most. Owen is firstly a fiancée and father of two but also the owner and head coach at Primal MMA in his native Ballymun, as well as a coach and training partner at SBGi (Straight Blast Gym International).
Once all of these activities have been looked after Owen can then try and fit in the three-a-day training sessions he likes to do when preparing for a fight.
As a result Owen has only fought once a year for the last three years.
“It’s just the way things were,” he said.
“I’ve two kids and I wanted to be involved and not leave Kellie (his fiancée) do everything like the night feeds and all that goes with being a Dad. I started my own gym as well; I was putting a lot of time into getting that up and running. So with all that going on I couldn’t commit to training three times a day for three or four fights a year.”
Owen will face Brazilian Wilson Reis (14-4) this weekend at Cage Warriors 50 in Glasgow and preparation has gone well.
“I’ve had a brilliant camp, it went perfectly.
“I started around two months ago and everything has gone smoothly. The weight is down to where I need it to be. I train three times a day for a fight. It’s usually strength and conditioning in the morning, some wrestling or BJJ in the afternoon and then some striking in the evening.”
Dropping down
This fight represents a move from the featherweight division (66kg/145lbs), where he became the Cage Contender champion, to the bantamweight division (61kg/135lbs). It’s something that Owen has been planning for a while.
“I walk around at around 66kg. After my last fight I kind of trained just casually for about a month and ate whatever and I didn’t get much bigger than 67kgs. The last fight against Shannon Guggerty I weighed in at 64kg after eating a banana and having a pint of water about a half an hour before.”
Owen explains the move in weight division further.
“I always planned to move down to bantamweight but the good fights kept coming at feather (weight) so I kept putting it off. I’d been in with bigger lads who cut down a load of weight but I always had the range over them as I’m tall for the weight.
“Shannon Guggerty was huge – taller, heavier and probably had just as much reach as me so that was the first time I’d really come up against it.”
Check out Owen preparing for his last fight with Shannon Guggerty. Video courtesy of SevereMMA
After his last fight Owen felt he’d nothing left to prove at featherweight.
“Beating Guggerty was my biggest win and it was the perfect time to drop to bantam as I’d always felt it would be better to do it after a win,” he said.
“For me to push on I knew I’d have to drop weight class but I can do it now without anyone saying I did it because of a loss or because I couldn’t compete at feather (weight) anymore. I wanted to make the move at the right time for the right reasons.”
All systems go
It seems like all Owen’s planets are in alignment.
“The kids are at the age where they’re sleeping and keeping themselves busy. Kellie has always been 100 per cent behind me. She knows this is my dream and she’s backing me all the way to go as far as I can.
“I’ve a great group of coaches at my club Primal MMA. So the plan now is to start taking the tough fights and getting the wins at bantamweight at Cage Warriors.”
First up for Owen is Reis this weekend. “I’ll be happy to keep the fight standing and use my range but I’ll fight wherever it goes. He’s got an amazing ground game but there are guys in SBGi with great ground games that I train with so I’ll be ready for anything he’ll have.”
Cage Warriors 50 will take place at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow on Saturday night. In contrast to recent events, the stream will be available on MMA Junkie to viewers in the Ireland, which has previously been prevented by the terms of Cage Warriors’ broadcast deal with Sky Sports.
Owen wanted to thank his fiancée, Kellie, for all her support through the years, the Irish Strength Institute, Fanatic Shop, Pitbull Fightwear, Conquer Mental Skills, Urban Physiotherapy and all his coaches and team mates at Primal MMA and SBGi.
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