MMA event review: Rumble in Rush 5

Rush Fight Academy held its fifth installment of Rumble in Rush (26 February) in St. Maurs GAA Club in Rush, Co Dublin. Here's how it went down.

JOE

Rush Fight Academy held its fifth installment of Rumble in Rush (26 February) in St. Maurs GAA Club in Rush, Co Dublin. Here’s how it went down.

Paul Cowzer, head coach at Rush Fight Academy and the brains behind Rumble in Rush was delighted with how the evening panned out and feels the 500-strong crowd would probably agree. He added:

“It was a great night of fights start to finish. I thought all the fighters performed really well. There was something for everyone in each bout. From a technical striking point of view the main event was incredible.

“Dustin West was the aggressor bringing it to John Donnelly for the full 15 minutes. But John controlled the fight with a superb range of counter strikes. For just all out action the Neil Ward versus James Higgins fight was brilliant.”

Rush Fight Academy had four fighters performing in front their home crowd. Darragh Harte, Aaron Skelly and Michael O’Donohue all notched up victories on the night but Cowzer reserved highest praise for Neil Ward.

“I think all our lads did themselves proud,” said Cowzer. “Darragh Harte was up against a big lad and won well. Neil Ward, for me, was our (RFA) fighter of the night with his performance against Higgins. That might sound a bit odd because he lost but he left it all in the ring, he couldn’t have done any more, which you want to see as a fan and a coach.”

Knockout

American Dustin West appeared in the main event against JOE featured fighter John Donnelly of Team Ryano. After the fight was announced all that was known about West was he was coming off a nine second knockout at Strikeforce Challengers in January.

Most fighters on the Strikeforce Challengers card hope to graduate to the Strikeforce proper card. Not West – his focus was fighting in Ireland first. With Irish grandparents, West had held the dream of fighting in Ireland and once the trip was booked he got his manager working on finding a show. Enter Cowzer and Rumble in Rush.

“I got a call out of the blue from Dustin’s manager asking could one of his fighters appear on our show. He basically said that Dustin loves Ireland and has dreamt of fighting here one day. I wanted to put him in against who I think is the best welterweight in Ireland and they both delivered a first class fight,” explained Cowzer.

Cowzer is planning Rumble in Rush 6 for July or August during the summer and left us with some final words of gratitude. “On behalf of the entire Rumble in Rush team we’d like to give a massive thanks to the fighters, the officials and the fans for making our shows such a local success.”

Results: