Welcome home champ!
“This is the second biggest win in Irish MMA history, and she did it for Ireland, she did it for Mullingar, she did it for Roscommon as well, and she did it for Relentless!”
That is how Alan McCormack introduced his wife and world champion Danni McCormack to the crowd who gathered to welcome her home to Relentless Martial Arts and Fitness Centre on the Lynn Road on Sunday evening.
The mood was buoyant among the scores of supporters and club members as they waited Danni’s arrival, and there were huge cheers, and a few tears too, when she got there.
The new world title holder in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was anxious to get inside and escape the drizzle, and as the crowd settled in the upstairs gym, Alan explained just how big a deal her win is.
When her turn on the mic came Danni gave some insight on the big fight and the nine-week lead-up of intensive training. When she first got wind of the possibility of a title shot, she realised it would be on her birthday, and took that as a good omen: “It was in the stars that it was going to work out and I was going to win this fight,” she said.
Two weeks later the venue was confirmed as Denver, which meant weeks of sleeping five nights a week in a high altitude tent, doing 35,000 steps a day to get her weight down, training mornings and evenings at Relentless and at SPG (Straight Blast Gym, with John Kavanagh, who also coaches Conor McGregor) in Dublin five days a week.
“In the evenings, when I wasn’t here in the gym, I was at home running, with the altitude machine as well, so it was a really intense nine weeks.
“Alan took over from John about four weeks before the end, because he had to go to Vegas to coach Conor McGregor, and Alan, for a Muay Thai coach, decided he was now going to be a head grappling, jiu-jitsu and arm wrestling coach (huge laughs from the crowd). He was at the edge of the mat screaming at me, telling me I had to try harder, I had to push harder, push, push, push – that’s all I heard for nine weeks. He gave me no break. I didn’t like it at the time, but I am very thankful for it now.”
Danni said the fight week was special, thanks to the support from the Invicta people (Invicta Fighting Championships [Invicta FC] is a professional mixed martial arts promotion dedicated to women’s mixed martial arts). “They wanted me to become the first Irish fighter to win the Invicta world title, and it was hard not to get distracted by that, but I just kept focused on the game plan.”
Danni told the many kids in her audience, that she, like them, was nervous before the fight, and that as she prepared to get in the cage, she told herself “this next 25 minutes is going to change my life, whether I win or not; it would transform me into a stronger unstoppable Danni and I would be so proud of myself regardless of the result”.
As she went on to describe the fight, and how hard her opponent could hit, she remembered her brother singing Ole Ole Ole, while she was on the ground after taking a hard hit. “I thought to myself, while getting punched in the face on the ground, ‘that’s funny because I thought you only do that when an Irish person’s winning’, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t winning at that moment”.
She wasn’t winning then, but she won the next four rounds and “every time I got back to the corner, John and Alan were like energiser bunnies in front of me, willing me to keep pushing, telling me I was going to be a world champion. I got slapped more times in the corner than I got slapped out in the fight.”
“It was so motivating, I never felt tired, I felt like I was going to win, I felt so focused to get this job done.
“When the fight was over and Shannon (Knapp, of Invicta) put the belt on me, I was in total shock. I had been so dialled in all week, I had totally forgotten about the belt. After the fight I found out I was given a five per cent chance of beating Valesca. I was a massive underdog in the betting, but they obviously don’t know what we’re made of here in Relentless.”
Danni concluded by telling the young members of the Relentless club that they are her “biggest inspiration” and by thanking her sponsors, CB Windows, her brother, Base Computers, thanking everyone who helped with the homecoming party “and a massive thank-you to the man here beside me, for everything, for being beside me every step of the way, through good times and bad times, the moody times, the weight cut, the calorie restriction, all the steps and a few high of 35,000. This is every bit his world title too and I couldn’t do it without you, and I love you.”
O'Briens Centra and Apache Pizza, as well as families of Relentless club members, sponsored the food and refreshments for the homecoming on Sunday evening.