Cork fighter Kerry Ann Vernon says women in MMA 'come together with force, love and support'

Cork fighter Kerry Ann Vernon discovered MMA through an LGBT group and is now the Irish bantamweight champion

Kerry Ann Vernon: one of a new wave of Irish fighting females. Picture: Mark McDermott

When 45-year-old Dublin woman Joanne Morris underwent cervical spine surgery in 2017, she was distraught by the news that she would never be able to exercise again.

“I was told with my injury, I'd probably never go to the gym or anything else again,” says the mother-of-three who was a regular gym-goer, “and I was in a bad place mentally because of my health. I just saw myself in a total rut and I didn't know how to get myself out of it.”