Sinead 'KO' Kavanagh: 'MMA is like life — technique will get you through it'

MMA legend Sinead ‘KO’ Kavanagh speaks about the community that built her up to be a champion

Sinéad 'KO' Kavanagh: "When you win, when that hand comes up. There’s nothing like it. Money can’t buy that feeling." Pic: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland.

It was February of last year when 37-year-old mixed martial artist (MMA) Sinead “KO” Kavanagh, a highly acclaimed featherweight, currently ranked number four in the world, felt her left knee go numb mid-fight. 

As it happens, she was in the midst of battle with Leah “The Curse” McCourt, a famed rival, when she slipped, causing her body to collapse backwards, and her knee to take the fall. 

This wasn’t the first time Kavanagh had screamed in pain in the ring — in a 2021 fight against Cris Cyborg, the only MMA fighter in history, male or female, to become a Grand Slam Champion, she had her eye socket broken — but this felt different.

“I said to my coach, ‘John [Kavanagh, Conor McGregor’s coach, too] my knee is gone, it’s killing me’.

“He said, ‘you have two, keep going!’ I was waiting for that,” she laughs today, at physical peak. “There’s no quit.”

With one leg, a shredded ACL, and a coach pushing for more, Kavanagh pushed to fight for another five minutes, eventually winning the round.

“I was out for ten months after that,” she says. “But when you win, when that hand comes up. There’s nothing like it. Money can’t buy that feeling.”

Today, Kavanagh sits beside me in the gym that’s given her everything, John Kavanagh’s Straight Blast Gym (SBG, for regulars).

Less a gym and more a place of worship, SBG draws together a supportive community — a love affair for the game and those who dare to play it.

“It’s absolutely beautiful [here],” she smiles, tears forming in her eyes. “Such a gorgeous community. And the people here are some of the most dangerous you’ll ever meet! But they’ve nothing to prove here so they’re so respectful. They’d be all rooting for you. Like, before MMA I did boxing, kickboxing, and karate for years. But I found a home as soon as I walked in here ten years ago. It was one of the best decisions of my life.”

Sinéad 'KO' Kavanagh, standing in the Straight Blast Gym: "Here, it’s like a family. We’re always cheering each other on." Pic: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland.

"LIKE A FAMILY"

In person, she is gentle, generous, and painfully modest — often immediately deflecting attention away from herself and cringing between photos. Her laugh is bold and loud and uses her whole face.

She waves to everyone who walks through the doors and laughs as their words express support. When she thanks you for your time, she really means it. 

A few minutes in, she walks me into the cage to show me some moves she, and fellow fighters McCourt, Denise Kielholtz, and Royce Gracie, will teach women in a month’s time in a women’s self-defence class set up by Bellator, the second largest in the US and one of the largest combat sports promotions in the world. 

It’s a class that’s run annually, this time with Kavanagh at the helm.

“Bellator come here twice a year and sell out the 3Arena,” she says. 

“So because of all that support, they want to give back to the community. They do these seminars to help women feel safe.”

In the sport once known as cage fighting and now as MMA, Kavanagh has become a dominant personality, despite the fact that not long ago, UFC President Dana White promised never to promote a fight between women. 

Kavanagh is a former boxing champion who pivoted to MMA when the politics of her former sport proved too devastating and deliberate.

“There was a lot of corruption,” she says, twisting and snapping glove tape between her fingers. “Kellie Harrington wrote about it in her book. Everyone’s against each other, no one wants to see you do well. Whereas here, it’s like a family. We’re always cheering each other on.”

In one month’s time Kavanagh, along with the three athletes listed, will hold free women’s self-defence seminars in SBG to aid those who may have never stepped foot in a gym to find their seat at the table.

Reporter Kate Demolder is put through her paces by Sinéad 'KO' Kavanagh. Pic: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland.

"WORK FOR YOUR RESPECT"

“Women have to prove themselves more, without a shadow of a doubt,” she says. 

“They’re not taken seriously enough. You kind of have to prove a point that you are serious and you are good. I suppose that’s the same in life as well. You have to work for your respect and then you get it, and that’s what I want to show the women in the seminar, too.”

Originally held in regard as a no-holds-barred blood sport, MMA has evolved into a potent chess match between two well-conditioned athletes, using a blend of striking and grappling techniques to checkmate their opponent into either knockout or total
submission.

Today, Kavanagh is part of an emboldened MMA scene in Ireland, the result not only of the successes and pitfalls of the scene’s most famous son Conor McGregor (a wall in SBG is dedicated solely to him) but a long appreciation for striking sports such as boxing and Muay Thai on the island. 

The sport combines various combat sports and Olympic disciplines — including boxing, judo, jiu-jitsu and wrestling — with the objective of securing a win over your opponent in any of three ways: total knockout (TKO) or knockout (KO), submission or a judges’ decision.

Bouts are three, five-minute rounds, with championship and main event bouts lasting five, five-minute rounds. As soon as the referee deems that one fighter has won the contest — regardless of which round it is in — the bout is ended. 

“It’s technique that’s gonna win you the fight,” she smiles. “It’s like life, you can’t just blag your way through.”

McCourt, Kavanagh and Macfarlane have been at the forefront of women’s MMA in recent years, leaving a lasting mark both inside and outside the cage and proving the sport is, indeed, for girls, too.

In a sign of their status as women’s MMA royalty, the trio are all placed inside the top 10 of Bellator’s women’s pound-for-pound rankings; Kavanagh is regarded as one of the top female fighters in the world and is currently on the back of two successive unanimous decision victories; McCourt made history in 2020 by featuring in the first women’s bout to headline a European Bellator card when she beat Judith Ruis in Dublin; and Macfarlane has defended her flyweight champion title four times during one of the longest championship reigns in the promotion’s history.

Joining the three for the seminars, too, is MMA Hall of Famer, Royce Gracie, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of mixed martial arts. 

The seminar is designed to showcase MMA as an inclusive sport for people of all genders and backgrounds.

It speaks to the draw of MMA itself; how one might drag themself up from their bootstraps and become a champion through hard work, grit and sacrifice. 

Reporter Kate Demolder, Sinéad 'KO' Kavanagh, and coach/training partner Jaqueline Almeida. Pic: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland.

"IT'S A FEELING YOU GET NOWHERE ELSE"

Such is Kavanagh’s own story; a mother at 17 (she was induced the week before her Leaving Certificate, which she completed in full just days later) she has suffered through homelessness, been surrounded by addiction, and witnessed death far too young, and at a frequent rate (the father of Kavanagh’s son, Leon, passed away of natural causes shortly after he was born). In many ways, fighting has come naturally to Kavanagh.

She embodies a warrior’s spirit — something that is inked in fight-based tattoos across her shins, ribs and back — in the way she moves, breathes, battles.

“My success today kind of feels like just desserts,” she says, her eyes meeting mine. Here, I notice each of her fingernails are bitten down to the bone. “Even like, being a main event in the 3Arena.

“Them things will live with me forever, and beyond me. And doing the fighting on one leg— these are the reasons I have respect in here, and I’m glad for them. And to be honest… I don’t think a man would ever do something like that.”

Team sports fans are accustomed to murky waters, as athletes, teams and even championships fluctuate game by game, season by season. But combat sports, with their small sample sizes and non-metaphorical displays of dominance and compliance, provide an illusion of clarity. Two athletes enter, and one leaves victorious.

“Getting in the arena and showcasing your skills, it’s a feeling you get nowhere else,” she says. “I thrive on that adrenaline like nothing else. Obviously, there has to be one winner and one loser, and you’re heartbroken if it happens.

“It’s funny, I’m not an adrenaline junkie anywhere else, but in that cage… it’s magic. Sport isn’t for everyone and, like, I tried gymnastics before and it wasn’t for me. But it’s important to get out there and meet people and try new things. For anyone who has never felt like they could do it, all I say is just try it. You might surprise yourself… and there’s no harm in that.”

• The four free self-defence and empowerment sessions will take place on September 1 and 2 at FLYEfit’s Macken Street and Georges Street locations in Dublin. To register, visit fm104.ie/bellator.