Ferns man Dwyer wins first MMA fight in Dublin

A well-known Ferns local fought on an MMA card in Dublin…

Ferns native, Johnny Dwyer, would be well-known in Wexford hurling circles, but he switched the hurling pitch for the Octagon this weekend.

Over the last 20 weeks, the Ferns man has been undergoing the ‘Train Alta’ programme, an MMA programme which “works through a staged approach to develop your skills across 20-weeks to have the option to compete in an amateur MMA finale fight night.”

Fighting out of Richie Ivory’s gym in Gorey, Dwyer opted to take on the amatuer fight on Saturday to conclude the Train Alta programme.

On Saturday night, Dywer came up against Dylan O’Dowd of SBG Drogheda as part of the “Alta Fight Night Series Finale”.

Both O’Dowd and Dwyer battled it out in the opening two rounds and were evenly matched. O’Dowd looked to be in control of the fight when on the ground, especially during the closing stages of Round 2. However, Dwyer withstood the ground battle in Round 1 and likewise at the end of Round 2, tiring out his opponent.

Into Round 3, Dwyer threw some excellent left and right hooks, and he sensed that his opponent tiring quite quickly after losing a lot of energy in Round 2. In front of a large Ferns and Wexford crowd who attended the fight at Fairyhouse Raecourse, Dwyer landed some nice shots on the front foot before overpowering his opponent and claiming the mount position.

With Dwyer in the mount position, he stared to throw quick left and right hands without reply from his opponent, forcing the referee to stop the fight in the opening stages of Round 3.

A number of other Wexford men were also fighitng on the night and representing Richie Ivory’s MMA gym in Gorey. They included: Leon Doyle, Brian O’Neill, Luke Kelly, Dominick Totos, Patrick Brazzil, Johnny Flood, Patrick Kearon and Cody O’Connor.