The IFS team are just home from FIGHT IKON 2 in Bolton. This show has doubled in size from the first year we where there with 1000+ spectators.

Fighting out of IFS and representing Ireland we had Joe Frey and Stephen Owens.

Joe was the first man up in the cage infront the capacity crowd, he was up against a very talented fighter from Huyton MMA club called Adam Hodgson who has 18 years karate behind him and is on the Great Britian Karate Team - he is a very capable striker and has been busy working every part of his game from the stand up to the ground work with the Huyton MMA club.
Although Adam put up an excellent challenge the fight was ended at 29 seconds with an inverted armbar from Joe Frey securing the victory.

Next out was Stephen Owens sporting his new look red mohawk and vale tudo bad boy shorts.
Stephens opponent was Dave Ogden from Salford fight factory. This was a good fight with both guys using their skills to good effect. Dave put up a good fight and it wasnt to the second round that Stephen was able to secure the victory by armbar.

Well done to the team for another excellent preformance away from home!

This is an independent review on Clan Wars 3 from one of the UK's top events photographers Sean Keating who has been all over the world capturing many MMA, kickboxing and Boxing events.

Sean Keatings personal thoughts of the Clan Wars 3 event –

“This is getting ridiculous because I just want to blurt those two words out, "great show" around the clock. As a professional fight photographer who has been lucky enough to earn... the coveted blue vest of MGM ringside photographer Las Vegas, one also lucky enough to have rested my elbows on the ring canvas of Madison Square Garden NYC and I’ve lost count of all the truly spectacular title fights I have covered domestically I just have to say......... no scream out "Bloody awesome,you guys rock!

Sorry about that but sometimes the Americans put some thing’s into context so much better. However what the Americans and everybody else has failed to do is leave me absolutely breathless. But you guys sure as hell did. Clan Wars 3 truly rocked everybody present to their core. From magnificent opening, lights, music and commentary....... god if I get started I’ll never stop. I defy anybody to attend a show so well matched, put together and seen through to the cheery farewell bid of the excellent security team at the very end of the night to not, have not, come away and be wishing, hoping, praying, demanding even that IFS N.I. get another Clan Wars on the go as soon as is humanly possible!

Sorry for the manic rant but if this is the measure of how domestic MMA is going then a lot of other fight combat sports should be sat on the pot sh*tting themselves about now.

Great job you guys and remember " Awesome job,you guys rock!"

Sean Keating
Fighterpics/P4P Event Photography.

By Marc Turbitt, Daily Mirror.

Last August I reported on Clan Wars 2 and was overly impressed by the display of MMA I witnessed that night. The next in the series, Clan Wars 3, on the 12th Feb 2010 at the new Sense Nightclub at the Glenavon House Hotel in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, certainly had a lot to live up to.

I knew Clan Wars 3 was going to be an improvement to the last show and speaking to Paul Mc Laughlin and Chris Tweed the Clan Wars promoters I knew they had put in a lot of time and effort into planning. Yet again the Clan Wars team comes up trumps on the professionalism and quality of the show, it’s no wonder they are getting the recognition with many of the top flight UK MMA magazines and have guys from all over Europe looking to get involved with this top event.

I will firstly start on the venue. The Glenavon House Hotel has done a great job on the refurbishment of the old nightclub. They have opened two levels and installed a top of the range sound and lighting system and have fully modernized the club. The new open levels makes the nightclub a perfect venue for MMA event as it has a cauldron effect with spectators looking onto the cage watching the competitors do battle. The venue have also installed a large state of the art LED screen over the dance floor which had a live mix from the four video cameras positioned around the cage operated by the professional P4TV filming crew who where flown in from England to record the show for the airing on LA muscle TV, sky Channel 281 where you will see some of the best MMA events on their Monday and Thursday Fight Night features from 9pm.

The large screen and professional mixing looked fantastic coupled with the fighters walk way which had the walk in arch, lights, smokes machines and flame effect blowers which wouldn’t have looked out of place on any of the bigger shows in the USA, the quality and small details Clan Wars put into their shows is what makes the show so special and its no surprise they have been approached by some of the UK’s top MMA magazines and fighters from all over Europe looking to compete at the show.

As well as the filming crew the Clan Wars promoters invited over the UK ’s leading sports photography team Fighterpics headed by Sean Keating. Sean spends most of his time traveling to shows up and down the country covering the professional photo shoots for some of the UK ’s biggest events. He has also been to America to cover shows in Madison Square Gardens , MGM Arena and many of the UFC shows. He is freshly home from his tour with no other than Mike Tyson to whom he was doing the photography for in November 2009. I got a chance at the show to speak to Sean and ask him what he thought of the show, he replied ‘Marc to be honest I am speechless about the high standard I have witnessed here tonight, I have covered hundreds of MMA, Boxing and Muay Thai events in my time but this is one of the best shows I have ever had the privilege of working on, very few shows leave me gob smacked or lost for words but these guys have put on a hell of a show! From the excellently matched fights to the productions value and to the down to earth attitude of the promoters these guys are going to go far!” This is a huge complement for the Clan Wars team coming from one of the most respected figures in the UK ’s MMA / Muay Thai /Boxing scene!

The fights themselves where fantastic, it was good to see some of the amateurs getting a run out at the start of the night to get the chance to fight in front of a capacity crowd. The headline Amateur fight was for the featherweight ISKA Amateur Irish Title between Joe Fry from the IFS gym in Antrim and Ryan Martin from the IMMA gym in Ballymena run by Rodney Moore. Ryan had done his homework and knew Joe was a fast submission fighter so tied the fight up well, Joe was unable to show his submission skills but put his Judo and wrestling to good use by controlling the fight in a dominant position and racking up the points with striking from side control.

Also invited as special guests to the show was the multiple BJJ World Champion Leo Negao and head instructor of the Urban Krav Maga street defence system and Senior BCA instructor Stewart Mc Gill. Leo and Stewart were called to the cage to present the title belt to Joe Fry with a load eruption of applause and cheering, the fans definitely appreciated the achievements of these two Martial Artists.

The C-class fights seen a step up in action with some excellent battles that went back and forward with excellent displays of well rounded MMA from good striking to great submissions.

After the C-class fights it was the chance for the Pro fighters to step up to the cage and show their skills, the Pro fighters were fighting with full pro rules which includes elbows on the ground. The first fight was the semi-final for the welterweight title between Richard Gorey from Kilkenny Top Pro and Mike Reid from Gracie Barra in Belfast . Richard Gorey was the favorite for this fight and probably the favorite to take the ISKA Pro Welterweight title with a perfect 4-0 record. This fight turned out to be fight of the night with it going back and forward with both striking and grappling, Mike Reid pulled off one of the best armbar reversals seen in a long time and managed to get back to his feet. This was a true battle although in the end Mike was able to capitalize from the mount and finish Gorey with Ground and pound!

The second semi-finals was between Mervyn Muholland from Juku Ryu Ju Jitsu in Larne against Mark Gibson from Elite 400 in Craigavon. This fight had all the markings for another war with the two fighters well up for it. The fight started with a flying knee from Mervyn to which Mark was able to dodge and secure a good takedown. Mark is a well-conditioned fighter and has strong wrestling but Mervyn is a strong grappler with slick submissions and caught Mark In an armbar to secure his place in the welterweight finals.

The final bout of the night seen the rematch between light weight fighters Alan Hannon from Combat Sports Centre Limerick against Darren Hughes from Sudden Impact in Magherafelt, this was a rematch for these two lads after a previous war a few years ago so both fighters were hungry for the win. This fight lived up to expectations also with it going back and forward with some awesome striking and ground skills, both guys were battered and bruised by the end of the contest. Darren Hughes hailed victor with a unanimous decision.

I mentioned before in the Clan Wars 2 report about the professionalism and high quality of the shows and asked Paul Mc Laughlin about this to which he replied “ We want to provide a professionally run event to promote Irish and UK MMA. We wanted to take it a step further and offer the highest standards in safety and quality, which we found through the ISKA. The ISKA have been doing Martial Arts events for decades and are world recognized. They have extremely tight health and safety regulations put in place for the safety of the fighters and for the quality of their shows – this is the major factor that made us want to work along with the ISKA and the partnership has been working fantastic!’

The Clan Wars MMA event seems to have fantastic momentum and drive to keep improving and each event just keeps getting bigger and better. I’m looking forward to Clan Wars 4 already– something tells me its going to be the best so far!!

FIGHT 1
PAURIC HENRY (OAKLEAF JJ) V JON MORRISON (IFS.NI)
NO CONTEST
ACCIDENTAL GROIN STRIKE BY MORRISON 24 SECS ROUND 2


FIGHT 2
SAM BURKE (SALFORD FF) V JOSH CHESNEY (ELITE MA)
SAM BURKE WINNER, UNANIMOUS DECISION


FIGHT 3
CIARAN MC FADDEN (OAKLEAF JJ) V GEORGE CLARKE (IFS.NI)
GEORGE CLARKE WINNER UNANIMOUS DECISION


FIGHT 4
KARTHIK NARGARAJ (SALFORD FF) V LOIS MCGRIBBEN (ELITE MA)
WINNER NARHIK NARGARAJ SPLIT DECISION


FIGHT 5
RYAN MARTIN (IMMA) V JOE FREY (IFS.NI)
WINNER JOE FREY UNANIMOUS DECISION


FIGHT 6
ANDY GREEN (SALFORD FF) V ANTHONY MCGRATH (PHK)
WINNER ANDY GREEN 1.05 R1 ARMBAR

FIGHT 7
ADAM KEMP (FRAMES TIA JUTSU) V BOGUSZ POCHYLSKI (HURASIA FIGHT TEAM)
WINNER POCHYLSKI KEY LOCK 49 SECS R2


FIGHT 8
DAVE SLOAN (SALFORD FF) V CARL BRUINS (ELITE MA)
DAVE SLOAN WINNER UNANIMOUS DECISION

FIGHT 9
DECKY MCCORMACK (IMMA) V JOE BAKER (KYOUJIN MMA)
WINNER MCCORMACK 2,13 R1 TRIANGLE CHOKE


FIGHT 10
ANDY YOUNG (FRAMES TIA JUTSU) V YANNICK MCGEE (ELITE MA)
WINNER MCGEE GUILLITINE CHOKE R1 3.49


FIGHT 11
RICHARD GOREY (KILKENNY TOP PRO) V MIKE REID (GRACIE BARRA)
WINNER REID GROUND AND POUND 1.45 R2


FIGHT 12
MERV MUHOLLAND (JUKU RYU JJ) V MARK GIBSON (ELITE 400)
WINNER MUHOLLAND ARMBAR R1 1,00


FIGHT 13
DARREN HUGHES (SUDDEN IMPACT) V ALAN HANNON (COMBAT SPORTS CENTRE)
WINNER HUGHES UNANIMOUS DECISION

Richie Gorey (4-0) from Killkenny Top Pro has stepped up to replace John Donnelly in the ISKA MMA semi-finals. Richie is an excellent striker and has a solid all round game, he also has a perfect record of 4-0.This will make for a very exciting fight indeed against the 'Portglenone Hammer',Mike Reid! Expect a war for this one ladies and gentleman!

Also new to the fight card we have Joe Baker fighting out of Kyoujin MMA Belfast and Decky Mc Cormick from IMMA Ballymena. Both fighters are coming from very well established clubs and are ready for battle!

Last but certainly not least the application for the Joe Frey v Ryan Martin fight to begin the ISKA MMA Amatuer Title series was granted by the ISKA. Joe is a member of the IFS.NI fight team in Antrim and has a 2-0 record, Ryan fights out of IMMA,Ballymena and is 1-0. This will be a great fight and oppertunity for these two young talented featherweights to shine and progress!

Clan Wars are proud to announce that one of the UK's top sports event photography team are flying in especially to Clan Wars 3!!

P4P Event Photography are at the forefront of all UK's big MMA,Kickboxing and Boxing shows. They are fresh home touring with no other than Mike Tyson!

They will be bringing their state of the art equipment to Clan Wars 3 to offer a unique onsite prinitng system. P4P are able to supply fans the best action shots right there on the night of their favorite fighters,favorite submissions,slams and strikes!

You will be able to pick though an assortment of different professional action shots of each fight,oick the ones you like from the onsite computer and get your photo printed out and in a photography frame for just £5 per photo!

We urge all fans to take advantage of this amazing offer from one of the UK's top photography team and get professional action shots for a fraction of what you would normally pay for similar professional photos!

Due to the tickets being sold out we have got a limited number done.

For those not looking to leave getting in to chance by paying at the door please e-mail us ASAP through the contact section on this website.

There is still pay on the door although ticket holders will be let in first,

Thanks

IFS.NI

CLAN WARS 3 Tribal Gathering - 12th Feb Sense Night club, Glenavon Hotel

CLAN WARS 4 International IRELAND V ENGLAND - 18th April -
Conference Centre,Armagh City Hotel

CLAN WARS 5 Rise of the Champion - TBC

CLAN WARS 6 - TBC for the end of the year

Clan Wars 3 will have stalls from completegymsnutrition selling all your favorite sports supplement!

There will also be an IFS clothing stall selling club hoodies, t-shirts and gear from Dark Angel fightwear (Afflicition style) and Caged Steel Rash Guards and MMA shorts for example.

There will also be the hot food outlet which always gets a big gathering! lol

Clan Wars will now be filmed by a professional production crew and Pro fights aired on primetime sky television as well as P4TV which is the pay per view netwrok site that holds shows such as OMMAC,Cage Conflict, Burnley Brawl and Fight Ikon to name a few.

The show will hopefull be going out 3 weeks after the event!

All sponsors welcomed!

With the hype mounting for the Irish ISKA Clan Wars events and with 2 fully loaded fight cards for Clan Wars 3 & 4 the promoters have stepped upthe quality again and a struck a deal with www.p4tv.com who are a professional production company who film all the big UK shows such as Cage Conflict, Fight Ikon, Cage Gladiators to name a few.

This will mean maximum exposure for Irish fighters as all fights are hosted on the p4tv website along with the big English shows.

The professional package will include:

• 2 professional camera angles worked by experienced cameramen with professional live mixing by the technician with added in Graphics onto projectors and television screens.
• Full professional lighting rig.
• Live commentary for the filming of the bouts just like Joe Rogan and Goldie!
• Exposure of fighters on the UK’s number one Martial Arts recording website
• Full professional DVDs with the commentary.

Clan Wars Promotions are also in talks with one of the UK’s top sports photographers who shoots at all the major events; he is involved with the photography of Mike Tyson on his UK tour.

He operates a unique system where he has professional printing equipment live on site where you are able to purchase the high quality professional fight shoots right there and then you can simply pick through the professional pictures that were taken and pick which ones you would like printed. It’s a fantastic idea and the quality of the action shots are fantastic and extremely professional, we got a load of them when we were at fight Ikon. It’s a great way to get pictures for your family, friends, your gym or just to have. They are very reasonably priced also at £5!

Reported by Marc Turbitt, Irish Daily Mirror.

In recent years mixed martial arts has taken root in Ireland , with clubs popping up all over the country making it easily accessible for newcomers to take up the discipline.

With so much interest and promising talent in the country it was only a matter of time before a fully sanctioned official event was organized to pit these fighters against each other under a world recognized governing body of the highly respected ISKA, the event being Clan Wars.

Clan Wars took place on Saturday August 8th 2009 at the Glenavon House Hotel, Cookstown, when Ireland seen its first fully sanctioned MMA event under the quality governance of the world’s most prestigious martial arts body the ISKA. Getting the ISKA on board was a priority for the organizers who want to promote Clan Wars as a professional, safely governed event and shake off any previous MMA stereotypes that were tagged by people who did not fully understand the safety and quality measures that are taken or the training and effort put in by the fighters or coaches.

It has been stated by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in a published report of over 1270 fights exposures in the period March 2002 to September 2007 that “Injury rates in regulated professional Mixed Martial Arts competition are similar to other combat sports; overall risk of critical sports related injury appear low” The emphasis must therefore remain on the word regulated.. At all times control and supervision in accordance with the rules must be adhered to in order to maintain this fact.

Clan Wars aim is to help build MMA's future in Ireland to show-case Irish talent and also to ensure quality events that will show that Ireland is catching up quickly with the rest of the world with shows that everyone can enjoy.

I spoke to Paul Mc Laughlin (One of Clan Wars Promoters and IFS.NI coaches)

"MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and with help from a quality sanctioning body such as the ISKA will only help promote the sport in a positive light, provide high quality shows with the tightest regulations and strict medical health and safety policies. We have 3 doctors at cage-side along with 5 paramedics who are fully equipped with the latest medical equipment ensuring an extremely safe event for all the participants. One thing we HAVE to ensure is that the safety of participants is paramount and this aspect is our number one priority.”

This aspect of the event was exceedingly well planned with full coverage of risk assessments, Health and Safety Policies, Insurance cover and Pre/Post fights health checks. It showed an extremely high safety benchmark.

For a newly staged show I was impressed with the professionalism and attention to detail that the organizers had shown. From the strobe lighting effects, to seductive ring-girls, to the bellowing walk-in music the tone of the night was set as in-your-face sports entertainment at its best and it certainly carried it out. But glitz and glamour aside, this night would have been meaningless without the fighters.

With nine local clubs showcasing their best talent at Clan Wars it was exciting to see promising, well-trained professional athletes get in the cage and put everything they had learned in the long gruelling months and years spent in training into action.

With 14 fights in total over the course of the night ranging from D class to C class, the variety of different disciplines was a credit to Irish martial arts. The fights themselves where very well matched as a lot of them went to the judges’ decision, which is rare for MMA events of this size.

The fight of the night was the battle between James Gallagher from Revolution BJJ at Queens Uni and Andy Young from Frames Tia Jutsu. This was a classic striker versus grappler fight which was a war to the end with both fighters giving it their all. The fight went to the judges and James Gallagher was declared the victor. This would be an excellent rematch to see from what promises to be two great prospects for Irish MMA.

Submission of the night went to Joe Fry from Israeli Fighting Systems Northern Ireland with a lightning fast takedown and arm bar in 8 seconds against another of Irelands great up and coming fighters Andrew Falconer representing Juku Ryu Ju Jitsu in Larne. Well done to Joe for an impressive display of speed and technique. The crowd was obviously impressed as they erupted with massive applause and cheers for young Joe.

I have been to similar boxing and martial arts events in the past and I must say the quality of Clan Wars 2 totally went beyond any of my expectations regarding professionalism, quality, entertainment and regards for the safety of its competitors. It was excellently run and will definitely promote MMA in a more positive light in Ireland.

I can not wait for Clan Wars 3 in Feb 2010 which will be held at a much larger event I am told and see the first fully sanctioned Pro fights with fighters competing from all over Ireland and England; hype for this has already begun with a large crowd expected from all over Ireland after the success of Clan Wars 2.

Well done to Clan Wars Promotions and IFS.NI.

There you have it folks after months of planning and preparation Clan Wars 2 is over like a blink of an eye!

This was our first proper show and it went very well, the feed back has been fantastic.

I want to extend my thanks again to all who were involved from the guys on the judging panel - Peter Lavery,Marty Walker,Ralph Duff, the time keeper Tim McCrory, the cage girls, Paramedics,Doctors, Ashley McClean,Emmet Mc Nally for his MC'ing and of course the ref Aiden Marron for doing another great job!

Also to all the teams that competed, some great talent out there especially for novice fighters,well done guys.

A big thanks to the crowd for coming along and supporting the fighters and the event.

Last but not least the IFS members and fighters -

The fighters - these guys started training to build a small IFS fight team about 8-9 months ago with no prior MMA experience and for us to have guys step into the cage at their first main event was a great day for the club. Everyone fought very well and some of the fights were excellent,

Stephen Owens performance against a very capable Kilian Kearney was a great fight that went back and forwards for the 2 rounds showing Stephen has great potential and has come on leaps and bounds. He had a good few armbar attempts that he nearly sunk in from guard although Kilian defended well and took the win by split decision.

Paul Lavery Fight was good too, we thought paul had it when he had Chris's hands trapped laying a volley off clean shots to chris's face, but hats off to Chris he soldiered through it and came back with a nice over hand right which caught paul square and rocked him allowing Chris to Finish with a TKO.

Jasons fight - Jason got a good clean takedown but was tied up well by Adam to get the ground fight nulled to get the fight standing. Similar to Paul Jason was caught with a right hand which rocked him although Jason powered on through to the 2nd takedown, but after been rocked was unfortunately caught in a tight guillotine. Jason is an excellent fighter and will no doubt pick himself back up and keep progressing!

Lastly Joe Fry, Well i think this was the submission of the night - Joe stuck to the game plan perfectly and took home the win with one of the fastest armbars i have seen. Andrew Falconer his opponent is also a great up and coming fighter from a fantastic team and we hope to see Andrew again soon.

That was just the IFS fights - A full result card will be announced in a few days - very well done to all!

Last but certainly not least - a massive thank you to all the IFS members who have worked extremely hard over the last few months helping to get things organised, helping with the cage etc. You all worked as a team last night and without you guys this event wouldn't have been possible!! So from myself and Chris a very big thank you!