Currently on a five fight winning streak under the Cage Warriors banner, Irish lightweight Paul “Redser” Redmond spoke to PETER CARROLL in the build-up to his New Year’s Eve clash with Mateusz Teodorczuk.
2013 was a fruitful year for Team Ryano and one of the key figures behind the success of the Baldoyle club was undoubtedly Paul Redmond. Competing for the first time for the European flagship MMA promotion, Cage Warriors, in 2012, “Redser” has gone from being a well known regional scrapper with a 3-3 record to becoming one of the most dangerous fighters in the lightweight bracket.
Having already banked two big wins this year, the talented 155er looked back on what he thought was the most important date for himself and the Andy Ryan club.
“2013 has been huge for the club. That night in June in particular was just unbelievable,” acknowledged Redmond. “We went 4-0 on the night and Neil won the title, we’ll never forget it. Since then, I think we’ve all realised how lucky we are to be a part of this team and it gave us a morale boost that we needed to push on.”
Before his fight with Marc Allen on that faithful night in June, the Irish MMA community were adamant that a win would put project the Dubliner into the lightweight title picture, given that the belt had been vacated in April when Conor McGregor made his UFC debut.
The dramatic rolling toe hold finish wowed the crowd in the Helix, but still wasn’t enough to give Redmond a place in the Cage Warriors lightweight tournament that eventually crowned Steven Ray the champion. Despite the wishes of many fans to see Redmond fight for the title, it’s not something that the Ryano man gets carried away with.
“You’re asking the wrong person,” said Redmond when questioned on his desire to fight for the championship. “Unless Andy says so, I won’t be fighting for any title. It’s not like I don’t want to fight for the belt, it’s just not something that I dwell on.
“I just train every day and show up when I have to fight. Look, if it was offered to me and Andy thought I was ready, I’d take it. It’s not like I’m afraid of it I’ll fight anyone in the division, it’s just not in my character to go around calling people out.”
A training partner and close friend of flyweight champion Neil “2 Tap” Seery, Redmond described how he found out that Ulysses Gomez failed to make weight for his fellow Dubliner’s first title defence, which he had travelled to Newcastle for.
“Neil has been there for me from the start and I was always going to travel to Newcastle with him. Yeah, it pissed me off that Gomez did that to him. People don’t understand that he has to take time away from work, his wife and his three kids to do these things. I still live with my Ma and work a day job and it’s tough for me to fight, so I can’t even imagine how difficult it is for him.
“It was strange how I found out because Neil was doing his baths at the time. I think he was on his third stint and Andy came into the room and asked to speak with me and when I left he told me the situation.
“The fact that Gomez had 15 pounds to lose the night before had me thinking though. I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first, but then I remembered I had to cut 14 pounds the night before for a fight once and it nearly killed me.
“It’s just shit when you know how much Neil puts into it. He knocked a guy out in sparring in the build-up to the fight too, we knew he was ready and obviously a win would’ve put him in a good place to get on the UFC card. Honestly, I think he’d knock most of them UFC flyweights out anyway.
“He just never stops, he was back on the Monday helping me get ready for the New Year’s Eve card. When something happens to someone you’re that close to you, it definitely affects you, no doubt about it,” he admitted
With a no shortage of team members in camp at Team Ryano, the Irish lightweight outlined how strength in numbers applies to MMA even though it is essentially an individual sport.
“It’s great having everyone getting ready for fights at the same time putting in the rounds and dieting. I was originally scheduled to fight on the Jordan card the week after Neil fought in Newcastle, Myles Price had already been getting ready for Davern at Battlezone 10 and then for the New Year’s Eve card so we were all at it,” he said.
“We always spar, even when we aren’t fighting, so it didn’t change much in that regard. MMA is a lonely sport so every little helps and having your team mates getting ready with you is definitely a boost when you’re in camp.”
Now with Mateusz Teodorczukin his crosshairs, Redmond revealed that his camp focused a lot on building his striking game and how he has never seen his Polish opponent fighting.
“I haven’t looked at his fights, all I know is his record and he looks fairly solid based on that. I used to watch all my opponents’ fights and try to find out as much as I could about them, but Andy told me to stop because I was winding myself up before there was a punch thrown.
“All I can control is my own preparation. I’m working hard on my stand up with John Donnelly and Joseph Clifford at the moment and I’m sparring judo and jiu jitsu black belts – this guy can’t throw anything at me that I haven’t seen before,” he said confidently.
Despite the new focus on his stand up game, Redmond refused to make a prediction as to how the fight would pan out on New Year’s Eve.
“I don’t really know if I’ve got that knockout power like Neil, but I’ll certainly be trying to show off some more of my stand up. When you’re wearing them little MMA gloves I think it can be fairly easy to catch someone, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
“I don’t really like to make predictions because let’s be honest – I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just know I’ll be tying my best to get another win.”
Redmond finished by outlining his plans to travel to the United States for training in 2014:
“I’ve been planning a trip to the States. I’ve been over to train with ATT before and I’ll either be heading there or to Alliance when I go back. The money is there for the trip and all, so I’ll head over for two or three months and hopefully there’ll be a fight lined up for me when I’m home. This time next year I hope to be one of the top ten lightweights out there.”
By Peter Carroll – @PetesyCarroll
Photo: Dolly Clew | Cage Warriors
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