SBG fighters have a tendency to strike while the iron’s hot.
The sweat probably hasn’t even dried yet on Blaine O’Driscoll’s shiny new belt but already, the Straight Blast Gym Ireland standout is planning his next outing.
Last weekend, O’Driscoll travelled to enemy territory to fight Ukraine’s Teimur Rahimov in Kiev in the main event of World Warriors Fighting Championship 14.
The WWFC flyweight title was on the line but from the moment that the fight was made, O’Driscoll was in no doubt about the outcome of the contest, which ended via third-round rear naked choke after a dominant performance from the Irishman.
“The WWFC got in touch with John Kavanagh and were looking for me,” O’Driscoll said.
“They were looking for someone to come over and fight for the belt. I looked at your man’s videos and thought that I’m better than him everywhere. Maybe they wanted me to go over and sell the fight as their champion against Conor’s friend.
https://twitter.com/JBNeverDies/status/1101959647580299264
“The whole build-up was almost creepy because there were more people cheering for me at the weigh-ins than him.
“Then fight night came around and there was around 9,500 people in the arena. The fans there are really mad about sport and combat sports in particular. There was no booing or messing. Nobody was debating any decisions or anything like that. It was completely respectful and even after I won, I spent about an hour in the cage getting pictures with people. These people couldn’t speak a word of English but they wanted to take pictures with the new champion.
“It was an amazing experience. Not many people get to go to Ukraine and fight in the main event.”
Despite O’Driscoll’s links to McGregor and the proximity between Ukraine and Russia, the homeland of McGregor’s perennial rival Khabib Nurmagomedov, there was no animosity towards the travelling SBG 125lber in Kiev.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuoORcPAGQ4/
O’Driscoll, who works part time as a support engineer, does not intend to wait around until the next WWFC show to defend his hard-earned title and has made his availability known to Bellator, the promotion which has made significant inroads in Europe in recent years.
The 27-year-old has also identified an opponent should Bellator come calling because he feels like there is still a score to settle with Nathan Greyson, the former Cage Warriors flyweight world champion who refused to make weight for his scheduled title fight with O’Driscoll last November.
“The thing in Ukraine was just a one-fight deal. They don’t have another show until December so that’s why I want to get that Bellator shot,” O’Driscoll explained.
“Greyson lost at bantamweight in his Bellator debut and he’ll more than likely want to drop back down. I know that Bellator are coming back to Dublin in September but I’m more than happy fighting Greyson in London in June because that’s when I heard he wants to get back in there.”
O’Driscoll was paid in full by Cage Warriors following the Greyson fiasco, which came about due to the rumours that the UFC was set to disband its 125lbs division.
I’ve cleared the FULL contracted purse to be paid to @BlaineSbg for his #cw99 bout & we will fly him into the event with hotel paid for should he want to come. We’l do what we can to help Blaine out with another bout. 🙏🏼@SBG_Ireland @John_Kavanagh #irishmma #mma
— Graham Boylan 🇮🇪 ☘️ (@GrahamBoylan) November 15, 2018
Greyson just abandoned his weight cut on a couple of days’ notice and O’Driscoll now wants to make him pay for what he believes was a blatant show of disrespect to the fans, the sport and himself.
“Missing out on the opportunity to fight Greyson was devastating. The hard part of fighting is the build-up, all the dieting and hard sparring. I’d gone through all that,” O’Driscoll said.
“Two days before, he pulled out and he was moaning over the money but we knew the contract months before so he had no right to moan about it. If he wasn’t happy with the money then he shouldn’t have signed the contract.
“The money wasn’t the point to me even though I got paid my full purse. The whole thing is that you feel great after a fight. I don’t mind sitting home and doing nothing after getting all my adrenaline out in the cage but after Greyson pulled out, I felt like I had to go train again and that led to weeks and weeks of feeling crap.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BulEGgQgMsF/
The flyweight division is one that hasn’t exactly been nurtured by Bellator but O’Driscoll, who can’t wait to hang his WWFC belt in SBG’s new facility, believes that it’s only a matter of time before he proves his superstar potential and breathes fresh life into a floundering division.
He said: “I’m happy to fight anyone at all. I fully believe that I’m ready to take on the best people in the world. The last fight was a big step-up because he’d beaten some really legit guys and was 7-1 going into last weekend.
“I’ll take anyone who Bellator has to offer but I want Nathan Greyson. I feel like he doesn’t respect the sport and he doesn’t even deserve to be fighting for Bellator.
“I think that they’re starting to take interest in the flyweight division and a fight between me and Greyson will definitely get some eyeballs on it. People say that there are no finishers in our division but I have five finishes and Greyson has six.
“I was disappointed when that rumour went around about the UFC pulling their flyweight division but maybe they were just spreading that to create some hype in it. I don’t see why people aren’t as interested in the smaller guys and girls because fighters are really skilled in our weight class.
“All it needs is someone who will make a bit of drama and once we get that, everybody will move on to hating another division.”
