This week’s IMMAA featured fighter is former Team Ireland representative and Bronze medalist at the IMMAF MMA World Championships turned professional Mixed Martial Artist Dee Begley of SBGI under Head Coach and IMMAA President John Kavanagh.
Describing how her interests in martial arts began and grew from a young age Dee recalled “I started kickboxing when I was 7, but I was always big into sports. When I was four I started doing cross country running and I played a whole host of sports like gaelic football, tag rugby, camogie, basketball and a load of other sports. I completely fell in love with kickboxing and I kind of fell away from the other sports. I began competing internationally in kickboxing and competed in my first kickboxing world championships in 2010. I’ve been on the Irish international team every year since. When I went to college I dabbled a little bit in boxing, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it in the same way that I loved kickboxing. Arann Maguire, who I met at the college boxing club, ran his own MMA gym and for three years in a row he invited me to train there but I kept saying no because I thought it would be too vicious for me. Eventually I gave in and decided to give it a try. At the time it was predominantly a jiu jitsu club, and because Arann came from a wrestling background he ran the MMA side of the gym. It was great for me to join because, coming from a striking background into a grappling focused gym I was able to get a really good wrestling and jiu jitsu foundation from there which really complimented my striking. After training there for about 12-18 months and having competed in two amateur fights I started to see a lot of Irish fighters, including my coach Arann doing really well in the professional ranks. It was something I then began to aspire to. It was never something I had considered in kickboxing because the platform wasn’t really there as far as I was aware at the time. It was always a dream of mine to make a career from martial arts and when I began competing in MMA I started to realise that it could become a reality.”
Explaining the next step in the progression of her MMA career Dee stated “I had previously fought my current teammate Danni Neilan at a novice competition at SBG Cork and we were scheduled to fight again at amateur level on Cage Legacy in February of 2017 but Danni got injured and had to pull out of the fight. She messaged me to apologise for having to cancel the fight and she was so nice about it that when I started thinking about moving to Dublin I messaged her to ask if there were many women training at SBG and if she thought John might allow me to train there. She replied to say that I should message John to ask him, but that he was crazy busy over in America preparing for Conor’s fight against Mayweather at the time. In fairness to John he got back to me straight away to say come up to join the gym and we’ll sort everything out when he got back. I suppose SBG came into mind because I was supposed to fight Danni and because I had seen photos of her training with plenty of other women up there too. But most of all it was because I considered it to be the best MMA gym in the world, having produced the likes of Conor and all of the other professional fighters who came from there. In my opinion John is the best MMA coach in the world so when I had this amazing gym almost on my doorstep I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to train there.”
Dee represented Ireland at the 2017 and 2018 IMMAF MMA World championships. Describing her experiences of the tournament she claimed “I qualified for the World Championships for both Kickboxing and MMA in 2017 and the two tournaments ended up being held only one week apart. I won a bronze medal for Ireland in the kickboxing World championships after three fights in Budapest and flew straight out to Bahrain to compete at the IMMAFs. I was competing at flyweight, which was the lightest I had ever fought at and the weight cut didn’t go well for me, mostly because it was a bad decision on my part to choose to compete at the lighter weight. My first fight of the tournament was against a really tough Brazilian fighter. I didn’t perform to the best of my abilities and lost int he first round. When I came back to the IMMAFs in 2018 I had gained much more experience competing in MMA. I had fought a few times in both Ireland and the UK, and had fought in the UK only two weeks before the tournament. This time I made the decision to register for bantamweight, and that was the best decision I could have made. I felt so fresh, healthy and strong throughout the competition not having to cut weight every morning and being able to eat good amounts of food. In the preliminary fight I fought the previous featherweight champion. In the second round she actually threw a punch that fractured my orbital, but we didn’t find out about it until after the competition. After that shot I went after her in full force and won the fight via TKO. My second fight was against a girl from Finland, I took her down a few times during the fight and managed to stay on top but my jiu jitsu wasn’t good enough at the time to be able to progress so the ref stood us back up on a few occasions but I did enough to win the fight by decision and get through to the semi- finals where I fought an American Woman. The first round was a cracker where we both got some really nice shots in. I felt like I was quicker on my feet but she was a heavy hitter who had knocked out all of her previous opponents in the first round so once we got onto the second round I was catching her with more shots and felt really confident. I made a mistake in bouncing back with my chin up as she caught me with a heavy shot and the ref stepped in to stop it as I tried to stand back up. Even though I was gutted by the loss I learned a lot, felt that I put on some dominant performances and took a lot of positives from the whole experience.”
Describing her feelings about representing Ireland internationally Dee revealed “I had represented Ireland in boxing and kickboxing previously and I was always extremely proud to fly the Irish flag wherever I went so doing it for MMA really cemented my belief that I could genuinely make a career in the professional ranks. It brings me a huge sense of pride and is definitely a highlight of my whole life, not just my career. Especially when you consider the amazing world class fighters that our small country has produced and what our former IMMAF fighters such Sinead Kavanagh and James Galagher have gone on to achieve. IMMAF is really turning out to be the best platform to test yourself at before turning professional.”
Identifying the highlight of her MMA journey to date Dee claimed “Looking back on everything I think the highlight would have been winning my bronze medal at the IMMAF’s. In a way it was a huge high in the way that I was competing at the highest level of amateur MMA in the world and I had proved to myself that I was capable of holding my own against the best amateur fighters in the world. Even though I lost the semi-final I knew that I was capable of beating her and having tested my abilities against these high level fighters I then knew it was time to start thinking about progressing to the professional ranks. Another nice memory thats stands out to me was my second ever jiu jitsu tournament. I was only a white belt at the time, but I had to move up to the blue belt category to get a match. I ended up winning the blue belt division and coming third in the absolutes. I said to John after that now that I had won the blue belt category I should probably get my blue belt, but he still made me go through the grading process anyway.”
When asked about whether she has experienced any gender equality issues as a woman competing in MMA Dee answered “No, not at all. If anything it’s the opposite. In my experience anyway I feel that women are almost more celebrated in MMA. While I’m sure there is the odd keyboard warrior online who will claim that women don’t belong in the sport, in my own personal experience there has been a lot of excitement surrounding female fights. Even my upcoming fight on Clan Wars will be the first professional female fight of the promotion so it’s been getting plenty of publicity, which is nice to be a part of. When I first started training in MMA I had only heard of the very big names like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey and it was so inspiring to come into a sport where a huge female star like Ronda Rousey was main eventing huge sold out shows and became a household name worldwide.”
Speaking of the obstacles she has faced along the way Dee revealed “I had a very love/hate relationship with jiu jitsu at the start. I found the introduction to the sport very hard. I turned into an anti jiu jitsu grappler and would do anything in my power to disengage once I had taken someone down to the ground but as I began to progress I started to see the beauty of jiu jitsu and appreciate it as an artform. Other than that I had a very difficult time coping with losing my professional debut. I think a lot of fighters dream of building an undefeated record and the possibility of that went out the window when I lost my first pro fight. I took it very hard and it was very upsetting. I was annoyed with myself and obsessing over all of the things I could have done differently. Then when John and I sat down to watch the fight back, he had a lot of positive feedback on it and explained to me that there were no major holes missing and it was all minor adjustments that needed to be made. That boosted my confidence a good bit but it was definitely a difficult situation to deal with at the time.”
Expressing her gratitude for the people who have helped and guided her along the way Dee revealed “Katie Saull has been an invaluable training partner and close friend. She’s been so supportive and always let’s me bounce ideas off her. Even though Danni Neilan and I started out as opponents we’re great buds and training partners now and she’s put a lot of work into helping me prepare for my upcoming fight on Clan Wars. John has been so welcoming ever since I joined SBG, he’s given me unbelievable advice and direction and is always there to deal with any problems or answer any questions I have. Dave Roche is an absolute bubble of energy around the gym and is amazingly supportive of my career. John Mackey, who was my coach on the national kickboxing team has been my performance and fitness coach helping me with my cardio and strength and conditioning, so it’s been great to have him be a part of my MMA journey also. I’d also like to give a big shoutout to my sponsors who have been a big part of my journey, Tristan Kennedy does all of my nutrition and was one of the biggest factors in the improvements in my performances at the 2018 IMMAFs. His meal plans have kept me healthy and full of energy over the past few years and leading up to my fights. Gym+Coffee really helped me out at the 2018 IMMAFs and have continuously supported me for three years now. Exceed Fitness in Cork have been on board since the start of my MMA career. ROS nutrition has recently come on board and supplies me with all of my supplements. Paul in Chiropractix always sorts me out after any knocks I’ve taken in training and keeps me healthy.”
Listing the ways that MMA has impacted and benefitted her life Dee stated “It has given me a lot of confidence, that I didn’t have before. I’m never the loudest person in any room, I’m a very reserved person but it’s given me the confidence to be who I am without worrying what others think of me. It has translated across to every part of my life, and has given me great belief in myself and my abilities.”
Explaining how the lockdowns have affected her training routine Dee revealed “I found the first lockdown very tough. I was at my family home in West Cork where the only training I could do was home workouts and running which I found difficult to motivate myself to do. I missed the gym a lot because it was a great social outlet but my sister did a great job motivating me and pushing me through some tough workouts so I was able to maintain a lot of my fitness levels. I think one of the most difficult things was not letting external things like the stress of Covid and lockdowns affect my training. You have to make the most of what you have and I still can’t do all of the training that I’d ideally like to be doing in the lead up to this next fight but I am making the most of my time both inside and outside of the gym.”
Revealing her future plans Dee stated “In the short term the plan is to put on a spectacular performance on Clan Wars, get the win and use that momentum to fight as soon as possible afterwards. I’d like to get two or three more wins on my record this year. Long term I want to fight in the UFC and I think that with my background in striking and the improvements ive made in my wrestling and jiu jitsu I can see myself being a champion in the UFC. Everything I do over the next few years will be working towards that goal.”
The Irish Mixed Martial Arts Association would like to sincerely thank Dee for her ongoing support and contributions to the success of Irish MMA, both in Ireland and internationally. We wish her the very best of success in her upcoming fight and look forward to watching her career progress in the coming years.