Local kickboxer among the elite as he fought for world title

BIRR k-1 kickboxing club belong with the elite kickboxing clubs in the world.

After their recent success at the WKO world kickboxing championships, promoters and the top coaches respect what they are doing in a small town in Birr.

Birr k-1 kickboxing club are getting noticed by all the big promoters in Europe and received a world ISKA World k-1 kickboxing title offer to fight in England on October 6^th, promoted by Jack hammer UK and the show was screened to a live audience on social media platform Leapfrogfighttv.

The Birr club contingent flew into Birmingham airport on October 5th and were picked up and brought to their hotel. Later they were transported to the weigh-ins and food was taken care of by the promoter and then rest for the big fight day the next day at Burton Market Hall, a cool venue that held over a 1,000 people and had 27 fights on, with only two world titles fights on the card.

Adrian Neddy Sniper O'Donoghue has worked hard to get his chance that every fighter dreams of. A world title shot over five rounds against current British ISKA champion and world ISKA World k-1 champion Taylor Bowen.

Taylor is training in martial arts over eight years and is a very skillful kickboxer with a massive amount of talent and experience.

Adrian O Donoghue has just been training at kickboxing for just over two years and he never misses training and gives his all at every training session and is a very talented skillful fighter with a huge work rate and has a big bright future in kickboxing.

He only had 15 days notice of this fight, which is very short notice for any fight never mind a world title fight, but with the training that they do at the club the fighters are practically fight ready for when that big call comes in. His coach Raphael Creamer knew Adrian would get to work straight away and make the extra sacrifices and use his discipline to make weight and get fit as possible in a short space of time

This involved early running before school and extra training sessions with Raphael at his house on his off nights from the club. They put in many hours of extra training and Birr Leisure Centre helped them out for Sunday trainings.

Adrian had a five round battle with the best in the world at 50kg and had some great moments in the fight. Right from round one Adrian got stuck into his opponent and let him know he meant business.

It was a great fight and Adrian landed some powerful clean telling shots which made it a great fight. Adrian's heart and courage could not be questioned, his power was there for everyone to see and was stronger than his opponent.

But his opponent Taylor has had many big fights and used his experience well and has fast kicks with fast hands. It was Taylor's footwork, along with his kicks, that kept him safe for periods of the fight and away from Adrian's strong hands and knees. Taylor would not engage with Adrian's boxing skills and was wise not to do so.

After five tough rounds of k-1 kickboxing both fighters were happy to see the end of the fight and had massive respect for one another.

Taylor claimed a unanimous decision victory and Adrian was given a huge round of applause by the supporters at the venue.

Adrian is the first fighter to fight for a world title over five rounds from the club and no fighter from Birr or Roscrea has achieved this feat before.

Hayleigh Kiely from Lmerick, current world ISKA kickboxing champion, who was on the RTE news in August after her recent win and is signed to fight for leapfrog fighttv, was in attendance on the night and defends her world title in England sometime in November.

She messaged Raphael after the fight to congratulate Adrian on his brave performance and courage shown during a great fight and complimented the great work they're doing at the club.

This is great motivation for Adrian and the club going forward.