John Kavanagh is one of the most recognisable faces in Irish MMA.
Coach to Conor McGregor, Paddy Holohan, Aisling Daly and more, he is often reffered to as the 'godfather' of the sport in Ireland.
Speaking with project106.com, Kavanagh told of how his interest in MMA was sparked.
I actually got in an incident where I was really badly beaten up when I was 18. It kind of made me question what way I'd been training, because I wasn't able to defend myself.
Now, it was me versus seven people, so it probably wouldn't have mattered what I did. But it did make me reevaluate it. I was actually almost killed.
Following that incident, Kavanagh discovered a video of UFC 1 and his obsession took off from there, eventually leading to him opening Straight Blast Gym.
