The rise of MMA to the mainstream consciousness of the general Irish public has been remarkable to watch.
Those who attended UFC 93 (the first UFC event to take place in Dublin, back in 2009) would never have expected Nate Diaz to be the topic of discussion between casual fans in pubs up and down the country, and yet here we are...
While Conor McGregor cannot be ignored as one of the driving factors behind the boom in popularity of what was already being referred to as 'the fastest growing sport in the World' before the Irish invasion kicked-off, but it is not the sole reason, and Channel 4 dedicated a segment of their regular news programming for a short news feature to educate their viewers.
Fighting Irish: meet the Irish athletes taking over the world of MMAhttps://t.co/yRuV9aBQGk
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) March 28, 2016
"The Mecca of MMA" may be stretching it a tad as fighters from around the world are not flocking to the Longmile Road to get a glimpse at the house that Kavanagh built, but it's good to see the likes of Channel 4 taking an interest in what is going on here.
If the likes of John Kavanagh, who Channel 4 have credited as the man behind Ireland's obsession with MMA, are to be believed, then we are still in the very early stages of our country's emergence on the scene, so that's bad news if you're one of the ever decreasing amount of people who refuse to give MMA the time of day.
