Having been inactive for nearly a year ahead of this weekend’s eight-man tournament at Rage in the Cage III, Irish MMA stalwart John Redmond is chomping at the bit to get back amongst the action.
“I’m feeling good, I’m ready to rock,” exclaimed the Irish veteran. “I can’t wait to get back in there, it’s been a year since the fight in Jordan and even with that last Cage Warriors fight, I was carrying a shoulder injury into it. It’s been a long time without competition and I just want to get in there and let it all happen.”
With the time off, the Dubliner is confident that he has improved in all aspects of mixed martial arts, which he is hoping to display when the action goes down on Saturday night in Paisley, Renfrewshire.
“There have been a lot of improvements in my all-round game. I’ve just been strengthening everything in every department down in Ryano. I’m trying out a lot of different techniques so hopefully it will all come together. I’m looking forward to showing people a few new things in there,” said Redmond.
Having made the drop down to welterweight a couple of years ago, Redmond will make the move back up to 185lbs for the tournament, a weight division in which the Team Ryano man previously contested for national titles.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be a permanent move back to middleweight, I haven’t really thought about it awful lot,” insisted Redmond. “This event just came about. The fact of the matter is I’m still walking around at about 88 kilos, so it’s still a cut no matter what way you look at it. It’s not as big of a cut though.”
Although some fighters don’t like the idea of competing multiple time in one night, the ever-game Redmond claimed he is ‘raring to go’ ahead of the event.
He said: “At the end of the day, the first fight is two five minute rounds. Everyone on the card is top notch, they all know how to fight. It’s all about getting in there and applying your game so let’s see what happens, all I know is I’m raring to go.”
As for the field of talent set for the tournament-style knockout event, Redmond is focusing on his own approach rather than worrying about the strengths of the opposition.
“It doesn’t matter who is in there, as a famous Irish fighter likes to say, you’re against yourself when you get in there,” Redmond recited. “There’s no point in going in there thinking about how good this lad is or thinking too much about what your opponents are going to do. I just have to get in there on Saturday night and do what I do, that’s how I see it.”
Perhaps his most impressive performance to date, when Redmond met Kieran Davern on New Year’s Eve 2013 everything seemed to come together for the Irishman as he finished his rival with a guillotine choke halfway through the first round of their meeting.
Having seen what happens when the Malahide man puts it all together, Redmond is hopeful that he will put in a similar performance this Saturday.
“I definitely think you might see something similar to the night that I fought Davern. I just want to go out there and float, move around and just enjoy myself. I don’t want to force the issue, I just want to let it all happen. I’m just going to focus on my performance and react to whatever goes on,” Redmond insisted.
As for his preparation for the contest, ‘Johnny Jitzu’ maintained that there were drastic changes in the lead up to the event due to its tournament style format.
“It’s like any other fight really, you’ve just got to stay on top of your cardio and make sure you’re conditioned right,” he said. “As I said, the first fight is only two rounds and I think there’s an option of an extra three-minute round if there is a draw.
“There’s no real difference there so it’s like preparing for any fight. I’ll fight the first bout and if I get a good win there I’ll be on to the second fight. I’ll get plenty of rest in between the bouts, I can carb up and do whatever I have to do. This is an old school tournament and it feels good to be a part of it.”
Redmond is confident that despite a deep cut stopping his last bout with Craig White in the second round of their April 18 bout last year, there will be no further trouble with that particular area moving forward:
“That cut I got in Jordan has healed up fantastically, I wouldn’t even know that I had that on my head now. That’s all part of the game, it’s just one of these things that happened, but at the end of the day I’m not going to be worrying myself about cuts and different things like that.”
Being declared the winner of the tournament would see Redmond regain parity to his record, but the Dubliner want to take each fight as it comes on the night:
“Realistically I could come out at 8-8 again and even out my record. I don’t want to jump ahead of myself going in to this competition though. I have one fight ahead of me here, I’m going to win that and I’ll take things from there.”
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