Who is Paul Redmond?

Less than a week after his fellow countrymen all won at UFC Boston Paul Redmond will make his debut in the worlds largest promotion and look to continue the success of Irish fighters inside the Octagon.

But who is Paul Redmond?

Paul Redmond is a 28-year-old with a record of 10-4 and fights out of Team Ryano in Dublin, Ireland. He is a teammate of UFC flyweight Neil Seery and boasts an impressive 9 stoppage victories (5 KO/TKO, 4 sub).

The first time I saw Redmond fight was in 2012 at Battlezone 5, a local Irish promotion, and I will be honest, I wasn’t too impressed. He lost that fight via TKO in the first round and from what I remember he wasn’t really rememberable. However, in the fights since then he has become a completely different fighter racking off fantastic wins churning in dominant performances beating quality opponents with great finishes as a cherry on top.

Following that loss at Battlezone he became a fighter with a, less than impressive, 3-3 record but he then signed with Cage Warriors, this is where the career turnaround happened for the Dubliner. He made his debut at Cage Warriors 47 in his hometown and made easy work of his opponent Yuri Malko dispatching him with a TKO in the second round. After this Redmond went on to win four more fights with four finishes (including two toe holds) and defeating highly touted prospects Lewis Long (9-3) and Ryan Roddy (7-1).

Paul Redmond def. Ryan Roddy via Toe Hold in round 2 (9:20min)

Redmond then faced Mateusz Teodorczuk (11-2) at Cage Warrior’s NYE show in 2013. The fight was scheduled to be at lightweight but Teodorczuk failed to make weight. Regardless, Redmond still wanted to fight and agreed to continue with the bout but lost that via submission, his first defeat in over five fights.

He got right back into things in March, less than three months after his defeat on NYE, and faced Australian scrapper Damien Brown (10-8). The fight went the full three rounds, a first for a Redmond fight, and the decision went to the Dubliner.

In his last fight he faced Greek fighter Alexis Savvidis (8-2) and he made a statement here by bullying his opponent for the fight before literally going toe to toe and scoring another toe hold submission victory, a third time for Redmond.

Paul Redmond def. Alexis Savvidis via Toe Hold in round 2 (8:00 min).

This weekend his opponent is the undefeated Mirsad Bektic (8-0), a 23-year-old American Top Team fighter who made his UFC debut last April defeating Chas Kelly (13-1). The fight will take place at featherweight, a first for Redmond who has competed at lightweight for most of his professional career.

‘Redser’ is the underdog here but he has been in that position many times before and prevailed. His striking is continuously evolving and getting better while his grappling game has proven to be amongst the most dangerous of the current European fighters out there. Win or lose Redmond will certainly make a memorable impression.

Photo Credit: Dolly Clew/Cage Warriors
Photo Credit: Dolly Clew/Cage Warriors

Leave a Reply