Finglas teen’s journey from PlayStation to Sin City

A FINGLAS fighter who won a silver medal at the third annual IMMAF World Championships in Las Vegas two weeks ago has revealed how he started his career on a PlayStation console.

Nathan Kelly, who is a student of Kyuzo MMA on the Ballyboggan Road, was an integral part of Team Ireland, which won a tournament high of six medals at the championships comprising three bronze, two silvers and one gold.

“It was crazy,” Kelly told Northside People.

“As soon as we landed I just kept saying to myself ‘I can’t believe I’m in Vegas.’ It was surreal. It was a bit mad but the whole city just has a really good atmosphere. 

“I just couldn’t believe I was in Las Vegas fighting.”

The 19-year-old fought five times in five days as he marched to the championships’ featherweight final where he lost by unanimous decision to gold medal winner Shoaib Yousof from the UK.

The former New Cross College pupil was understandably disappointed with the loss, but views the whole experience as positive, and an opportunity he was grateful for.

“The standard of the competition was really good, and I fought really well, but it just wasn’t my day in the final,” he said.

“It was a close fight and it went down to the very last round and whoever would’ve won the last round would’ve won the fight, but it was a good fight and I’ll take a lot of positives from it.”

Kelly’s journey into MMA started via a PlayStation game, ‘UFC Undisputed 2010’. After playing the game as a 13-year-old, the Finglas teenager instantly gravitated towards the sport and before long was training down at Kyuzo MMA on a regular basis.

After progressing through the ranks at Kyuzo, Kelly began to compete at amateur level in Ireland and the featherweight fighter was eventually selected to compete in the World Championships for Team Ireland.

“A space opened up on the team to go over, which was entirely self-funded and required you to pay for your own flights and accommodation and all of that, so he was able to secure a spot on there from his good amateur record,” said Kelly’s coach Barry Oglesby.

“His attitude and the way that he conducts himself and carries himself around the gym, you really would confuse him for a much older guy.

“You never hear him complaining about workload and you never hear him giving out or talking any crap about other fighters. He just gets in and does his own work and takes care of business.”

Kelly sustained a shoulder injury in the tournament’s semi-finals but will look to return to training in the near future as he seeks to continue what looks like a promising MMA career.