Aoife Murphy, MMA and making weight

Michigan USA - Aoife (rear, right) training with Invicta fighters at Scorpiion Fighting System Team SFS

When male fighters grow up big and tall, promoters rub their hands with glee. But for Aoife Murphy standing at 1.83m or bang on six foot is simply a problem.

The small number of women doing MMA globally can be seen in the constant calls for top fighters to drop weight or eat a lot to meet Ronda Rousey. In Ireland where athletic women are pushed towards teamsports – Murphy used to play GAA football, the problem is acute.

So she fights across amateur boxing, kickboxing and now MMA at C-Mac MMA to keep her hand in.

Chatting on the phone the other day, the Dubliner said: ‘I started in Kickboxing but I wanted to do it all. I wanted to have a go at MMA, I was game to try something else. They’re just different - MMA you can slow the pace with grappling, kickboxing you have to step in.

‘I love the striking and the grappling- I’ll go in the cage, in the ring, on the mats. I hate being inactive.’

Her fight record of two wins, one loss in MMA; four wins, one loss in Kickboxing and two wins, one loss in amateur boxing is across 70 to 78kgs. I winced at the thought of cutting and dicing your body like that.

“Friends look at my lunch-box and they’re like: ‘are you feeding a rabbit?’ I prepare it all on my day off, do the groceries and cook. The fridge is full of Tupperware, you have to be a well-oiled machine.

“I walk around at 80kgs, so it’s a big cut for me. I wouldn’t eat badly but I am inclined to put on weight.”

Aoife’s boyfriend Paul O’ Brien fights too, so at least there’s no-one scoffing chocolate cake around her. And working as a hairdresser gives her chance to share her knowledge.

She said: “It opens their eyes to what you don’t see about MMA; the fitness, the health. It’s great.”

And there is one advantage to being so tall.

“Aisling Daly is the most well-known Irish woman doing MMA. There’s so few of us, we tend to band together. We’re miles away from each other in weight and height, well clear of each other. I saw her fighting when I was starting, now we train together sometimes,” Aoife said.