In a miraculous turn of events, an encounter with Paddy Holohan at UFC Dublin, served as the catalyst for an ambitious Declan Kenna to turn his life around and start the fastest-growing MMA organisation in Ireland — Cage Legacy.
On Friday evening, the promoter will bring his incredible spectacle to The Dome at Grand Central Hall in Liverpool, with a awe-inspiring card, featuring former Cage Warriors Champion, Lee Chadwick, and Team Kaobon star, Chris Stringer.
Renowned for their remarkable light shows and party-like atmospheres, under the guidance of ‘Dollar Dec’, Cage Legacy has created something special, with MMA fans across Europe desperate to soak up the noise that only Kenna’s promotion can create. But it all could’ve been so different had the charismatic businessman never bumped into the first Irish fighter ever to set foot in the UFC octagon.
Growing up in Tallaght, Dublin, Kenna, who started martial arts at a young age, was constantly surrounded by street crime, and even went down the wrong path himself during his teenage years, but in a testament to his admirable powers of self-belief, he battled back from the brink, proving, with time and effort, anything is possible.
In an exclusive interview with MMA TV Live, he reminisced: “At 19, I was acting the b***ocks, but I got back into MMA when I was 26 because I went to a UFC card in Dublin in 2014, headlined by Conor McGregor vs Diego Brandão.
“I was at the venue with my late friend Joey. We were watching the fights, drinking and having a bit of a buzz, and I saw Paddy Holohan in the cage. Paddy and I used to go to school together. I was like, ‘I f***ing know him’. My mate said, ‘Shut up you. Don’t say anything to him; he’s a UFC fighter’. But he was my mate, so I shouted, ‘Paddy, come here’. I was obviously drinking. He came over, and I told him I looked up to him. The next day, I woke up and thought, ‘That is it. Game over’. I went to the local MMA gym and started training again. I would recommend it to everyone, especially people who are on a path in life where they’re struggling and don’t know what to do. Join an MMA gym and put your heart into it. It will pay off.”
From that moment on, Kenna dedicated his life to combat sports, embarking on an incredible journey that took him all the way to featuring on a Floyd Mayweather undercard, and starring in a major fight night at the 3Arena, the very same venue he bumped into Holohan nine years before.
However, with an itch for MMA and the business world still left unscratched, the Dubliner took the plunge, starting Cage Legacy, which has grown into a roaring success. But now, it’s time for Kenna to spread his wings and give England a taste of what the Irish have come to know and love.
And with his country’s culture so firmly at the heart of the city, there couldn’t be a better place to start than Liverpool.
The 35-year-old explained: “When we were researching, we went to Manchester and London. No disrespect, because we love everybody, we will be coming there. However, Liverpool felt like the place. This is where we want to do this event. It felt like home. So, for our first show in England, we’re doing Liverpool, and Manchester will be next. We’ll do that before the end of the year.”
