There was an air of anticipation at Team KF a week out from Cage Warriors 153, which takes place tonight at the at 3Arena.
Four of the Swords gym's charges - brothers Adam and Ryan Shelley, Taka Mhandu and Leon Hill - will play starring roles on the pivotal night for Irish mixed-martial-arts.
Three of the them, the Shelley brothers and Hill, were about to be put through one of their final training sessions ahead of the event.
Their chatter bounces off one another, and despite muscle, tendons and sinew showing through their skin amidst their weight cuts, they practically leap into action as soon as the signal is given to begin their day’s work.
The towering figure of head coach Chris Fields stands in the middle of the mat.
Cracking jokes, he’s smiling from ear to ear as the room rocks and rolls in the circular motion of the warm-up. He’s been there, done it and won the championship belt. On the surface, he’s as cool as the other side of the pillow.
Moving away from his team, he confides in the only non-combatant in the room.
"I woke at 5am to watch film on [Tobias] Harila," he reveals, referencing Ryan Shelley’s opponent, a win over whom will see him enter the fray for the title Conor McGregor won 11 years ago.
"Sometimes I’m lying in bed, I’ll think of something and I’ll have to go downstairs and watch a load of fights."
During his competitive pomp, Fields was brutally honest about pre-fight jitters. Yet ahead of what is the biggest showcase for Team KF on Irish soil since it was founded by Fields and Tom King in 2016, it’s understandable for the anxiety to be amplified.
"Never mind it being at 3Arena, I sh*t myself every time the lads are fighting. It comes from a place of love and even though I know that they’ve put the hard work in, I also know how cruel the sport can be," he says.
"I remember just before Omran [Chaaban] fought last time, Cathal [Pendred] was in the corner with me and just before we walked out it hit me. Cathal looked at me and he said I had turned grey. He said, 'Jesus, I was going to say you’d been doing great all day!’ It’s a little joke we have, but it’s true - I’m there to look after the fighters, Cathal is there to look after me."
Fields earned legendary status during the golden era of the Irish sport, which climaxed in McGregor’s double-title capture with the UFC.
Saturday’s event on the North Dock reminds him of Cage Contender’s Irish title deciders at the National Basketball Arena and Cage Warriors’s wild nights at The Helix, when the SBG and Team Ryano charges were launching their bids for UFC contracts.
Two familiar faces at the Swords facility are Pendred and Aisling Daly, both of whom eventually made it to the big dance. Although Fields would capture the Cage Warriors title in 2012 - considered a last port of call for many UFC hopefuls before signing - and competed on the The Ultimate Fighter, an Octagon debut was something that alluded him.
Before he launched the gym, Fields found the elusive UFC bow bothersome. Now, however, it’s almost like he sees his fight career as an apprenticeship served for his current role as a head coach.
"That was my journey and I wouldn’t change anything about it, wins or losses. If you talk to the lads who came up with me, they’d tell you I was always a coach. I coached the likes of Cathal Pendred and Paddy Holohan during their UFC careers, so a lot of what I’m doing now is always what I was going to do. I love fighting, I really do…but it’s kind of nice to be involved and not get punched in the face," he quips.
In 2009, Fields was in the nosebleeds at The Point when Tom Egan became the first person from the Republic of Ireland to fight in the UFC. Five years later, he cornered his teammates on the night that became the launchpad for 'The Irish Takeover', and subsequently the most legendary night in the history of Irish MMA.
Established as a frontrunner on the island, Fields would be called upon by international promotions Bellator, KSW and BAMMA to compete at the venue. It felt like the biggest achievement of their careers when those of Fields' generation made it to the 3Arena, but with well-known MMA organisations frequenting the Irish capital regularly now, it’s become commonplace for this era’s fledgling pros.
"They see their peers fighting at the 3Arena all the time, so in a way it’s kind of normalised for them. It’s far from the watershed moment we used to see it as. They expect it to happen, whereas we never thought it could."
One thing that’s remained true from generation to generation is the importance of getting to the UFC.
Fields’ four charges will take another step closer to the promised land if they have their hands raised on Saturday. In 2019, after coaching James Webb to the same Cage Warriors middleweight title he captured six years before, something occurred to Fields - the successes of his team meant more to him than his personal triumphs ever did.
"The problem is, when you’re a fighter, you’re always worried about the next thing. The night I won the belt I went back to my hotel room in Jordan, called Laura - my girlfriend at the time and now my wife - and within two seconds I was talking about what was next," he explains.
"As a fighter I couldn’t enjoy any of these moments, but now as a coach, I find I sit back and enjoy it a lot more. There’s nothing more satisfying for me than seeing the stuff I’ve taught them working and leading them to success. I think it’s inevitable that you’ll see some of my guys in the UFC in the coming years, and when they do, I’ll enjoy that much more than I ever would’ve been able to enjoy fighting in the UFC myself."
It’s about the journey more than it’s about the destination for Fields. In the last four years, he has made decisions that have elongated Team KF’s voyage to the UFC.
In April 2019, he and King - the first person to be awarded a black belt by John Kavanagh - chose to shed their SBG affiliations, and in doing so, their link to UFC president Dana White’s cash cow, McGregor.
Fields had never been as confident in someone’s UFC aspirations than he was in Ian Garry’s.
Garry hadn’t turned professional by the time Fields was letting people know of his ability. Ten days before Garry claimed the Cage Warriors welterweight title over Jack Grant, Fields expelled him from the gym.
A few days after Garry’s title capture, he was signed to the UFC. Garry is still undefeated and one of the UFC’s brightest prospects, but Fields remains content with his decision.
"I have my true north in terms of what I deem as acceptable and in both situations I had to go with how it made me feel. The other parties might feel different, but that’s life.
"I stand over both of those decisions and I think my gym is better for it. The long-term effect on the gym wouldn’t have been worth the short term gains that going the other way would’ve given me," he says.
"As much as getting Team KF to the UFC is important to me, I value being able to look at myself in the mirror more than that - and that goes for both situations."
