Picture: Carl McNally lifting the Ulster flag with victory on the opening day at the 2015 IMMAF World Championships of Amateur MMA Competing athletes at next week’s IMMAF European Open Championships can expect to meet a “serious force” in the form of Northern Ireland’s national amateur team, according to Danny Corr, Director of the Ulster Amateur MMA Association. At the 2015 IMMAF World Championships of Amateur MMA, which took place in Las Vegas during July, Northern Ireland competed for the first time as a separate team to the United Kingdom and secured a pair of bronze medals won by light-heavyweight Denis Perry and bantamweight Carl McNally. Neither Perry or McNally will be a part of the Northern Ireland lineup at the European Open Championships, but Danny Corr feels strongly that next week will show the most effective and well prepared team of Ulster MMA amateurs to compete under the IMMAF banner. He commented, “The quiet men and women of Ulster will most definitely cause some major upsets. The intensity of the training regime that each and every team member has gone through will show the European scene that Team Northern Ireland are a serious force to face. Rodney Moore, coach to UFC star Norman Parke, will lead the team to hopefully more silverware, building on the success of the World Championships.” Northern Ireland’s national amateur line-up for the IMMAF European Open Championships includes: Leah McCourt – Women’s Lightweight Ciaran Breslin – Men’s Featherweight Ross McCorriston – Men’s Featherweight Bobby Sheppard – Men’s Lightweight Jonny Martin – Men’s Lightweight Ciaran O’Neill – Welterweight Jonathan Kinkead – Welterweight For more information on the UAMMA visit ulsteramateurmma.org 
