John Kavanagh, most famously recognized as the coach of the enigmatic Connor Mcgreggor has recently announced the return of ‘Euro fight night EFM’, a fight series which initially began in September 2013. The series only saw one show and was postponed for a number of reasons. However last Monday kavanagh stated that the second installment ‘Euro Fight Night 2’ would take place on October 19th of this year in Manchester, UK.

Speaking on Aerial Helwani’s MMA show Kavanagh unveiled that the event will take the form of a tournament, with the winner gaining a multi fight contract with Bellator. The tournament will be in the light heavyweight division and will consist of as many as eight up and coming pros with 5 fights or less. The quarter and semi finals will consist of one round bouts with the final being a full three round fight, all taking place on the same night. Supported by an amateur under card, the tournament is set to be a throwback to the early days of the UFC and is sure to whet the appetite of the old school fans. Kavanagh stated that the show will be geared towards creating a way for up and coming UK/Ireland fighters to find a way into the bigger promotions.

“In Europe, Nobody really has a defined path to the big show. Whether thats the UFC or Bellator or ONE FC. Something where you can make a career out of fighting. There’s a lot of good UK based shows but the pay is just such that you can’t make a living off it”

“There’s some shows out their that if you become the champion you might get into whatever show. This is a definite, you’re getting a contract on the night, you win the tournament, you’re a Bellator fighter. I think that’s something exciting and worthwhile to give to the UK and Irish MMA community.”

A highly successful coach, Author and MMA advocate in Ireland, Kavanagh is now adding promoter to his long list of titles and if he proves as successful in this area as he has in the others this is sure to rock the European MMA scene. However this is not the first time Kavanagh has dipped his toe into promoting. Stated in his book ‘Win or Learn’ Kavanagh describes frantically scraping together local fighters in the late 90s/early 00s in venues akin to Bingo halls in Ireland when MMA was in its embryonic stages. Now with over 30 of his own fighters either in the UFC or Bellator, It seems fitting that the god father of Irish MMA be at the forefront of the growth and development of the sport in the UK and Ireland, now on a larger scale.