OMMA fighter writes his name in the history books

CAMERON Clements’ career has been in the ascendance for a few years, but recently every time he has stepped into the cage he has propelled himself further toward the MMA stars.

One snapshot of this meteoric rise was to be witnessed in Dublin when Clements recently etched his name in the Irish MMA history books by becoming the first ever IMMAA MMA Middleweight National Champion.

The championships were the first of their kind and saw some of the most promising mixed martial artists battle it out for national supremacy.

Six fighters qualified in the OMMA fighter’s middleweight division, but, based on some impressive victories of late, Clements was given the number one seed which guarenteed him a bye to semi-finals.

The National Championships ran over 3 days from Friday to Sunday with the quarter finals on Friday, semi finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday.

Seeded number two was Dan O’Sullivan – the strong Cork fighter who Clements ended up overcoming in the final to take home the gold medal.

But before that, Clements had to get past a high-level boxing-based striker in Brian Manning.

However, despite Manning’s game spirit and punching prowess, Clements found a way to ground his opponent early, capitalise on his advantageous position by securing a rear-naked choke, ultimately finishing his opponent with the deftly executed submission.

This left only O’Sullivan between Clements and the silverware he craved, the Cork man having earned himself a place in the final with an impressive win over Tristan Barret – one of Conor McGregor’s well-known sparring partners.

On Sunday 19, the showdown between Clements and Barrett took place, in what was the last fight of the day, to crown the first ever IMMAA MMA National Champion at Middleweight.

But while the chatter before the fight predicted that a hard-hitting but even contest was afoot, the reality that played out in the cage was much less balanced, Clements once again bringing the fight to a clinical halt via another rear-naked choke.

Clements’s and his coach, Gerry Poltorak, headed off to Bahrain to take part in the MMA SuperCup yesterday.

Poltorak said, “Cameron will fight on Wednesday morning against a fighter from New Zealand as Ireland take on an Oceania Select team, to start their journey to prove Ireland are the best Amateur team in the World.

“This week we get to prove what everyone who trains at OMMA already knows: Our amateur team is one of the best in the World.”