1. You’re adamant that Owen Roddy and Paul McVeigh would be superstars in the UFC by now if they hadn’t decided to retire.
2. When someone mentions Joe Duffy, you think of this guy…
Not this guy…
3. You first heard of John Kavanagh and Andy Ryan when they were headlocking each other in a shed.
4. You knew Norman Parke would win The Ultimate Fighter before the cast for the show was even announced.
5. You used to buy your tickets for Conor McGregor’s fights from Conor McGregor.
6. You used a younger sibling as a crash-test dummy to perfect Paul Redmond’s signature toe-hold.
7. You knew Cathal Pendred was unbreakable long before he fought Mike King at UFC Dublin.
8. You’ll argue all day that John Donnelly versus Philip Mulpeter was the greatest MMA fight ever to take place.
9. You’ve seen half of Steve McCombe’s fights live. Unfortunately you weren’t able to make it to the other 200.
10. You think Cage Contender 2 was the best MMA event in Ireland in 2009, not UFC 93.
11. Aisling Daly brought women’s MMA to your attention before anyone had heard of Ronda Rousey.
12. You preferred coffee to tea until Paddy Holohan made his UFC debut.
13. You know which rugby team Dana White supports.
14. When Conor McGregor jumped out of the cage after beating Dennis Siver at UFC Boston, you’d seen it all before.
15. You’ve seen Neil Seery compete in 17 different weight classes.
16. You went searching for a Dublin-to-Amman route on Ryanair.com when Chris Fields fought Pavel Kusch for the Cage Warriors title.
17. You know that Peter Queally is a fighter, not a hurler.
18. You only joined Twitter to give grief to Jim Alers before he was due to fight Conor McGregor.
19. You only skip watching UFC events live when you’re heading out for the night to a domestic show.
20. The Helix is your favourite place for a New Year’s Eve party.
21. You know your Brian Moores from your Karl Moores.
22. You know that Gunnar Nelson is as Irish as the Angelus.
23. You’ve tormented Sean Shelby on Twitter.
24. When you see an injury pull-out from a fight, you always know of a guy who’d be willing to step in.
25. You couldn’t stop yourself from saying ‘I told you so’ after Conor McGregor’s UFC debut against Marcus Brimage.
26. With Paddy Holohan, Neil Seery, Damien Rooney and Andy Young, you’d fancy Ireland’s chances in an international flyweight Survivor Series match.
A version of this piece was originally published on 10 April.
Up the Ra…nkings!
They will conquer the Eurovision next
@Mike Kennedy: there’s only one song to sing
@Ultimate FM: my lovely horse