OVER THE PAST two years Dubliner Paul ‘Redser Redmond’ has established himself as one the elite lightweights in European MMA, and on Saturday night, at the Helix in DCU, he has the chance to further enhance his ever-growing reputation when he takes on Alexis Savvidis at Cage Warriors 70.

Thanks to the roaring success that was UFC Fight 46 in the 02 Arena, the past four weeks have unquestionably been the most significant in history of Irish Mixed Martial Arts. The antics of McGregor, Pendred, Seery, Holohan et al against the backdrop of a raucous sold-out crowd ensured the sport has now well and truly breached the mainstream.

While that may have been the UFC’s first trip to Ireland in over five years, Cage Warriors-Europe’s top promotion-has been visiting these shores regularly in recent times. Saturday night’s card will be their third event in Dublin since last New Year’s Eve.

The Cage Warriors platform has provided a conduit for Irish fighters to make it to the international stage, with Conor McGregor, Cathal Pendred and Neil Seery all winning titles there before graduating to the UFC. Redmond has been tipped by many to follow their path in the near future but, for the time being, the Greece-native, Savvidis, is his sole focus.

A stable mate of Neil Seery at Team Ryano MMA, Redmond was in the former’s corner for both his UFC appearances and the experience served to strengthen his drive to make it to the sport’s top table.

“I was never not hungry for that (the UFC), but when you see all the lads going well, it makes you not take your eye off the ball,” he tells TheScore.ie. “I don’t think I’ve taken my eye off the prize in the last two or three years, but I don’t really want to look past this fella (Savvidis) on Saturday night. As far as I’m concerned I have a job to do, and I might think about it after that.”

The 27-year-old announced himself on the European scene by ringing off five consecutive victories under the Cage Warriors banner, all of which came in the second round. His momentum was temporarily halted at Cage Warriors 63 on New Year’s Eve in the Helix, when he was submitted by Mateusz Teodorezuk, strangely enough in the second round.

However, he quickly bounced back with a decision victory over Damian Brown, in a bout which won Fight of the Night honours. Like most fighters, he refuses to dwell on negatives and responded to his brief lapse accordingly.

“With the Teodorezuk loss, I just wanted that out of my head as quick as I could; I wanted to fight the week later. I was straight back in the gym two days later and it was all business and straight back at it.

“The way you come back from a loss is what shows your character. Some people take a couple of months off or drop a weight, which seems to be the case in MMA now- but you just need to keep getting better.”

Now, he is poised for the 19-year-old Savvidis, who was only confirmed as his opponent in the last ten days, after the first two were forced to withdraw. The Greek will be making his Cage Warriors debut, but has amassed an impressive 8-1 record. Redmond, having done his homework with the paltry time available, has no intentions of looking past him.

“He has a good record for what he’s done, and his only loss was in a tournament format, in his second fight in one night. He’s going to come over and throw the kitchen sink at me; it’s up to me to put him away.

“A lot of his wins come by triangle and heel-hook submissions, some are decisions, so maybe on paper he doesn’t like to stand-up in fights. But Neil (Seery) has watched a lot of footage of him for me, and he does stand-up, but he’s a bit of a brawler. Which can be a bit more difficult to fight, because you can’t really plan for what he’s going to throw, and he’s certainly powerful.

“I can’t sit back for a minute just because it’s his debut. He’s just going to look at me as another opponent and try to hammer the head off me in front of my home crowd and make a statement.”

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