At the Strikeforce Challengers 13 card back in January, Dustin West (4-2 MMA, 1-1 SF) stood across the cage staring at Daniel Schmitt, waiting for the referee to start the fight.
Thoughts of the broken hand that he suffered in his first fight for Strikeforce circled in his head, and he knew that an impressive victory was a must at this point in his career.
Once the fight started, Schmitt quickly closed the distance and threw a head kick that West easily ducked. Two punches later, West was standing over the body of an unconscious Schmitt with a 9 second TKO victory. It was a sudden, and stunning end to the fight, and in true Dustin West fashion, the next challenge was just around the corner.
Dustin West always represents his Irish heritage, from the music that he walks out to, to the kilt that he wears on his way to the cage. His rabid band of followers are known as the “Hooligans”, and they are always present to represent and support West.
The former Marine will not have the “Hooligans” with him this time around, but a dream of another kind will be fulfilled this time when he enters the cage.
West is on his way to fight in Ireland for the first time, and when he arrives, his manager Jeff Hobbs will be documenting the day-to-day events during the trip, and those videos will be posted here on Pro MMA now.
West will be fighting in Rush, Ireland in the main event at “Rumble in Rush 5” against John Donnelly on Feb. 26. Donnelly is widely considered to be the best welterweight in Ireland, and is known for his stand up prowess.
West is also known for his power, winning 3 of his 4 fights by (T)KO, and this fight should be full of fireworks.
Stay tuned here at Pro MMA now to follow West’s quest to bring American MMA to Ireland.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by MMA Headliner, Denny Hodge. Denny Hodge said: Dustin West’s “Road to Ireland” : Pro MMA Now http://t.co/oOzOqBi via @AddThis […]
This seems absolutely mad, why in gods name is west scraping the barrel going to fight in a tiny promotion that nobody in world MMA has ever heard of? I looked online to find this is a minute MMA show that gets 200 or 300 folk coming to watch!!! This is just nuts, Wests management cannot have checked this out at all
We appreciate your concern for Dustins career moves, but yes, I, as well as Dustin checked everything out before making the decision to fight over there. Dustin has much different goals than the average fighter. He is looking for experiences and memories, that when his career is over, he can look back fondly on all the things mma has brought him. We will have a great week visiting Ireland, a place he has always wanted to go and at the end of the week, he gets to compete. This wasnt a “scraping the barrell” issue. He could have chosen to fight anywhere. This was a choice, not a neccessity.
My Brother Paul Cowzer is running the Rumble in Rush,
Dustin West will be made Very Welcome in Dublin (Ireland),
We are All looking forward to seeing him fight and hope that he has an Amazing trip to Ireland,
This will not be anything like as Big as Dustin is used to,
but A Huge Thankyou to Dustin and his People for showing this Great Honour to My Bro and Rush Fight Academy.
Although the Rumble in Rush is not the biggest show in Ireland, in my oppinion it is with out doubt one of the most exciting shows. It always has an amazing atmosphere and great match making and Dustin West vs John Donnelly is one of the most high profile fights on the Irish mma calendar for 2011, John is a top fighter as is Dustin, and it’s an honour to get to play host to such a class match up. I hope Dustin and Jeff enjoy there stay in Ireland as much as we will enjoy having them here.
The Rumble in Rush is the 2nd largest promotion in Dublin and the only reason why it is not the biggest is because we choose to keep it local as it was made for the local area and we fill the largest venue in the area, the figures by MMA Ireland are not true and there just jealous and pathetic..
Anyway, we’re proud of having Dustin and team west on, and no matter the promotion he is fighting the best welterweight Ireland has to offer.
Came across this post cause was looking further background into Dustin. To say Im ashamed of this person calling themselves MMA Ireland and their comments on Rumble in Rush is the least. Dustin is to face one of Irelands best fighters and is supporting grass-root MMA for us. John Donnelly has been on the fight scene in Ireland for years and although had been out unfortunately for time with injuries he is a massive potential and this is great opportunity for him also.
Maybe Rumble doesnt have lightin and sound systems that astound but its whats in the show that counts and if people cannot have anything supportive or productive to say in support of Irish MMA maybe their view should be kept to themselves instead of international slandering. Paul Cowzer is one of the nicest men on the Irish scene and Ive known him for over 5yrs and truely passionate about his MMA. His service to his club and to the country in the support is massive. He has helped establish many of the current promotions and establishments of clubs.
I thank Dustin and his team for coming to Ireland and fighting a formidable opponent and for supporting grass root MMA in this country.