'Best performance' as Fife MMA ace Connor Nugent storms to win
After winning by a technical knockout in the first round of his latest fight, against Welshman Aaron Hodges in Newcastle, Glenrothes amateur MMA star Connor Nugent was understandably on Cloud 9.
Nugent, who wore his late dad Robert’s Scotland football top and proudly held the Saltire aloft during the pre-fight walk on, was backed by a table of 20 supporters – including his girlfriend Phoebe – on the Machine MMA bill which marked his third MMA contest and Hodges’ first.
“I was all over him and won by technical knockout two minutes into the first round,” Goliath MMA (Rosyth) gym member Nugent, 29, told the Glenrothes Gazette. “I had trained hard for it, which showed, and I put in my best MMA performance so far.
"I didn’t want to let him settle into his game. We thought he would have an advantage on the feet so as soon as the bell rang I took the centre of the octagon, just pressured him, put him against the fence and landed a few jabs and hooks.
"I hit him with some good knees as well which ultimately led to him dipping down and giving me enough control of the top half of his body to put him on the ground.
“Once I got him down he wasn’t getting back up and I had dominated on the feet as well to be honest.
"I was delighted to get it done so quickly. It was a good result.
"He only hit me decently once, he never hurt me.
"You need to be pretty confident to do this anyway, but I went in feeling good and with no injuries for once.
"There was a great atmosphere at the venue, with a few kids’ fights earlier on the card so there were a lot of families in.”
Nugent has been receiving many congratulations from his work-mates at Fife Council – where he is a skilled labourer – since returning from Newcastle.
He said: “I took a couple of days off my work after Newcastle because we had a wee bit of a night out.
"Everybody at my work has been talking about my fight, they all saw it.”
Nugent is full of confidence ahead of fighting in two classes at his next big outing, at jiu-jitsu’s Edinburgh Open on Saturday, September 7.
"I’m feeling good for that but it’s a different game there. It’s all striking so all these guys will be pure jiu-jitsu athletes more than likely and I devote all my time to MMA as well as jiu-jitsu.
"So it will be a challenge, it will not be easy.
"I’ve got four fights in the ultra heavyweight division and then I’m doing the absolute class – which is any weight – and I think there are 12 people in that knockout tournament.”