Bannon poised to make UFC debut at O2 Arena in London

SHAUNA Bannon will make her debut for the prestigious Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) this Saturday night, July 22, in the O2 Arena in London.

The 29-year-old will become the second Irish woman in the promotion’s history, following in the footsteps of Aisling Daly, who had three fights in the UFC between 2014 and 2015.

‘Mama B’ is fighting in the prelims of a fight card which has the likes of Tom Aspinall and ‘Meatball’ Molly McCann taking to the octagon.

The Tallaght fighter will be the second fight of the night and is set to clash with Brazillian fighter Bruna Brasil, with the bout scheduled to be live on Virgin Media Two at 5pm on Saturday.

Brasil possesses a record of eight wins, three losses and a draw, her most recent fight ending in a TKO defeat against Denise Gomes at a UFC Fight Night in April.

Before that, in 2022, Brasil recorded a win over Yasmin Castanho at LFA 132 before beating Marnic Mann with a flashy head kick on Dana White’s UFC Contender Series in September.

Meanwhile, Bannon was steadily building, rattling off five wins in her first 12-months as a professional, having stepped up from the amateur ranks at Cage Legacy 15 in April 2022.

Training under former UFC fighter Paddy Holohan out of Holohan Martial Arts gym on the Greenhills Road, Bannon is ready to make the step-up to the premier mixed martial arts organisation.

This Saturday, Holohan will become the first Irish person to have both fought and coached in the UFC.

Before turning to MMA in 2018, the former St Mark’s Community School student had a very successful kickboxing career, being crowned WAKO World Champion five times and WAKO European Champion six times.

In the amateur ranks, Bannon stormed to a world gold medal at the 2021 IMMAF World Cup and recorded impressive TKO victories over Catherine McFadden, Charlie Burke, and Shanelle Dyer.

Most recently, Bannon flexed her high fight IQ to outclass Minna Grusander at Invicta FC 52 in March of this year.

The talented strawweight got the call from the UFC and put pen to paper on a dream deal with the organisation in May and has been busy in fight camp since, even training with Molly McCann some weeks.