UFC’s fighting Irish head to Boston: What’s on the line for Paddy Holohan?

Patrick "The Hooligan" Holohan will be looking to rebound from the first loss of his seven-year professional fight career when he takes to the octagon on Sunday evening.

Holohan made the UFC's flyweight division sit up and take notice during his promotional debut at UFC Dublin in July of last year when he showed off his beautiful transitions on the ground en route to a first round rear naked choke victory over the gritty wrestler Josh Sampo. With all the momentum of that massively impressive win behind him, "The Hooligan" was matched up with a relatively big-name in Louis Gaudinot back when the TUF 14 vet was ranked #12 in the 125lb division. That bout represented genuine potential for Holohan who would have made a serious case for himself to be included in the UFC's top 15 if he had managed to get past Gaudinot. That notion disappeared when Gaudinot withdrew from the October fight and Holohan was handed a banana-peel opponent against the somewhat unknown UFC newcomer Chris Kelades. It was on that night that Kelades became the very first L on Holohan's fight record when the Canadian was given the unanimous decision over the Irishman. The Dub refused to tout excuses when he spoke to SportsJOE after the fight, saying: “It was a fight. That guy came ready to fight and everyone thought I’d walk over him but that guy had a better record and was a better fighter than the guy I was supposed to fight. He was just less known. I knew what I was going in to face.” So "The Hooligan" will have to rebuild that upward movement through the division after he touches gloves with the 13-8 Shane Howell come Sunday evening. Howell is coming off a loss of his own as he was submitted in the first round of his promotional debut by Ray Borg so both fighters will be keen on getting back into the win column. One thing that Paddy has to his advantage, compared to the other Irish fighters on the card, is the fact that the flyweight division is far more sparse than their weight class. According to UFC.com, there are a mere 40 125lb fighters contracted to the UFC which is a hell of a lot less than other divisions. Conor McGregor's featherweight division has 80, Norman Parke's lightweight class has 111 and Cathal Pendred's welterweight division has 112. The less fighters in a particular weight division obviously gives Holohan the advantage of having less guys to get past in order to reach the top 15. That mathematical technicality won't appease Holohan though. The 26-year-old will want to earn his way to a spot among the divisions elite but, as he told SportsJOE at the weekend, he already ranks himself as a top 10 fighter. A loss for Holohan is something that he can't even consider if he is to make a run up the division in 2015 as that will leave him with a 1-2 record with the Las Vegas promotion meaning he could be one more loss away from the danger zone. But a win will hopefully set him up with a bigger name opponent which could possibly see the fight that never happened, against Louis Gaudinot, come to fruition in the summer.