An excruciating rugby injury has spawned one of the most promising fight careers in Ireland

Will Fleury is a self-proclaimed raw bastard ass-whooper from Tipperary, and he has one hell of a story to tell.

Athletes suffering injuries and finding MMA isn't a rare occurrence. We've seen this happen at the highest level with Matt Mitrione. After his NFL career was cut short due to horrendous injuries, he switched to MMA. Nine years after coming through the Ultimate Fighter to make his professional debut in the Octagon, 'Meathead' was knocking out the great Fedor Emelianenko, arguably the greatest heavyweight ever. Another man who picked up the 4oz gloves after getting hurt in another field is Irish middleweight Will Fleury. Since switching to the fistic arts, the SBG fighter has solidified his position as one of Ireland's greatest prospects. Going 7-0 as an amateur and 4-0 in the professional ranks caught the attention of Bellator MMA, who snapped him up on a multi-fight deal in 2018. His fight career can be traced back to a rugby sevens game that went down on Randall's Island, New York about a decade ago.

"I broke my foot playing rugby about 9/10 years ago in New York. Went to like kind of half tackle a lad and this big American lad. His knee onto the foot. It like crushed two of the arches or whatever and one of them metatarsals got damaged too and it was just agony. I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks. So I came back to Ireland with that because I couldn't really do much over there.  "When I came back and I was doing all the rehab, I was told boxing footwork was the best thing I could do. So I went down to a boxing gym and they had a cage and saw the cage was like, 'Right. I want to give this shit a shot.' So I started doing MMA and just got obsessed with it from there."

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South Africa

Once his foot healed up, Fleury really hit the ground running. He submitted Irish MMA veteran John Redmond in his debut then knocked out Kyle McClurkin on the undercard of the huge Norman Parke vs Paul Redmond BAMMA headliner. With two wins under his belt, Fleury heard of an opportunity with EFC, Africa's premier MMA organisation. They were doing an Ultimate Fighter-style reality TV series which required undefeated talent from around the world. Fleury fit the bill, so off he went to South Africa.

"Overall, it was very mixed. I loved going down there. I loved South Africa. It's a weird place, but there's a lot of good stuff down there. I met a lot of cool a really interesting people and I got to live in a pretty nice gaff with free food for six or eight weeks. It was great in a load of ways, but obviously, the way it ended up and the way they handled that whole situation with the elbows, I was very disappointed."

It didn't take long for Fleury's confidence to grow in the fighters' house. While he embraced the competitive element, he witnessed others crumble. This self-assurance was backed up by a slick submission over Mike DiOrio in the first round. Unfortunately, his run on the show would end in the next stage against the Australian Shaw Dean under controversial circumstances. In the first round, Fleury took Dean down and mounted him. When Dean got back to his feet, he shot in for a takedown again. This time, the Aussie responded with over a dozen illegal elbows to the back of the head. In what John Kavanagh described as, 'the worst refereeing in 20 years,' the official took his time to intervene. When he did, the damage was already done. Fleury went back to his corner to get the cuts on the back of his head checked by the doctor. Dean got a bollocking and it went down as a No Contest. Fleury wasn't allowed to continue in the tournament due to a possible concussion. So, despite the egregious fouls, Dean went through to the semi-finals.

"Shaw got out of jail with those elbows, to be honest, because I think he was fucked like. I could hear him, when I mounted him. There was just this sigh out of him and I was like, 'Yeah, you're done pretty much.' And that was only 90 seconds into the fight! It's a disappointing way that whole thing ended but, look where I am. What's he done since? Sad. I don't dislike the guy, I don't hate him. I just think the way that whole situation ended up is fucked."

Indeed, Dean has faded into relative obscurity following the completion of 'The Fighter'. Meanwhile, Fleury is about to make his debut for the world's second largest MMA promotion. Unsurprisingly, the man who received the moniker 'Fuckin' for being 'a pretty animated young lad,' has a fucking funny story behind receiving that call too.

"My phone's dodgy and my battery keeps dying. I knew it might have been in the works for a couple of days and I was just waiting for John Kavanagh to get back to me. My battery died a couple of hours before, so I went into a McDonald's on Grafton St to charge it. I plug in the phone and it's the type of thing that as soon as you plug it in, it comes straight back on. A message pops up, 'You're in.' I was just like, "Yes! Fucking yes!" I was screaming this away and everyone in the queue in McDonald's was just staring at me like, 'What the fuck is this lad at?'"

Fleury has already had to overcome a lot in his young career. A broken foot, multiple fights falling through, an unfair exit from a reality TV show and, well, a dodgy phone delaying some good news. Adversity has been a running theme throughout his athletic career, but he's thankful for how he's been able to apply those lessons to his life.

"I think the more you overcome, the more you have faith in yourself to overcome things. So if you deliberately go out and put yourself in situations where you have to overcome something then no matter what happens, you'll be some way able for it. So I think fighting gives you that basis of like, 'Oh, I overcome shit, that's what I do.' So when something ridiculous happens, when somebody dies, somebody gets cancer or whatever, I don't know, you feel much more able for those situations."

The adage that hardship builds character is proven true in Fleury's case. He's a character inside and out of the cage. Some will stumble through the fire. Not Fleury though. He was forged in it.