Irishman Will Fleury eyes Brendan Lesar bout after eye catching 2017

Promising Irish Middleweight Will Fleury, the 2017 winner of Severe MMA‘s Emerging Irish Prospect Of The Year award, is looking to continue his good run of form from 2017 in the South African EFC promotion and is also keen on facing South African native Brendan Lesar in the immediate future.

SBG Ireland’s Fleury (3-0) had the most impressive year of his career to date in 2017, scoring 3 consecutive victories, all 3 coming by stoppage as a professional after previously compiling an undefeated amateur record.

“Obviously 2017 was a great year for me, but 2018 is gonna blow it out of the water. Regarding that no contest earlier in the year, It’s clearly a shocking decision, we’ve all seen the footage and if that’s not a DQ, what is? It’s a really sickening situation in a lot of ways but the thing that frustrates me most about is that now Brendan Lesar, a guy I tapped twice in about a minute and a half in the tryouts is considered the winner of TF1 [The Fighter 1] and got a contract which makes his next few fights very rewarding.

“It’s frustrating considering the gulf in class between us. I’d love to get the chance to fight him for that contract. I’d put on a show. If I fight Lesar, I’ll prove I’m the real winner of the show and get that contract and title shot. If I don’t get that fight, then I want a lad with a legit record who people are excited by.”

Quite uncommon for young promising Irish prospects, Will Fleury currently finds himself competing in the South African promotion EFC, an organisation he’s more than happy to turn out for.

“Right now I’m happy just to be building a profile and covering my expenses, but every true fighter wants to test themselves against the top guys. If the EFC is where they are, great I’ll fight there. If they’re elsewhere, I’ll go there. I want to fight and beat the best guys. Brave CF have told me they’re interested so we’ll see what happens. I liked the buzz of being around the EFC 66 event, they try and do things exactly like a UFC event, which I feel is good preparation, but I’m open minded, I’ll go anywhere and fight anyone as long as the terms are right. I would like to get something booked soon though.”

The Cahir, Tipperary native hones his skills at Straight Blast Gym Concorde under the guidance and tutelage of Coach John Kavanagh and alongside some of Ireland’s most talented mixed martial artists in the form of UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, Peter Queally and James Gallagher to name a few.

“Look, what can I say about John at this stage, I think everyone knows how good he is, he’s pretty good at what he does. The gym is certainly a talent hub, if you want to be the best, train with the best.”

Incredibly, Fleury has seen 9 of his bouts cancelled throughout his career, but the 28 year-old spoke of his strong motivation and mind set to train and continue his MMA journey.

“Pull outs are heartbreaking and complex in the fact that you’re never sure if the guys reasons are genuine or if the nerves have gotten the better of him. In my case, I’ve had a few very dubious ones where the excuses were dismantled with some logical questions, but I’m sure a few were sincere.

“Motivation wise it was incredibly frustrating and I had several times where I was preparing for a fight for my life for 6-8 or even 10 weeks and then you get told that nothing is going to happen, go home and sit on the couch, no fight, no money, nothing. If anything it made me more determined to show what I could do. I’m not someone who is easily demoralized and I always felt like situations can conspire against you but ultimately nobody can stop you only you. Having said that, I think there’s very few people who would still have made it to where I am considering what’s happened.”

Finally we questioned Will on what we can expect from him in 2018, his response:

“I don’t know really, I might bring out a whiskey.”