“The greatest female Irish fight of all time” John Kavanagh on Leah McCourt vs Sinéad Kavanagh

John Kavanagh has heralded a potential matchup between Leah “The Curse” McCourt (6-1) and Sinéad “KO” Kavanagh (7-5) as “the greatest female Irish fight of all time”

News emerged on Friday—first reported by Petesy Carroll and separately confirmed by SevereMMA—that Bellator are targeting a featherweight matchup between McCourt and Kavanagh for their Dublin show on Friday 25th February in the 3Arena.

Speaking to Severe MMA at the “Unstoppable” seminar in aid of Ian Coughlan in SBG Ireland on Saturday, IMMAA President John Kavanagh gave his thoughts on the potential matchup:

“If we were to get that, I don’t think it would be overstating it that that would be one of the biggest national fights, forget genders, but certainly the biggest Irish female fight of all time”

Both McCourt and Kavanagh have risen to prominence in the Bellator women’s 145lbs division in recent years. McCourt is undefeated under the Bellator promotional banner, boasts a six-fight win streak dating back to 2018, and headlined Bellator 240 in February 2020. Kavanagh is coming off a title shot against one of the greatest female fighters of all time, Cris Cyborg.

“Leah has consistently proven she is a winner. She keeps stepping up, she keeps winning. She’s got her skillset. Sinéad is a stalwart of Irish MMA, just off a rough loss to Cyborg. She had her moments in it, but brief fight, got caught with a good shot. But she’s had over the years some great fights in Dublin. It’s the sort of a fight that everybody involved in the scene went ‘when’? It wasn’t ‘if’. There’s not an enormous number of 145lbs women at that level in Europe, never mind Ireland. Look, Leah is one of the best out there! Sinéad is one of the best out there. Let’s see who is the best between the two of them.” John Kavanagh told Severe MMA.

Many would agree with John Kavanagh’s comments on a McCourt vs Kavanagh fight being inevitable. With just one place separating number-four ranked McCourt and number-five ranked Kavanagh in the Bellator divisional rankings, the time is now.