WHEN Sinead Kavanagh fights Janay Harding at Bellator 291 on February 25, it will be a year since she last entered the octagon.
Her last bout was a decision win over Leah McCourt, also at the 3Arena, but ended with her being carried out in the arms of Conor McGregor and coach John Kavanagh,
When Sinead Kavanagh fights Janay Harding at Bellator 291 on February 25, it will be a year since she last entered the octagon.
While the Irish featherweight had her arm raised, she had suffered an injury that rendered her unable to leave the arena of her own accord.
While the Irish featherweight had her arm raised, she had suffered an injury that rendered her unable to leave the arena of her own accord.
Thirty seconds into the scrap, McCourt took the Dubliner to the ground, leaving Sinead with a ruptured ACL and partial tear in the MCL of the very same knee.
She told SunSport: “I am just happy that I got the win. If I hadn’t gotten the win, things would have been a hell of a lot worse.
“When I got the surgery for my ACL and MCL, it was lonely and I couldn’t do much.
“I was stuck in the house. I couldn’t walk. That was rough. When I could train, it was weights. It was baby steps getting there.”
Recounting the sensation at the time, Kavanagh adds: “I knew something was wrong with my knee.
“If you look back, my knee went an awful way with her on top of my leg. When I fell, my whole leg was dead.
“After the first round, I went to John and I said, ‘John, there is something wrong with my knee.’ He was like, ‘you have two, don’t you?’” she laughs.
Kavanagh was carried to the dressing room by Kavanagh and McGregor, and would leave the 3Arena in a wheelchair.
Las than a year after the former two-weight UFC champion had broken his leg against Dustin Poirier, it placed McGregor in a qualified position to bestow advice for how to deal with a debilitating injury.
So, too, did the fact that, in the early stages of his UFC career, the 34-year-old had damaged his own ACL.
Kavanagh revealed: “He tore his ACL before with the Max Holloway fight.
“Conor is nothing but an gent to me and he said, ‘that’s happened to me. You will get through it and everything will be alright.’
“It is mad that it’s been a year already.”
ON THE WAY BACK
For the following few weeks, she was restrained to crutches and eventually received surgery in April.
Much of the year that has passed since that McCourt win has consisted of arduous rehabilitation.
She is able to look back on it with good humour, acknowledging the tragic irony of losing a year of her career for such a freak injury.
She described the wheelchair to which she was restricted leaving the 3Arena as “bandy”, playfully pointing out that the wheels kept turning into the wall.
That is not to say that she is free of doubt, mind you.
“I started easing back into it in December and I was only doing literally a warm up and a bit of technique and that was it.
“Just gently doing one round, two rounds, just for my head, to say my knee is okay.
“I was afraid that it would happen again or someone would damage it because it was a long road to get it right again.”
Her positive outlook has been facilitated by the knowledge that there is, indeed light at the end of the tunnel.
On February 25, the 37-year-old will make what she hopes will be a triumphant return against former foe Janay Harding.
It comes 12 months to the day since her extensive knee injury or, as she calls it with a chuckle, “the anniversary of the ACL!”
HARD DONE BY
Kavanagh has fought Harding before.
In 2018, the two squared off in Connecticut but it only lasted one round, before Harding was awarded the win by doctor stoppage due to a cut sustained by Kavanagh.
She lamented: “To me, it is like, ‘what is going to happen next?’
“I am not the luckiest when it comes to decisions or what happened in the Leah fight. I am looking forward to this one and I am looking forward to getting redemption from the last one.
“I was totally down. I couldn’t believe it. All those weeks of training for it to be stopped like that.
“Everyone was down after that. It was a lot of time training for it to be over in the round.”
Janay Harding beat Sinead Kavanagh in 2018 by doctor’s stoppage after Kavanagh suffered a cut
That was Sinead’s fifth fight for Bellator and left her with a 2-3 record.
She has been able to bounce back since then, winning three of her last four, with the only defeat being against featherweight champ Cris Cyborg.
Now at 5-5 in the promotion and 8-5 in her pro career, Kavanagh is hopeful of avenging that Harding loss and seal a dream MMA return.
“It isn’t going to be an easy fight. She is coming here to give it her best shot.
“She is tall, she is rangy and she is dangerous. It could go the distance. I feel I am better and it could be a second round stoppsge, but it could go the distance.”
Tickets to BELLATOR 291: Amosov vs. Storley 2, taking place at Dublin’s 3Arena on Saturday, February 25, are available from Ticketmaster.ie and Bellator.com