When SBG Ireland product and Conor McGregor teammate, Paddy Holohan, was forced to retire back in 2016 due to a rare blood disorder, I figured that was the last time we’d ever hear from the flyweight “Hooligan.”
He did not go quietly.
Holohan, 31, captured a seat on the South Dublin County Council by winning in Tallaght South on Saturday, one of only two candidates to reach quota and the clear winner when the final votes were tallied.
Not bad for a kid from Jobstown.
“This is an extremely proud moment,” Holohan told MMA Fighting. “I’m not in here as the token UFC guy. I’m not in here as the token ginger guy. I’m not coming in here at the branch level, I’m coming straight in at the roots. People who want to get engaged and fix their lives themselves, I’m right there with them.”
“Congratulations Paddy,” McGregor wrote on social media. “An amazing achievement!”
Holohan made his Octagon debut — in Dublin — at the UFC Fight Night 46 mixed martial arts (MMA) event back in summer 2014, winning by way of first-round submission. “The Hooligan” finished 3-2 under the UFC banner (12-2-1 overall), last falling to Louis Smolka at UFC Fight Night 76, also in Dublin.
And if Holohan thought MMA was hard, politics may be his most difficult fight to date.