Jordan Furey has his road to pros mapped out

Jordan Furey wants to become a professional mixed martial artist - but the Clan Wars kingpin is taking it one fight at a time.

Furey retained the Clan Wars super lightweight title in Belfast on Sunday evening, stopping Fredrick Høifødt after just 72 seconds.

Furey moved to 5-0 as an amateur and the Letterkenny man is clear where he wants to go.

“This time next year, I want to be a pro,” Furey told Donegal Live.

“The World Championships are in January - they’re the 2021 Worlds, which were postponed - and I would like to do those if there was a vacancy came up.

“I would love to get a chance to go and win the World Championships and then maybe get another fight or two by the summer. That would take me up to ten fights.

“I would want to spent three or four months just training every single day, training every day just to improve.

“I would have the experience by then and it would be about building the skill set.

“By either the end of 2022 or early in 2023, I would be looking to have a pro debut.

“I really am not looking too far ahead. It’s about one fight at a time. Every fight is just another fight for me.”

The Straight Blast Gym-prepared Furey raised a lot of eyebrows with Sunday’s win at the Crowne Plaza. The midway point of the first round hadn’t even been seen when he locked Høifødt up un a triangle choke and the afternoon was over with Furey retaining his title.

“I was happy enough to get submission considering he was a grappler,” Furey said.

“In my other fights, I didn’t get that chance. People were maybe writing me off as a striker and I didn’t have much opportunity to show my ground game. I was happy to get in and show that I can grapple.

“It was good when I got in there. I could feel when he landed few strikes that he was strong. I could feel that, but I caught him with a left hand and dropped him. That’s how we ended up on the ground. I loved every minute of it and took it all in.”

Furey won’t take much of a break and plans to get back to work with his boxing coach, Reg Byrne.

The 22-year-old is fighting with real confidence and hasn’t earmarked anyone as a possible opponent.

He’s willing to face anyone.

“I am happy to get Sunday’s fight done fast and I would like to get straight out again,” Furey said.

“Anyone who is at my weight, I’ll take them on. I’m not really eyeing anyone up - it’s basically anyone who is in my weight class. I’m at the top now so I’ll take anyone at all.”

Furey learned his trade initially under Brian Coyle at Rilion Gracie Ireland in Letterkenny before making a big move to the capital last year. He works at SBG under John Kavanagh, coach to UFC superstar Conor McGregor, and the hard yards are put in.

“We do fight simulations in the gym a lot,” Furey said. “You book the cage if you’re going to spar with someone. Two cornermen come in, one with each fighter and you have a good, hard spar.

“To be honest, I did way harder spars and fought tougher rounds in sparring than Sunday. You take those shots at full power too in sparring and all of that is conditioning you for what’s going to happen in the cage on fight night.”