STEFAN MORIARTY COULD aptly be described as a martial arts renaissance man.

Aside from being the owner and head coach at the MMA Legends gym in Bray, he also splits his time between refereeing, judging and event promotion. Having spent 25 years acquiring a vast knowledge in a variety of martial arts, he’s dedicated the last decade to passing it on.

While travelling in Korea and America, Moriarty first encountered MMA. Despite the sport still being in its formative stages, he found those experiences extremely educational, particularly in the grappling forms such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and wrestling.

In 2010, when taking the decision to offer MMA instruction at the gym, he combined the sum of his expertise to construct a bespoke fighting prospectus.

However, due to the constant flux in mixed martial arts technique, he is continuously tinkering with that blueprint to stay current. He expects the same flexibility from his students.

“I had a core idea of what I wanted to put across to the students and how I wanted them to compete, but I’ve always had the philosophy of learning as you go. Every time I put guys in competitions, it’s not just about success, but taking something that you can improve on.

“In our club the martial arts are always evolving, particularly with MMA which is unrecognisable from what it was in the early 90s. It’s constantly evolving and that’s what makes it so appealing to the general public.”

The Legends gym has close to 60 members of varying ages and ability, learning everything from kick-boxing, taekwondo and BJJ. Moriarty takes pride in the fact that the lion’s share of the students regularly enter competitions, some of whom have won national titles in kick-boxing and no-gi BJJ.

“The majority of our members compete in some way. A lot of clubs might have their core group of fighters and then groups of people there just as a hobby or to learn self-defence, but 80-90% of our group are looking to compete across the board.”

Over the years the gym has also had considerable representation in all of the major Irish MMA promotions, including Man of War, which was established by Moriarty.

From 2010-13, a total of six Man of War shows were staged across Dublin, including the first-ever MMA event hosted at the Helix in DCU, now the Irish base for Cage Warriors.

In addition, Moriarty, along with his partners, is responsible for the K-1 Legacy kick-boxing shows, the most recent of which took place last weekend in Bray’s Grand Hotel. He says he has always received strong support from other gyms and plans to resuscitate Man of War next year.

“We’ve got a good crew together with a clear idea of what’s expected from each event. Luckily enough, thanks to the Irish martial arts scene, we get great support from other clubs. We haven’t done Man of War in over 18 months but we’re getting a lot of queries from fighters and clubs about when it’s coming back. We managed to get a good core following from the martial arts scene so we’re going to try bring it back in 2015.”

He believes the status quo of MMA in Ireland to be better than ever, though finds the lack of fan-support for indigenous events to be worrying. He maintains that the most viable way to ensure the sport’s long-term success in the country is to embrace it at the grassroots level.

“There seems to be a lot more UFC fans in Ireland than there are MMA fans. A lot of people who would go watch the UFC wouldn’t walk five minutes down the road to watch their own amateur and pro guys.

“And the thing is, every Irish fighter that has fought in the UFC has been in these local shows. You will see serious talent in Ireland at these shows and it’s a great night out. If we could get a bit more support on the ground, a lot more people would take part. Then the number of people pushing for the UFC would go up.

“Having the guys in the UFC is great but if more people start supporting local shows, the sport will grow from the bottom up, instead of the top down.”