About Mick Doyle
Mick Doyle was born in Dublin, Ireland, where his family has had a long tradition of fighters including his great-grandfather Mickey Finn, the legendary bare-knuckle champion of Ireland. Mick began Martial Arts training at the age of 7.
From 1980 to 1985 Mick went undefeated and become the Irish Kickboxing Champion. For three of those years, Mick was forced to fight in the adult divisions, even though he had not met his majority. His tournament and fight schedule allowed him to travel much of Northern Europe.
On December 6th, 1986 at the age of 18 Mick made the decision to immigrate to the United States. He attended Bellevue University full time until 1988 when a position opened up at Saint Joseph Center for Mental Health where he became the Fitness coordinator for the hospital, its patients and staff. He also opened his first Martial Arts school in the same year called The Midwest Fighting Arts Academy.
In 1989 he met one of his childhood goals—being recognized as one the best active fighters in the world. He was ranked the number one welterweight fighter in the IKKC World rankings by Denver based World promoter Vern Stephenson, and later that year won his first World Title in Muay Thai.
In September 1994, Mick won his second World title. The IKBO (International Kickboxing Organization) based out of Emmen, Holland and run by Mr. Fred Royers.
On April 25th, 1996 Mick was appointed Head Coach of the United States Muay Thai Team. In May of that year, Mick traveled with the team to Thailand to train and compete in the Princes Cup World Championship.
After returning from Thailand, Mick began to spend more time perfecting his Jui Jitsu and Grappling skills. Mick was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by his friends Scott Thompson and R.J Nebe who were the first blue belts in the Midwest, under the legendary Rickson Gracie. At one point, Renzo Gracie came to Omaha to train with Mick at his gym as did John Lewis and Igor Zinoviev.
In 1998 Mick wanted to test his new found skills of grappling and No Holds Barred fighting with a real competition and won the Budokai Bare Knuckle Challenge in Springfield, Missouri. Also in 1998, Mick won the Grand Championship Belt at Bas Rutten’s U.S. Open Jui Jitsu/Tough Man Tournament in Denver, Colorado. His last full contact fight was in Beijing China in 1999 as part of the first professional mixed martial arts fight ever to take place in China.
Since retiring from competition Mick has devoted his energies to continuing his advancement as a Martial Artist and a Coach. He currently holds the rank of Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Scott Thompson and Master Fabio Santos, who is one of the highest-ranking students of Rickson Gracie. He strives to teach people the life’s lessons he has learned from years of constantly challenging and pushing himself to be the best. The odds have always been stacked against him. From being blind in one eye to immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 18, unsure of what his future in this country would hold, Mick has faced all these challenges with the courage and determination of a modern day warrior.
Mick has trained more National Champions than any other coach in the United States. To date, he has coached 39 National Champions and cornered 7 World Champions. He is a Senior instructor at 88 Tactical World Headquarters and teaches CQB and unarmed combatives training. His seminars, fighter coaching sessions and methods are among the best in the world and he has worked with some of the best fighters in the world including Conor McGregor, Gunni Nelson, Anthony “Lionheart” Smith, and Kongnapa Watcharwit. He has lived his life through Martial Arts and is guided by the ancient Samurai maxim “everything, everybody, outside of myself is my teacher”.
Mick Doyle and Friends
