Aisling Daly: The rise & legacy of an Irish trailblazer

2022 is shaping up to be a banner year for Ireland's female mixed-martial-arts fighters.

Last month, 21-year-old Dubliner Nadine Abbott-Bissett became the amateur atomweight world champion.

This weekend, Leah McCourt and Sinead Kavanagh will take centre stage at the 3 Arena for the most eagerly anticipated all-Irish clash in years.

Something that Abbott-Bissett, McCourt and Kavanagh all shared from their early days in the sport is the knowledge that an Irish woman could rise through the ranks, become a champion and fight on the biggest stages in the world.

The woman who inspired them, of course, is Aisling Daly.

Before Conor McGregor was calling for "60 gs, baby"; before the UFC had ever allowed women to fight in the Octagon; 'Ais The Bash' was leading the line for the Irish scene.

In the same building that McCourt and Kavanagh will face off in, Daly claimed the sole win for SBG Ireland at 2015's UFC Dublin following an emotional entrance that went viral worldwide.

Sitting astride the octagon, Daly jubilantly celebrated not only a win, but a moment of vindication.

After years of putting herself through the wringer to achieve her goals - giving up her fight purses to fly opponents in to face her, being shunned by promoters who didn’t want to carry female fights, ridiculous weight cuts and so much more - the ovation from her hometown crowd must have felt like a warm hug.

Daly didn’t know it then, but it would be the last time she would compete in MMA.

Two months after the career-highlight hometown win, Daly was preparing for a clash with Michelle Waterson when doctors discovered she had suffered a micro haemorrhage via a routine scan.

'The Bash' didn’t think twice about hanging her gloves up.

"The thing that really drove it home for