Coaching now an 'obsession' for Chris Fields as he prepares his fighters for first the first MMA event at the RDS

It crept up on Chris Fields at first, his crossover from fighter to coach. He only realised it about two years ago. No longer was he watching fights and imagining himself as the fighter but as the mentor. A subtle but seismic shift for a one-time Cage Warriors champion.

Fields' was one of the more intriguing plotlines on season 19 of hit UFC series The Ultimate Fighter too, back in 2014.

Bad blood hung in the air between the Dubliner and Matt Van Buren ahead of their light heavyweight elimination bout.

Van Buren promised to 'smash' Fields who described his opponent as 'a slower version of me'. Fields reckoned it was 'my fight to lose' which, unfortunately, he did by decision. And that was that.

North of 40 now, he's the lead MMA coach at the Team KF Martial Arts gym in Swords and training up a batch of ultra talented prospects.

Three of Fields' fighters - Leon Hill, Taka Mhandu and Ryan Shelley - are on the Cage Warriors 161 bill at the RDS, the first ever MMA event at the famous Dublin venue.

"It was a strange thing for me," said Fields of the change from fighter to coach. "I suppose it's a weird job in that it defines you almost, being a fighter. It's everything, it's your whole being. It's your essence. Then that part is gone. I still compete in Jiu Jitsu and stuff but that part is kind of gone from you.

"Now I'm just solely focused. When I watch fights I don't think, 'I could do that technique', I'm thinking, 'That could be implemented into Leon's game or Taka's game or Ryan's game'. That's the way I look at it now."

Truth be told, there was always a coach inside Fields just waiting to burst out.

"I would have coached Cathal Pendred for a lot of his UFC career," he said. "The likes of Paddy Holohan, all this kind of stuff, I