Published: Tuesday, 8th July, 2008 10:10
Dinky ninja Scott is tickled pink
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Scott celebrates his fourth victory in a row
FLAME-hAIRED fighter Scott Ward racked up his fourth victory in a row on Sunday — then promptly dyed his locks back to black in time to graduate.
The Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competitor, who is a member of the Dumbarton Dinky Ninja Fight Team (DNFT), defeated opponent Graham Armstrong in the first round of his bout at the Harp Social Club.
But Scott admits his pink hair with flames at the back didn’t quite work out as planned.
And he quickly washed the colour out to attend his graduation ceremony having completed a four year degree in Quantity Surveying at Glasgow Caledonian University.
The 22-year-old said: “I’ve done a few stupid things before with my hair but this time I got it cut professionally and look what happened. My friend helped dye it red but it went pink.
“Still, it didn’t affect my performance and I made sure it was back to normal before I graduated or my mum would have been pretty raging.”
Scott and his DNFT mates John Cullen and John Quinn were all victorious in what was Dumbarton’s first ever MMA show.
Around 250 people from all over the country packed in to watch the nine fights organised by DNFT coaches John Nicolson (inset left) and Gary Christie.
Each fight, which involves a variety of techniques and submission moves, consists of three five-minute rounds. But Scott needed just one to defeat his Maryhill-based opponent, in 3 minutes 33 seconds.
Scott added: “It was pretty hard work preparing for the fight, especially as I took ill two weeks beforehand and couldn’t train for five days.
“But it actually worked in my favour as I couldn’t eat anything so I was able to make the 77kgs weight category more easily. It was brilliant to win and made all the hard work worthwhile.”
Scott now plans to make the step up from semi-pro to pro next year which will open up more legal moves like using headshots on a grounded opponent.
And while he admits his family were not best pleased with all his black eyes when he first took up the sport a year and a half ago, they are now ardent supporters.
“They are 100 per cent behind me,” added Scott. “My two brothers came down to watch on Sunday and my youngest brother Gary has just started training with us. When we grew up we were always fighting and wrestling one another after seeing it on tv so it prepared me well.”
His coach John Nicolson paid tribute to the talent of Scott and the other DNFT members.
He said: “Since January, we’ve had 16 competitive fights and 15 wins. So in terms of momentum, we are the best in Scotland and we proved it with a recent team event win.
“The boys are working really hard, pushing themselves to be the best. People think the guys are just a bunch of thugs but people like Scott show it is normal guys with degrees and full-time jobs.
“MMA in Scotland is growing. It is so explosive. As soon as the bell rings anything can happen. Boxing has gone a wee bit stale, a bit predictable, but not MMA.”
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