11-05-2025
Meet the Belfast firefighter ready to set the MMA world ablaze after injury hell
By day, Sean McCormac fights fires. By night, he fights some of the toughest athletes on the planet.
A couple of months ago, he feared his MMA career was over. The 29-year-old was in the middle of a two-year plus absence during which time he went through a number of serious knee injuries.
Add to that a freak concussion suffered at the hands of his brother three weeks out from a scheduled contest, and Belfast man McCormac, who works as a firefighter in his day job, was beginning to think his time was up.
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Flash forward to May 10th and McCormac will be stepping into the cage to take on Englishman Haider Khan in a massive fight at the SSE arena in Belfast on the undercard of an event headlined by blossoming superstar Paul Hughes, a scenario which was absolutely not on the cards two months ago.
"I was supposed to fight in March and about three weeks out, me and my brother, we were grappling, and he came out of the position and just the way his elbow hit me it just concussed me.
"And my team pulled me from the fight. So I took a week off and I was up in Donegal. And I was chilling out.
"I was almost a wee bit depressed like 'f*** me, I've just blown another fight, what's going on here with all these injuries?'
"Then the text comes through with the name (Khan) and it says the PFL can't get a match for him, what do you think of him?
"I said yes before I even watched him to be honest. I'm just here for a scrap, if I can't go against the best in the world and test my ability, then what am I doing this sport for?"
After suffering a second major knee injury, McCormac admits there was a time when he considered quitting fighting altogether, instead, he is on the cusp of living out his biggest dream.
"The first knee injury, it took three months to come back and I got back to better than where I was before. I'm blessed my father's a physio, so I went to him. And you know, it's not like I want to get back to the level of a normal person, I have to get back to the level to where I was and also get better because I'm obviously getting better in the sport.
"Then when I got back from that, I broke the ribs. I was going to get another fight signed up and then I blew the knee a second time.
"I was lying up again in the knee brace for another 10 weeks, and there was sad times where you're lying there and you're like, is this it?
"Like what am I doing this for?
"You just have to truck through those. You got to be a tank running downhill and just keep trucking. Any obstacle in the way, just take it as it is. I knew there was a reason just to stick it out, and here it is, and now I'm performing in Belfast.
"This has been my dream. I drive past that stadium all the time. My missus is probably sick of me saying 'Someday I'm gonna fight here'. literally she's probably sick of hearing it, but you get goosebumps when you think about it, now I get to do it."
For a man who fights fires to pay the bills, he's well used to high pressure situation, and it's safe to say he's not exactly feeling the heat ahead of the biggest night of his career.
"I just think it adds excitement for me, you know, I've never been one that's really caved under the pressure.
"I think I shine brighter the bigger the moment is, so I think this is just gonna be the exact same when I get out there.
"I think you are gonna be like, 'that's crazy that this man had two years off of those injuries, and he went in and did that to that guy.'"
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