When Paddy Holohan discovered mixed martial arts as a teenager, it was the first time his life settled into something approaching focus. Far removed from the chaos of the outside world, every bout reduced that maze of hardship to one simple proposition: survive – a task made all the more unlikely given Paddy’s rare form of haemophilia, which he kept secret from the MMA world for years. For the duration of his career, he was never more than one misplaced strike away from the end.

Why enter the Octagon knowing you might never leave? For Holohan, it would take a journey to the summit of his sport, and a high-profile fall from grace, to unravel the answer to that question and, with it, finally find some measure of redemption. This is his story.