{"id":409201,"date":"2026-01-13T00:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409201\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T00:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:17:08","slug":"waterford-mma-fighter-solomon-simon-honoured-with-mayoral-reception-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409201\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterford MMA fighter Solomon Simon honoured with Mayoral Reception &#8211; News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Waterford MMA fighter Solomon Simon was honoured with a mayoral reception in City Hall on Friday, January 9, commemorating his crowning as the Cage Warriors World Featherweight Champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Simon currently holds a record of 7-0 in professional MMA. He beat Brazilian Vincente Araujo in November 2025 to claim the division belt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Simon is scheduled to defend his title against Nik Bagley at the RDS in Dublin on February 21.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mayor of Waterford City and County Council Seamus Ryan said: \u201cSolomon is proudly Nigerian-Irish and hails from Ballybeg here in Waterford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cHe is a great example of the talent, diversity and determination that exists in our community, and a reminder of the positive stories that come from hard work and opportunity.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3828486_2_articleinline_s9_281_29.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor Ryan and Simon pictured beside a Harley-Davidson- the motorcycle manufacturer that sponsors Simon.\u00a0 Photo: Joe Evans \" title=\"Mayor Ryan and Simon pictured beside a Harley-Davidson- the motorcycle manufacturer that sponsors Simon.\u00a0 Photo: Joe Evans \" class=\"card-img\"\/>Mayor Ryan and Simon pictured beside a Harley-Davidson- the motorcycle manufacturer that sponsors Simon.\u00a0 Photo: Joe Evans <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThose of you who know Solomon will also know Solomon as a grounded, humble and hardworking individual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Speaking to the  News &amp; Star, Simon said the reaction to his title win has \u201cbeen amazing\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI just have to do the work so I don\u2019t have to pay too much attention to what\u2019s going on, but once I got that win, and seeing how much support came out, I was surprised people were even aware of the sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe last month or so has been hectic but good. My goal from the start has always been the same, I\u2019m aiming as high as I can go in the sport, and that would be the UFC &#8211; that would be the biggest stage to display myself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI\u2019m doing this purely not to be like \u2018oh I\u2019m this tough guy\u2019. This sport itself brings growth to you in so many different ways\u2026the way I approach life, the discipline it gives you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cGetting to the UFC is the next aim, but to get there we have to get through what\u2019s in front of us, we get through February, we get through whatever comes next\u2026every step I take I get closer to that goal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The reception was packed to the brim with Simon&#8217;s friends and family, training partners at Team Ryano (Simon&#8217;s MMA team) and delegates from Cage Warriors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cage Warriors is an Irish-owned MMA promotion based in London. The organisation has previously acted as a springboard for Conor McGregor and UFC Welterweight contender Paddy Pimblett.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n             Funded by the Local Democracy Scheme\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waterford MMA fighter Solomon Simon was honoured with a mayoral reception in City Hall on Friday, January 9,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-409201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}