Tim Murphy

Tim Murphy is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt and Irish MMA pioneer and competitor. Tim is a black belt under Rodrigo Medeiros of BJJ Revolution. He also holds a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwon-Do and has competed extensively in MMA, BJJ, Kickboxing and Taekwon-Do.

Early Martial Arts Career

Tim began his martial arts training in Taekwon-Do in his native Kerry at the age of seven, citing a love of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a driving factor (a sentiment many martial artists share). Murphy received his Black Belt in TKD in 1998 and began competing internationally, starting with the Taekwon-Do World Championship in England. Traveling and competing was to become an integral part of his martial arts journey, he would continue to compete both nationally and internationally in TKD and Kickboxing with notable titles being a gold medal at the WKA Kickboxing World Championship in Italy in 2002 at the age of 19, the Irish National Open TKD Championships in 2003 and the Irish Open Kickboxing Championship in 2004, the biggest competition of its kind in Europe at the time.

Mixed Martial Arts

Tim started his first martial arts club in the year 2000 with the Limerick Institute of Technology Taekwon-Do Club. He would go on to open the University of Limerick Kickboxing Club two years later with fellow martial artist Debra Donovan in 2002.
It was around this time that word of mixed martial arts was beginning to reach Ireland, and Tim began his MMA journey in a similar way to many of the original competitors; learning from DVDs and playing around with ‘grappling’ in his own club.
Within the small Limerick martial arts community word began to spread of a mysterious ‘Blue Belt’ (a unicorn of sorts in Ireland at the time) by the name of Fergal Quinlan. Tim sought out this mysterious master and began what would become a lasting affiliation and friendship with Fergal.
Tim’s competitive nature is never subdued for long and in the summer of 2004 he decided to take his first amateur MMA fight. Although his first outing didn’t go to plan with Tim losing to fellow Irish MMA veteran Mick “Sissy Boy” Leonard by armbar in the first round. Not one to be deterred he was back in the cage the following December for his professional Mixed Martial Arts debut, winning a back and forth battle versus Paul O’Connor via doctor’s stoppage.
Tim went on to become one of the top featherweights in the country, competing many times on various promotions around the country.

Tim would receive his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu two years later in 2006 from SBG head Matt Thornton. Tim and others pioneers of the sport in Ireland would travel up regularly to Dublin to train with John Kavanagh and his team learning as much as they could with each trip.

Galway & BJJ Revolution Affiliation

Tim’s working career brought him to the beautiful city of Galway in 2007 where he began training with Point Blank Submissions (Under Point Blank founder Mark Leonard) and Strange Wolves MMA.
Tim took over the running of the Point Blank in 2011 following Mark’s departure. Shortly after taking the reins Point moved from its humble beginnings of a small room in an industrial estate to our current location, a somewhat larger room in an industrial estate.
Tim decided to reach out to an old friend in Fergal Quinlan to allow Point Blank to become an official BJJ Revolution affiliate under Rodrigo Medeiros. That same year Tim received his Purple Belt from Team Ryano Head Coach, and fellow BJJ Revolution Affiliate Andy Ryan.
He would go on to win a gold medal at the No-Gi World Championship in Long Beach, California in 2013, becoming the first Irishman to win a gold medal at a Jiu-Jitsu world championship.