Phil Doherty

Phil Doherty is a journalist by profession but now works in PR and social media marketing.

He grew up in Alnwick, Northumberland, United Kingdom, where he spent most of his childhood roaming the countryside and generally getting into childhood scrapes and trouble.

He worked as a printer in his father's print company then worked in a sawmill and chopped off four of his fingers on his left hand in a bandsaw accident. Three were then sewn back on!

After that, he went back to college, gained qualifications and started a new life as a journo in Whitstable, Kent. He then moved back to the north-east and joined the Sunday Sun.

From his teens onwards he trained in numerous martial arts including Wado Ryu Karate, Ninjutsu, Wing Chun, TKD, Kali, and kickboxing, among others. He has ten black belts including four in Directional Fighting Method, a self-protection system.

He ran a training company specialising in self-protection, conflict resolution training, health and safety, first aid and other courses.

He set up, with his good friends and brother, a martial association called DFM Martial Arts that included MMA gyms, BJJ gyms, kickboxing and self-protection clubs. DFM Martial Arts also ran Martial News - an online newspaper-style magazine - Combat Sports Live TV with partners 10th Legion and Chimp Media and ran successful kickboxing and MMA fight shows.

He is married to his beautiful wife Paula and has two sons Joe and Ben.