The UFC may have an Irishman as one of their biggest-ever stars, but ruling the squared circle in the WWE is another shining star from the Emerald Isle, Becky Lynch.

Born Rebecca Quin on January 30, 1987, Lynch started training as a professional wrestler as a 15-year-old, and competed under the name of Rebecca Knox.

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She trained at a wrestling school run by fellow Irish WWE star Finn Balor and cut her teeth in matches in Ireland before heading into Europe, and later to North America as she expanded her wrestling repertoire.

It seemed like good things were around the corner for the Limerick-born athlete, but a head injury sustained in a match in Germany in 2006 forced her to step away from the ring to fully recover. Lynch ended up away from regular action for six years before announcing her return by signing a developmental deal with the WWE, where she would compete for their developmental brand NXT.

Renamed as Becky Lynch, she competed for NXT for two years before making her big-brand debut on WWE Monday Night Raw in July 2015. At the time, the WWE was looking to make a concerted effort to rebrand and reposition its women's division so their top talent could be billed alongside the biggest male stars.

Dubbed "The Women's Revolution" Lynch was one of the shining stars of the new collective alongside fellow NXT graduates Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair, daughter of the great professional wrestling legend Ric Flair.

As the women's roster grew, so did their platform, and Lynch went from a crowd-pleasing mid-card attraction to a main event superstar. She captured the SmackDown women's title in 2016 and made history as the first woman to win a Wrestlemania main event when she pinned former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to become a dual champion, winning the Raw title to join her SmackDown belt.

Now Lynch remains on top of the WWE's women's division as the Raw women's champ, and last weekend at Wrestlemania 36, she defeated former mixed martial artist and ex-UFC fighter Shayna Baszler to maintain her champion status and hold the title for a full year.