We’re almost there…with an immense amount of action already crammed into the calendar, Cage Warriors would continue its Summer Series through June and July, with a trio of events in two of our favourite cities; Manchester and London. With some of the most highly anticipated fights of the year on deck, all they had to do was deliver in practice what they promised on paper.
Let’s just say we weren’t let down.
CW 190: Unplugged
Italy’s Emanuele ‘THUG’ Zaccaria was in need of a dub heading into June’s CW Unplugged. With consecutive losses (albeit to Alessandro Giordano and Shirzad Qadrian – more on him later) hanging over him, it was time to go hard or go home.
It must have felt like distaste was immanent then, when undefeated prospect Daniel Bainbridge cracked him with a straight left just moments into their bout; a blow that floored the fan-favourite brawler and looked to signal the beginning of the end.
Tenacity and experience won the day though; Zaccaria was able to clear his head, defend Bainbridge’s onslaught and attack with a super-quick armbar for the shock submission victory, all in a matter of seconds.
Easily the evening’s most impressive performance.
CW 191: Manchester
24 hours after the dust had settled on Unplugged, we threw open the doors of the BEC Arena for a night of shocking upsets that perhaps shouldn’t have been so shocking in retrospect.
None came as a bigger gut-punch to the status quo than Team KF’s Omar Tugarev – a man just a year into his professional MMA career – upsetting CW mainstay James Power to capture the Interim Lightweight World Championship.
It was a performance as impressive as any Cage Warriors debut I’ve had the privilege of calling over the last thirteen years. A genuinely stunning piece of cage craft, made all the more impressive by the journey that brought the young Tugarev to the dance.
Speaking of impressive young lads in the Famous Yellow Gloves, how about that Jack Humphries taking home another neck?
Michael Pagani laced them up for what was inarguably the most important fight of his career against returning veteran Tim Wilde, and – with his back to the wall much like countryman Zaccaria the night before – turned in exactly the kind of performance he needed to.
Who can forget the sure fire ‘Fight of the Night’ between Adam Cullen and Lukas Cruz? Not me, not any of the two-thousand fans packed into the BEC and not anyone watching along on UFC Fight Pass, that’s for sure.
The pair threw caution to the wind, battering each other across the cage from pillar to post in a phenomenal display of guts and heart. Both hurt, both dropped, both forced to engage their survival instincts.
Unfortunately as the cliché goes, there can be only one winner and at CW 191, it was the Brazilian.
The event had one last shock up its sleave, too…although the twist took its time to play out.
Teddy Stringer came out doing Teddy Stringer things in the first round of his clash against fellow undefeated prospect Torpal Merjoev, dominating the frame as has become custom…until the last ten seconds, that is.
The Norwegian spun out of danger and ended the round on top of his man, delivering a barrage of punches and elbows. Unfortunately for Stringer it was a sign of things to come; as the second round commenced the one-way traffic was heading in the other direction, and before long ‘Rambo’ had locked up one of the tastiest Ninja Chokes I can recall seeing on CW.
In the words of Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition – Here comes a new challenger!
CW 192: London
The last event before the break and the conclusion of the Summer Series, we all had our fingers crossed that CW 192 would be something special.
Did it live up to expectations? You be the judge…
Fans, crew and fellow fighters were delighted at the Cage Warriors return of an OG, ‘The Crazy Kid’ Brad Wheeler. Even more so for the fact that he’d be throwing down with a man cut from the same cloth when it comes to their approach to fighting, Israel’s Raphael Aronov.
The pair didn’t disappoint, slinging leather from the first bell and rocking, dropping and generally scrapping each other across every inch of the mat. Big shots, brutal combos…even a calf slicer made an appearance before we’d got out of the first round.
Both men were – as expected -in need of the cutman’s services between rounds, but Wheeler had taken near catastrophic damage and was given 30 seconds to get back into the contest by referee Marc Goddard. It was too steep a hill for the King of Romford though, and Aronov’s run of barnstormers continues.
Weslley Maia continued to show why he’s one of the division’s biggest threats with a clinical, ground-up demolition job against grappling standout Aiden Stephen. The Scotsman just couldn’t find a way to implement his crushing top game against the Brazilian, who chopped him down with leg kicks before finishing the fight on the mat via a beautiful rear-naked choke with just seconds remaining in the first round.
Things were reaching fever pitch by the time our co-main event had rolled around. It was finally time to put the bad blood to bed, as Shirzad Qadrian and Cameron Else were set to turn their war of words into a war of actions.
Qadrian’s spoke louder on the night; while Else showed spirit, the Diesel/GB Top Team man was a step ahead with his signature takedowns and ground ‘n’ pound, forcing Rich Mitchell to intervene four minutes in.
With their issues put to bed, ‘The Lion’s next hunt will be for bantamweight gold.
And so to our main event and the return of a much missed champion to face a challenger who’d stepped up to fill the flyweight void in his absence.
There’s a lot to be said about this fight, how close it was, how difficult to score and how it’s a great illustration of the need to understand the judging criteria before you lob a pint at our MC.
Joking aside, wherever your loyalties lay, it was an enthralling fight to watch. Even in retrospect you can make multiple arguments for multiple scorecards. Despite Jawany Scott’s strong finish though, it was an ‘AND STILL’, as Shaj Haque took the nod on two of the three scorecards.
Given the razor-thin nature of the decision though, I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see this one run back somewhere down the line. For now though we can be sure of two things; Jawany Scott is a championship calibre fighter and Shaj Haque remains one of Europe’s best flyweights.
So there we have it, a mammoth look back over one of the most action packed six month periods in Cage Warriors history. In truth, we could have talked about twice as much of the good stuff and still had more left on the side lines. Thankfully for you, all that CW goodness is never more than a few clicks away via UFC Fight Pass.
And even more thankfully for you, whether it’s via Fight Pass or in person at one of our live events, the action is just a few short weeks from picking up once again.
We’ll see you in Newcastle!