Every once in a while a fight comes along that you never knew you wanted, but now that it’s here, you wonder how you ever lived without it. When Cage Warriors returns to Manchester in a few weeks’ time, it’ll do so with exactly such a centrepiece; a sickeningly sweet five-rounder between a man who’s been on the periphery of greatness for years and another who smash-and-grabbed his way to it in record time.
Tickets for Cage Warriors 198: Manchester are availible here!
Manchester has played host to some pretty great lightweight action in the Famous Yellow Gloves over the years. From one of Paddy Pimblett’s final appearances outside the UFC, to Mason Jones capturing lightweight gold from Joe McColgan and going to war with Michael Pagani, Adam Cullen’s many wars, the violence of James Power and George Hardwick’s epic finish against Yan Liasse, 155 and Manny have gone hand in hand.
As the cards came together for this November’s double-header at the BEC Arena, the trend looked set to continue. Omar Tugarev, who’d captured interim lightweight gold in another moment of Manchester magic earlier this year, would aim to unify the division against champion Samuel Silva at CW Unplugged. The following night, Lukas Cruz – who’d wowed the Manny faithful in his war with Adam Cullen on the same night Tugarev was crowned, would face off with Omiel Brown in a fight that had carnage written all over it.
You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men though.
With both Silva and Cruz forced out of their bouts, it seemed like fate had it in store for Manchester’s lightweight legacy. Thankfully Cage Warriors possesses something more powerful than fate; the matchmaking prowess of Ian Dean.
Ian will be the first to tell you that matching high-level fighters, especially when there’s so much on the line, isn’t as easy as pulling two names out of a hat. Everyone is the center of their own universe and fighting is no different, nor should it be.
Sometimes those universes overlap and the stars align for something beautiful, and that’s exactly how things played out in recent weeks when it came to Omar Tugarev and Omiel Brown. With Sammy Silva on the shelf for some time, Tugarev needed to defend his title and with Brown just a whisker away from contention on a seemingly permanent basis, everything made sense.
In a sport that so often doesn’t make sense, it was refreshing to see that both fighters were on the same page. Tugarev would move to Saturday’s card for his title defence and Brown would get a second crack at Cage Warriors gold.
It was a fight we never knew we needed, a potential bout that hadn’t even been considered, let alone called for by fans. But now that it’s signed, sealed and just weeks away from being delivered, tongues are a-wagging and pulses are racing at the thought of Brown and Tugarev throwing down.
On the face of it you have a classic striker vs grappler contest; the kind of back-to-basics style clash that has had MMA fans salivating for decades. It’s more than that, though. In Brown we might just have – pound for pound – the hardest one-hitter in the promotion and Tugarev could well be the promotion’s most unstoppable grappler.
And the best part? We’re far from dealing with one dimensional athletes here. The Team KF man can go on the feet when he has to and Brown has shown his own propensity for the ground game in recent outings.
Can Tugarev drag his man into the deep, deep waters? Or will that Satan’s kiss of an uppercut catch him on the way in? Can he hang with Brown on the feet, or will it be Tugarev who ends up on his back?
Then there’s the intangibles. Tugarev is barely two years into his journey and already looking like a world-beater. A kid looking to inspire a nation with sporting success. How can that not pique your interest? Brown has been seemingly destined to wear CW gold since his first appearance in the Famous Yellow Gloves, coming agonisingly close on more than one occasion. How can that not get you emotionally invested?
Whether it’s the mechanics of the fight or the stories of the men taking part, there’s nothing not to love when it comes to Tugarev vs Brown.
Six months ago we didn’t know we wanted it. Now, we can’t live without it.
Roll on Manchester.