Luke Riley makes what many fans would argue is perhaps the most long-overdue UFC debut of all time this weekend at UFC Qatar. Widnes’ favourite fighting son, Riley forged a reputation for bloody brawls, serious shootouts and crunching KOs during his time sporting the Famous Yellow Gloves of Europe’s Leading MMA Organisation. As he becomes our latest graduate to trade them in for the UFC’s black and white gauntlets, what better time to count down the Next Generation man’s top five moments in Cage Warriors?
5 – Alexandre Junior
Everybody loves a one hitter quitter, right? And that’s exactly what fans got to see when Riley faced Brazilian slugger Alexandre Junior as he looked to take his win tally into double digits.
The Junior fight took place at what was arguably the height of Riley’s CW fame, the point at which calls for him to receive the infamous ‘Uncle Dana Phonecall’ were at their peak. At the time it was mooted to be his last appearance in the Famous Yellow Gloves, all of which is to say that the weight of expectation resting on his shoulders had never been heavier.
Sometimes expectations are almost impossible to live up to. Nothing less than an absolutely flawless performance will be good enough. Well, that’s exactly what Riley turned in, proving – if there was ever any doubt – that he was the division’s preeminent big game player.
4 – Tariel Abasov
With visa issues leaving him in a frustrating state of career limbo, what should have been a fairy-tale ending to 2024 turned into a nightmare for Riley. As the calendar rolled over into 2025, he was faced with an agonising choice; sit on the shelf while the pencil pushers did their work and hope that the notoriously fast-moving sport wouldn’t have found a new flavour of the month to get excited about by the time the paperwork was sorted, or take the fighter’s route, knowing that every potential bout was literally a case of putting his UFC aspirations on the line.
It was never really a choice though; when you’re built entirely of fighting DNA, it never is. Even with the knowledge that there would be no ‘gimmies’ at his level, Riley opted to do what he does best; beat guys up until he became undeniable.
Tariel Abasov was arguably his toughest test to that point from a purely skillset perspective; the kind of elite level wrestler nay-sayers have long predicted as the undoing of any striker on the rise. And for the first round, they had a point. The Azeri Lion gave Riley a look he hadn’t seen before for the first five minutes, but by the time he’d downloaded that information and stepped out for the second round, fans were treated to another textbook demolition job.
3 – Jack Eglin
It’s not often you see a clash of head-to-head prospects on the rise, especially so early in their careers. But that’s precisely what fans were treated to when Luke Riley and Jack Eglin were drawn together back 2022.
We were barely out of the Pandemic Era; crowds were back and live sport was feeling like it should do again. Fighters were jonesing for the adrenaline rush of a good old blood ‘n’ guts tear up in front of an audience baying for violence, and on that particular night in Manchester, that’s exactly what they got.
Eglin and Riley were both just 2-0 in their careers at the time, but the BEC Arena faithful were treated to a technical brawl of a level that far belied their records. The pair slugged it out for two rounds and while both left holding their heads high, it was Riley who emerged from the battle of the prospects with a win that set the tone for his professional career.
2 – Kallum Parker
There’s a popular myth (propagated by a scene in Zach Snyder’s ludicrous man-fantasy ‘300’) that during the Battle of Thermopylae, the Spartan Leonidas wounded Xerxes with his spear.
In early 2023, Cage Warriors fans bore witness to their very own version of that myth, in glorious HD and without a single CGI six-pack in sight. Kallum Parker had flown in from the US on a few days notice, stepping in at the eleventh hour after Riley’s original opponent had fallen through.
While he was considered a prospect himself at the time, it was probably fair to say that few were giving him too much of a chance against Riley given the circumstances.
And then, he wounded Xerxes.
Parker silenced the crowd in the opening exchanges, dropping Riley and clattered him with a series of powerful punches in the ensuing chaos. Ultimately the Next Generation man would battle back and sweep the judges scorecards, but if anything, that brief moment of vulnerability only added to his legend.
1 – Alexander Loof
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; there aren’t really words that do justice to Loof vs Riley, not when the entire visual feast is there to watch at your leisure. If you haven’t yet seen it you must do so at once. If you have, then you’re likely inclined to want to watch it back anyway.
Which is why there’s no better way to end a stroll down memory lane of Luke Riley’s finest moments in the Famous Yellow Gloves than closing this article, opening this video and settling in to one of the greatest Cage Warriors fights of all time.
Luke Riley makes his UFC debut this weekend at UFC: Qatar, live in the UK on TNT Sport. If you want to catch the next Cage Warriors stars to potentially follow in Riley’s footsteps, Cage Warriors 198 airs live on UFC Fight Pass and international broadcast partners. Tickets are availible here.