It was a good weekend for Cage Warriors alumni in the UFC, with former two-time light heavyweight champion Modestas Bukauskas earning his 6th win with the promotion, and Jack Della Maddalena dethroning Belal Muhammad to become the new UFC welterweight world champion!
Modestas Bukauskas scored his third UFC victory in a row on the evening’s preliminary card, making it a sweet six overall in the world’s ultimate proving ground for ‘The Baltic Gladiator’.
It didn’t come easy for the 31 year old, who was facing a man many deemed to be his toughest test to date in the form of fellow CW veteran Ion Cutelaba.
The pair went back and fourth for the three round duration with neither man standing out head and shoulders above the other by the sound of the final bell.
The judges were equally split; one scored every round for Cutelaba, another had all three for Bukauskas. The final judge saw it two rounds to one for ‘The Baltic Gladiator’, handing Modestas the win, his seventh in eight bouts.
In the evening’s main event a second CW alumni, Jack Della Maddalena, upset the odds to dethrone welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.
The pair duked it out for five thrilling rounds, with the champion seemingly abandoning his trademark wrestling-heavy attack in favour of a more crowd-pleasing fist-fight with the Australian challenger.
Unfortunately for ‘Remember the Name’, JDM proved to be the superior fighter on the feet for the majority of the contest, taking the second, third and fifth rounds unanimously on the judges scorecard, while splitting the first.
Maddalena made a quick stop in Cage Warriors back in 2017. On that occasion, he took out the game James Duckett via second round submission in Liverpool’s Echo Arena.
You can check out the entire encounter on the Cage Warriors YouTube channel below!
Who will be the next Cage Warriors alumni to make it big in the UFC? You can find tickets and event information for all upcoming CW events on our Events page, and grab yourself a first row seat to witness the future superstars of MMA in action today!
You can look back over the UFC and Cage Warriors careers of all our alumni via UFC Fight Pass!
