Just a week after their blockbuster return to London with CW 150, Cage Warriors are back with another double helping of CW: Unplugged, live from the BT Sport Studio.
The first of two sessions is highlighted by the return of Team Renegade’s Matty Byfield, who’ll be looking to ride the wave of momentum from teammate Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards’ epic title defence at last weekend’s UFC London, as he takes on Finland-based American Prince McLean.
Middleweight veterans Matt Bonner and Guilherme Cadena will clash in the co-main event, while the undercard features new signings, returning favourites and the highly-anticipated CW debuts of the Sahota brothers.
Main Event: Bringing Out the Big Guns
A rare light-heavyweight treat awaits in Show One’s main event, as Matty Byfield straps on the famous yellow gloves for the fourth time in 12 months.
Byfield’s CW run got off to a somewhat rocky start, with his debut against Frenchman Hugo Guillon ending before it had started due to an errant low blow.
Still, the 30-year-old regrouped and refocused, getting back on track with a pair of emphatic finishes over Polish bare-knuckle specialist Szymon Szynkiewicz and Spanish submission artist Daniel Ladero.
Having gotten both out of there before the end of the second round, it’s time for a step up in competition for the Englishman, and he’ll get it in the form of Finland-based American Prince McLean.
A true veteran of the game, McLean has competed from middleweight up to 220lbs.
At 6’5 he’ll be used to having a height advantage, but not so against Byfield, who’ll stand one inch taller when the cage door closes.
Still, with 8 T/KO finishes from nine wins, a shootout against McLean could easily become a coinflip against a fighter who embodies the ‘kill or be killed’ archetype.
The Beast is Back
In the evening’s co-main event, Matt ‘The Beast’ Bonner returns to continue his march back to the middleweight title.
One of the biggest success stories of the pandemic era, Bonner put together a phenomenal four-fight run to capture middleweight gold.
After dipping his toe into lower weight categories, he returned to 185lbs at the last edition of Unplugged, stopping Brazilian veteran Alan Carlos with a crushing left hook in the second round.
Looking to tame ‘The Beast’ is Spain’s Guilherme Cadena, who’ll be aiming to pick up his first win in the promotion.
The submission artist fell short against UFC veteran Darren Stewart on New Year’s Eve, before bouncing back with a first round rear-naked-choke outside the promotion last month.
The win was his 26th by submission; should he add another at Bonner’s expense, it would be considered the biggest feather in his cap across a 50+ fight career.
Elsewhere on the card, The Sahota brothers, Pav and Kiru will make their highly anticipated debuts following standout pro and amateur runs through the UK regional circuit.
Kiru faces a fellow debutant, KO artist Shawn Da Silva in flyweight action, while Pav will meet the returning Sam Kelly.
Kelly impressed on his CW debut last year, choking out hot prospect Jack Eglin in the second round of their bantamweight clash.
Another hotly-awaited debut sees Next Generation’s Matthew Camilleri faces eight-fight CW veteran Aidan Stephen.
Stephen has been in there with the cream of the featherweight crop, while Camilleri joins Cage Warriors as a respected domestic title holder; all the ingredients are present for a thrilling three-rounder.
Opening the card, Ryan Hewitt, a student of former CW flyweight champion and current UFC star Jake Hadley makes his CW bow, taking on Spain’s Ander Sanchez.
The Spaniard is 1-1 in the yellow gloves, having stopped Connor Wilson before, dropping a competitive decision to Lone’er Kavanagh at CW 141 last July.
All the action from Show One airs live on UFC Fight Pass and international broadcast partners from 6pm (UK) this Friday!
Keep it locked to CageWarriors.com for a rundown of the action from Show 2!