It’s finally here: The last Cage Warriors event of the 2025 calendar! And what a way for Europe’s Leading MMA Organisation to bow out. No less that two world title fights top the evening’s bill, supported by a lightweight dream match that could realistically headline a CW card anywhere in Europe. With 48 hours on the clock, Play-by-Play man Brad Wharton takes a look ahead to two of the year’s most intriguing title fights.
Tickets for CW 199 are availible here!
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Scottish MMA prodigy Sean Clancy Jr finally gets his first crack at a world title. The young Paisley man has enjoyed a groundswell of support through what has been a brief but meteoric rise through the sport, and the fanbase that has risen alongside him have been pointing to this moment as as ‘if’ rather than a ‘when’.
Clancy has been dubbed everything from the the next big thing, to Scotland’s first UFC champion, to the highland nation’s very own George Ste Pierre. It’s high praise for a man still yet to reach the ripe old age of 23, but few would claim it isn’t entirely without merit. Still, along with praise comes expectation, and its fair to say that once the cage door has been locked shut on Saturday night, those expectations will be riding high.
If history is anything to go by though, that won’t bother Clancy in the slightest. Perhaps its the arrogance of youth – or maybe he’s just that confident – but the Higher Level project has the kind of single bloody-mindedness in combat that means defeat simply isn’t part of his vocabulary.
Take his last bout, against Brazilian standout Italo Gomes – Clancy found himself seemingly in all kinds of trouble during the first round, but by the time he’d come out for the second frame, it was as though it had never happened. And that’s the scary thing about him; he appears to be capable of victory through sheer force of will.
It’s not just that, of course.
Training under one of Europe’s leading coaches in James Doolan, blasting his way through the amateur ranks; Clancy’s rise has been propelled by the correct guidance and preparation as much as it has by any intangibles.
Now its time to pay the piper though.
On Saturday night, that piper comes in the form of a true veteran of the European circuit, a man who has spent years operating at the level at which Clancy now wishes to prove himself.
Melvin van Suijdam has forged a reputation as the man to beat, and he’d love nothing more than to add Sean Clancy’s name to the fifteen-strong list of men unable to do it.
With blackbelts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Taekwondo to his name, the Dutchman has the kind of experience that nobody, not even Clancy, can buy.
In a game with as many variables as MMA, that’s gold dust.
Were one of the most hotly anticipated Cage Warriors main events in years the sole gift under the tree this December, fans would be pretty sure they’d made the big red fella’s ‘nice’ list…but as it happens, there’s plenty more to unwrap on December 6th.
You can read more about the inevitable insanity set to do down when former lightweight champion George Hardwick meets former welterweight title challenger Daniel Konrad here.
But wait, we’re still not done! Ending the year with a bang is a bold statement, not that any of the above amounts to a whimper. But for a really big send off, how about a second title fight, one that for many is just as – if not more – intriguing than the first?
If it feels like Shaj Haque and Nicolas Leblond have been dancing circles around each other for some time, that’s because they have.
July 20th, 2024 was the pair’s first date with destiny. On that occasion it was the champ, scheduled to return almost a year removed from his epic title defence against Michele Martignoni, forced to withdraw due to an unfortunate injury picked up late in his training camp.
Surely lightening couldn’t strike twice for their hastily arranged November rematch? It could, and it did…and not just once.
First, an issue with Haque’s medical clearance saw him wrapped up in a last minute scramble to find a medical professional able to clear him. Signed-off to compete mere minutes before he was scheduled to step onto the scales, the champion’s relief lasted mere moments, as he was then delivered the soul crushing news that inclement weather had left his opponent stranded on the tarmac in France.
And so the dance continued, albeit from a little further afield. Leblond outpointed Gerasimos Sioutis and Mateus Brauns, while Haque finally returned after another year on the side-lines to best Jawany Scott in an absolute thriller.
Finally, on the last card of 2025…the last dance before 200…fans finally get one of the most mouth-watering Cage Warriors matchups of the post-pandemic era.
Haque is a technical genius; a surgeon in the cage able to strike with a mixture of timing and precision, hitting hard and exactly when it counts. Defensively, he’s an evasive expert, extremely adept at making opponents miss.
That could prove to be the crucial skill when it comes to outworking Leblond. The Frenchman is a battering ram on the feet; the rare flyweight with legitimate one-shot stopping power.
Fight him up close and you run the risk of getting wrapped up in that steel cable grip only a lifetime on the Judo mats can conjure.
If Shaj is a diamond-sharp dagger, Leblond is a double-handed battle axe. They’re both equally deadly in their own way, and blood is guaranteed.