Sat, 20 Jul 2013
Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Echo Arena
First of all, the Cage Warriors set up looked entirely at home in the larger expanse of the Echo Arena. A sign of things to come, I feel.
This was a simply stunning show, with a little bit of everything you could possibly want from an MMA show.
Glasgow’s Dean Reilly started off the pro fights with a bang, earning the Knockout of the Night bonus for laying out Mick Kay in only 22 seconds. Nice one Dean.
Fellow Dinky Ninja Mark Connor fell to Bryan Creighton’s D’Arce Choke, ending a career best three fight win streak.
The Facebook prelims saw an awesome back and forth fight between Steve Dinsdale and Dan Rushworth which rightly earned on of the two Fight of the Night bonuses awarded and ended with Steve Dinsdale getting the decision.
The other two Facebook fight saw Matt Inman and Saul Rogers pick up submission wins in a combined total of 2 minutes 41 seconds, leaving a chunk if time before the main card started, which is pretty rare on a Cage Warriors show.
Chris Fishgold continued his winning ways against Pole Marcin Wrzosek with a second round TKO and we came on to the first of our fights disrupted by late replacements.
Jack Mason was expected to win this and continue his stunning run of form en route to a welterweight title shot, but replacement Ali Arish had other ideas and matched ‘the Stone’ toe for toe, eventually taking a unanimous decision victory, two rounds to one.
There’s a new unit in the welterweight division…
Next up, middleweights Leeroy Barnes and Norman Paraisy engaged in a battle of striking and bottom submission skills against takedowns, ground and pound and experience with Paraisy’s wrestling and experience taking a wafer thin decision, despite Barnes rocking him several times, coming close to a guillotine on a few occasions and busting him open.
This is the most impressed I’ve ever been with Barnes, but Paraisy continues to act as a spoiler to the British talent. If he keeps this up, a match with Jesse Taylor could be very interesting indeed.
Ronnie Mann returned to UKMMA and lost no time in showing his class with a quite spectacular performance against the tough and experienced Jose Luis Zapater. Slipping punches, unleashing lightning quick combos, leg kicks and knees of great power and accuracy, Mann put the whole 135lb division on notice by putting Zapater away with plenty time left in the first frame.
In September, CWFC crown a new Bantamweight champion in Cardiff. The winner of that tournament vs. Ronnie Mann at the end of year show? Just thinking out loud…
In our co-main event we had adopted hometown hero and social media workhorse Danny Roberts looking to continue his perfect CWFC record against an opponent who was such a late replacement, he couldn’t even make the scheduled weigh ins on Friday.
Ireland’s Henry Fadipe has always been a game and entertaining fighter, but surely at such late notice he was just a speedbump for Roberts?
No.
What ensued was a genuine contender for Fight of the Year as Fadipe’s power went up against Robert’s speed, with some hefty blows being landed by both men, both guys mixing it up with takedowns leading to submission attempts by both, and some awesome scrambles of both the beautiful and scrappy variety.
Fadipe opened up Roberts head in a big way, I think early in the second round (I didn’t take notes) turning great big chunks of the canvas bloody and the bout was very close to being stopped as the doctor was called in.
Bizarrely the injury seemed to light a fire under Roberts who was more aggressive afterwards and with Fadipe starting to fade a bit and reduced to some desperation attempts at leg locks, Roberts managed to take his back and sink in the rear naked choke for the win with about 90 seconds left.
Seriously, seek out a video of this fight. It was GREAT.
Danny Roberts advances to 4-0 in Cage Warriors and looks to me like the next best challenger for Cathal Pendred’s 170lb belt.
Henry Fadipe, is a straight up legend, despite the loss. We happily salute such a warrior, win or lose, especially on two days notice…
In the main event, Paul Daley returns to Britain and as expected made short work of never-previously-knocked-out Lukasz Chlewicki.
The Pole was by no means the can some were expecting, and certainly gave Semtex some blows to worry about, while courageously choosing to stand toe to toe with him.
In the end, Semtex found his range and some truly nasty knees and elbows started getting through, with one elbow in particular opening up a horrid gash on the Pole’s head, which resulted in the doctor calling off the fight between rounds.
This was a great card, with a little bit of everything and Cage Warriors again proved that their roster, matchmaking, production values and ambition make them the best promotion in Britain, probably the best in Europe and in my eyes at least, one of the top five MMA companies in the world.
Next up, is their groundbreaking event in Grozny, Chechenya at the end of August, with the announcement that James Brum and Ivan Buschinger will join the already announced Pavel Kusch vs. Chris Scott on that event.
We’ll bring you further announcements as they are made.
Predictions
This card was our chosen Predictions Battlefield for the Week, so lets see how we did…
Remember, it’s five points for getting the victor, three for picking how and a bonus one if you choose the round a stoppage occurs in.
We predicted…
Ross
Daley via KO Rd. 2 (8)
Mann via Unam. Decision (5)
Roberts Sub. Rd. 1 (8)
Mason Sub Rd. 2 (0)
Paraisy KO Rd. 1 (5)
Iain
Daley KO Rd. 1 (9)
Mann SUB Rd. 3 (5)
Roberts UD (5)
Mason UD (0)
Barnes KO Rd. 1 (0)
Chris
Chlewicki UD (0)
Mann KO Rd. 2 (8)
Roberts KO Rd. 1 (5)
Mason KO Rd. 3 (0)
Paraisy KO Rd. 2 (5)
Which makes our little league table look like this after three events…
1- Iain – 50 pts + 19 pts = 69 pts
2- Ross – 34 pts + 26 pts = 60 pts
3- Chris – 28 pts + 18 pts = 46 pts
I really need to raise my game.
Check out the replay of CWFC57 on Monday evening, stay tuned for any news on the upcoming shows in Grozny and Cardiff and next week we’ll be predicting UFC on FOX 8.
MAIN (MMAjunkie.com, Premier Sports, Joe.IE)
• Paul Daley def. Lukasz Chlewicki via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – Round 1, 5:00
• Danny Roberts def. Henry Fadipe via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 3:34
• Ronnie Mann def. Jose Luis Zapater via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:19
• Norman Paraisy def. Leeroy Barnes via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Ali Arish def. Jack Mason via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Chris Fishgold def. Marcin Wrzosek via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:31
PRELIMINARY (Facebook)
• Matt Inman def. Mohsen Bahari via verbal submission (heel hook) – Round 1, 0:44
• Saul Rogers def. Jason Cooledge via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:23
• Steve Dinsdale def. Dan Rushworth via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
PRELIMINARY (Untelevised)
• Bryan Creighton def. Mark Connor via submission (D’arce choke) – Round 2, 3:20
• Mick Gerrard def. Leon Pierre via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:55
• Dean Reilly def. Mick Kay via knockout (strikes) – Round 1, 0:22
KUMITE 