Although the UFC was forced to cancel Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 29 event in London due to the coronavirus pandemic, two of the athletes planned for the event were able to compete in Friday’s Cage Warriors 113 main event.
[autotag]Bartosz Fabinski[/autotag] defeated [autotag]Darren Stewart[/autotag] by unanimous decision in the middleweight main event, which was allowed to proceed after UFC and Cage Warriors brass were able to work together and make the fight happen. The scores were 30-27, 30-26, 30-26.
Fabinski was originally was supposed to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov under the UFC banner, while Stewart was matched up against Marvin Vettori. The switch in plans saw them fight each other in the headliner of Cage Warriors 113, which went down from BEC Arena in Manchester, England, and streamed on UFC Fight Pass.
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The fight had action from the outset, with Fabinski (15-3) and Stewart (11-5) holding nothing back as they threw big punches before engaging in the grappling. Fabinski scored with a takedown, but he was greeted with a scraping elbow from Stewart that cut the side of his head open. Blood poured out, but Fabinski responded with some good blows to ensure it was still a winning round.
In the second, Fabinski, who was cleaned up between rounds, came out determined to take the fight to the ground. He succeeded, and planted Stewart on his back where he was able to control things for the duration of the round. Fabinski’s cut re-opened and he poured blood from on top, yet he still controlled position and inflicted his own damage with solid ground-and-pound.
Fabinski tried to chase Stewart down with strikes to start the round. Just as he looked panicked, Stewart landed a brilliantly timed takedown. He only spent a few seconds on top, and shortly thereafter Fabinski answered with a takedown of his own. A frustrated and tired Stewart did his best to climb up from his back, but Fabinski stayed all over him and was determined to hang on and maintain control for the remainder of the fight.
It was a clean sweep on the scorecards for Fabinski, who picked up a 10-8 round from the two judges. The Polish fighter was successful in his return to competition after 16 months and has now won eight of his past nine contests dating back to March 2014. Stewart, meanwhile, had his two-fight winning streak snapped.
Complete Cage Warriors 113 results included:
MAIN CARD (5 p.m. ET)
- Bartosz Fabinski def. Darren Stewart via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
- Mason Jones def. Joe McColgan via TKO (knee and punches) – Round 1, 4:40
- David Bear def. Nathan Jones via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Paddy Pimblett def. Decky Dalton via TKO (ground strikes) – Round 1, 2:51
- Perry Goodwin def. Steve Aimable via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Coner Hignett def. Darren O’Gorman via knockout (punch) – Round 3, 2:12
- Adam Amarasinghe def. Jake Bond via knockout (knee and punch) – Round 1, 4:59
- Jamie Richardson def. Matthew Bonner via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
- James Hendin def. Kris Edwards via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-25)
- Aidan Stephen def. Jack Collins via TKO (elbows) – Round 1, 1:24
- Kingsley Crawford def. Lewis Monarch via submission (triangle choke) – Round 2, 2:45
PRELIMINARY CARD