Category: Cage Warriors

Joe Giannetti vs. Paddy Pimblett off Cage Warriors 111 after big weight miss

Joe Giannetti took this fight on short notice and came up way short in his attempt to reach 156 pounds.

[autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] will not be stepping into the cage on Friday after all.

The former Cage Warriors champion was scheduled to take on [autotag]Joe Giannetti[/autotag] in a lightweight bout at Cage Warriors 111 in London. The bout was scratched from the card after Giannetti missed weight Thursday, and Pimblett refused to accept the bout at a catchweight.

Pimblett (14-3) weighed in at 154.7 pounds; Giannetti (8-2-1) tipped the scale at 163.8, more than seven pounds above the limit.

Pimblett posted the news of the cancellation on social media, which the promotion later announced.

So what an eventful weigh in🤣I step on the scales at 154.7 like a true pro my opponent then steps on the scales at 163.8& then sits down& starts eating& drinking immediately didn’t even consider going in the sauna when if he wudda got to 160lbs all this cud have been avoided….

It looks like the fight is going to be off as he was unwilling to do any sort of compromise to make any sort of weight all the best to joe in the future but my career is too important to get (expletive) over like this but he’s known he was gonna miss& not batted an eyelid sorry ppl👍🏻

Giannetti took the fight on short notice, replacing injured Donovan Desmae with just a little bit over a week until fight night. “The Ultimate Fighter” veteran was looking to build on his Keenan Raymond win in September. Giannetti is 2-1-1 since leaving the UFC in 2018.

On the other hand, Pimblett was looking compete in MMA for the first time in 2019. The Liverpool native last fought in September 2018, losing to Soren Bak for the then-vacant Cage Warriors lightweight title.

Cage Warriors 11 will go down Friday and stream on UFC Fight Pass. Three title fights headline the card in James Webb vs. Nathias Frederick, Mads Burnell vs. Steve Aimable, and Modestas Bukauskas vs. Riccardo Nosiglia.

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Cage Warriors 111: Three titles on the line on stacked card in London

Three titles are on the line when the top European promotion returns to London on Friday for Cage Warriors 111.

Top European promotion Cage Warriors returns to its regular London home at the Indigo at The O2 for Cage Warriors 111, and the promotion is bringing a stacked card of fights to the capital Friday.

Three title fights will be on the line, with the headline bout featuring a hotly anticipated rematch of one of the promotion’s most controversial fights of 2019.

Middleweight champion [autotag]James Webb[/autotag] and challenger [autotag]Nathias Frederick[/autotag] battled to a majority draw at Cage Warriors 106 in a fight that saw Frederick (7-2-1 MMA, 0-0-1 CW) deducted a point for an illegal spike that eventually proved crucial on the judges’ scorecards. Without the deduction, Fredericks would have claimed the title, and that knowledge irked Webb (6-1-1 MMA, 4-1-1 CW), who expressed his frustration at the judges’ scoring of the fight. Now the pair will meet in a rematch in a bid to produce a definitive result.

Also on the card, two more fighters who captured titles at Cage Warriors 106 will look to complete maiden title defenses in their returns to London.

Mads Burnell (Dolly Clew / Cage Warriors)

Denmark’s [autotag]Mads Burnell[/autotag] (12-3 MMA, 3-0 CW) produced one of the best submissions of the year to capture the featherweight title, and will hope for a similarly impressive finish when he puts his title on the line against England’s [autotag]Steve Aimable[/autotag] (14-5 MMA, 4-2 CW).

And England-based Lithuanian [autotag]Modestas Bukauskas[/autotag] (9-2 MMA, 4-1 CW) will look to cement his position as Cage Warriors’ premier 205-pounder by defeating Italian [autotag]Riccardo Nosiglia[/autotag] (8-1 MMA, 0-0 CW).

The fight card also features the return of former featherweight champion [autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] (14-3 MMA, 9-3 CW), who aims to kick-start a run toward the 155-pound title after moving up to lightweight. He takes on short-notice replacement and former “TUF” finalist [autotag]Joe Giannetti[/autotag] (8-2-1 MMA, 0-0 CW).

And former BAMMA welterweight champion [autotag]Alex Lohore[/autotag] (18-4 MMA, 3-1 CW) has his sights set on championship gold at 170 pounds. He takes on [autotag]Joilton Santos Lutterbach[/autotag] (30-8 MMA, 1-0 CW) looking for a performance to catapult himself into a title fight in early 2020.

The complete Cage Warriors 111 lineup includes:

MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 4 p.m. ET)

  • Champ James Webb vs. Nathias Frederick – for middleweight title
  • Champ Mads Burnell vs. Steve Aimable – for featherweight title
  • Champ Modestas Bukauskas vs. Riccardo Nosiglia – for light heavyweight title
  • Joe Giannetti vs. Paddy Pimblett

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 12:30 p.m. ET)

  • Alex Lohore vs. Joilton Santos Lutterbach
  • Daryl Golding vs. Emrah Sonmez
  • Adam Amarasinghe vs. Liam Gittins
  • Matthew Bonner vs. Warren Kee
  • Ayton De Paepe vs. Cory Tait
  • Mike Ekundayo vs. Luca Iovine
  • Harry Davies vs. Josh Onwordi
  • Jordan Barton vs. James Hendin
  • Scott Butters vs. Kingsley Crawford

Joe Giannetti steps up to face Paddy Pimblett at Cage Warriors 111 in London

Former ‘TUF’ prospect Joe Giannetti has agreed to step in on 10 days’ notice to take on former Cage Warriors featherweight champion Paddy Pimblett at Cage Warriors 111 in London.

Former UFC and “The Ultimate Fighter 27” athlete [autotag]Joe Giannetti[/autotag] is all set to step up and face one of Cage Warriors’ biggest stars on just 10 days’ notice at Cage Warriors 111.

Giannetti (8-2-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who has competed three times already for the Boston-based Cage Titans promotion in 2019, has signed to face former Cage Warriors featherweight champion [autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] in a lightweight bout at the Indigo at The O2 on Friday, Nov. 22.

The fight will represent Giannetti’s third bout in five months as he looks to follow up on his first-round TKO finish of Keenan Raymond at Cage Titans 45 in August.

The 24-year-old impressed with his submission skills during the 27th season of “TUF,” as he claimed back-to-back first-round finishes of John Gunther and Allan Zuniga to earn a spot in the final, but he was defeated for the UFC contract by Mike Trizano. Now the Massachusetts native said he sees his upcoming fight with Pimblett as a potential springboard back into the UFC and a second chance in the octagon.

“This is a fight that international fight fans have wanted for a while,” Giannetti (8-2-1) said. “I’ve got a goal to get back into the UFC, Paddy’s got a goal to get to the UFC, so we’re going to find out who’s the other’s stepping stone.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s Pimblett (14-3) said he was grateful to Giannetti for agreeing to step up on short notice, but said that doing so was a bad career move for the American.

“Stepping in on 10 days’ notice, most people wouldn’t do it,” Pimblett admitted. “Considering everyone says they want to fight me, when the opportunity came up, they all went missing.

“I’m grateful to Joe for stepping up, but it’s a bad decision for him. I don’t think he’s been finished before, so this will be the first time he’s been finished in his career.”

Pimblett is looking to bounce back following his unanimous decision loss to Soren Bak at Cage Warriors 96 in September 2018, but his originally-scheduled opponent, Belgium’s Donovan Desmae, was forced off the upcoming card through injury.

It left the door open for Giannetti, who is heading to London looking to claim a big-name British scalp. And he had a word of warning for “The Baddy” ahead of their matchup next weekend.

“I hope he’s not expecting an easy night because I got the call last minute,” he said. “We bring a different type of energy in Boston.”

The event will be headlined by a trio of title fights, with James Webb, Mads Burnell and Modestas Bukauskas putting their middleweight, featherweight and light heavyweight titles on the line respectively.

Confirmed fights for Cage Warriors 111 include:

MAIN CARD

  • Champ James Webb vs. Nathias Frederick – for middleweight title
  • Champ Mads Burnell vs. Steve Aimable – for featherweight title
  • Champ Modestas Bukauskas vs. Riccardo Nosiglia – for light heavyweight title)
  • Joe Giannetti vs. Paddy Pimblett
  • Alex Lohore vs. Joilton Santos

PRELIMINARY CARD

  • Ayton de Paepe vs. Cory Tait
  • Mike Ekundayo vs. Luca Iovine
  • Harry Davies vs. Josh Onwordi
  • Adam Amarasinghe vs. Johan Segas
  • Matthew Bonner vs. Warren Kee
  • Jordan Barton vs. James Hendin
  • Scott Butters vs. Kingsley Crawford
  • Daryl Golding vs. Emrah Sonmez