Tag: Cage Warriors 145

Cage Warriors 145 results: Paul Hughes bloodies Jordan Vucenic to unify featherweight title

“UFC, I’m coming!”

Cage Warriors has a new unified featherweight champion.

Friday at Cage Warriors 145, interim champion [autotag]Paul Hughes[/autotag] stepped into the cage to face champion [autotag]Jordan Vucenic[/autotag] in a title unification bout. After five bloody rounds, Hughes (9-1) would be the man holding the gold, avenging a prior loss to Vucenic (9-2) in an impressive performance.

The fight took place in front of a rowdy crowd at the Indigo at the O2 in London, serving as the main event of the evening.

When the fight began, neither man rushed the action, knowing they had 25 minutes to settle the outcome. Each fighter picked their shots well, early and remained calculated. Vucenic pushed ahead with strikes as Hughes remained calm and attempted to slow things down.

Early in the second round, Hughes quickly found the back of Vucenic while standing and locked in a body triangle. Vucenic did well to prevent any submission attempts when they went to the ground, but spent the majority of the round defending with Hughes on his back.

Vucenic turned up the pressure in the third, going first with combinations, keeping Hughes on his back foot. However, late in the round, Hughes put together a flurry that opened a cut on the right eye of Vucenic.

The fourth was huge for Hughes, as he put together a vicious combination that dropped Vucenic, causing him to scramble for a takedown to stop the onslaught. With blood flowing from the face of Vucenic, Hughes took his back and continued landing punches while looking for a rear-naked choke.

The final round saw more damage dished out by Hughes. The entering interim champion hurt Vucenic again with strikes, leading to more ground damage and control on the blood-soaked canvas until the conclusion of the bout.

The judges turned in scores of 49-46, 50-43, and 49-43 in favor of Huges, crowning him the new unified featherweight champion.

“UFC, I’m coming!” Hughes screamed into the camera as he celebrated his victory.

The win extended Hughes’ win streak to three. The only loss of his pro career came against Vucenic, where he ended up on the wrong end of a split decision at Cage Warriors 119 in 2020.

For Vucenic, the result snapped a seven-fight win streak stretching back to April 2019.

Full results of Cage Warriors 145 include:

  • Paul Hughes def. Jordan Vucenic via unanimous decision (49-46, 50-43, 49-43)
  • Modestas Bukauskas def. Lee Chadwick via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
  • Mehdi Ben Lakhdhar def. Xavier Sedras via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
  • Caolan Loughran def. Luke Shanks via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:46
  • James Webb def. Paddy McCorry via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
  • Ryan Shelley def. Josh Reed via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:00
  • Harry Hardwick def. Steve Aimable via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
  • Oban Elliott def. Sean McCormac via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
  • Adam Shelley def. El Hadji Ndiaye via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Cage Warriors 145 results: Modestas Bukauskas makes successful return from UFC exit, knee injury

The UFC veteran returned to action after a nasty knee injury from a year ago.

Light heavyweight [autotag]Modestas Bukauskas[/autotag] returned to action on Friday for the first time since his UFC exit, successfully putting his injured knee to the test.

Bukauskas (12-5), whose past 10 wins have come by stoppage, recorded a unanimous decision victory with scores of 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27 over Lee Chadwick at Cage Warriors 145, marking the first decision win since his pro debut. The event took place at the Indigo at the O2 in London.

While he did not find a way to stop his opponent, this fight against Chadwick was more about getting back on track from a knee injury that led to the stoppage of his last UFC appearance.

Last September at UFC Fight Night 191, Khalil Rountree landed a nasty knee stomp to the left leg of Bukauskas, instantly folding him to the canvas, where he immediately grabbed his injured limb.

Over a year later, Bukauskas returned to action against Chadwick and showed little signs of lingering issues with his left leg. Throughout the fight, he repeatedly used his legs to attack, landing head kicks, leg kicks, and even a spinning back kick to the body.

Throughout the 15 minutes, the 28-year-old Lithuanian seemed comfortable in the cage, leading to his sixth victory under the Cage Warriors banner.

Bukauskas fought in the UFC on four occasions, recording a retirement stoppage over Andreas Michailidis in his debut, but went on to drop his next three outings.

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