Tag: Paddy Pimblett

Contenders assemble as the battle for Cage Warriors’ lightweight title heats up

Eight of the best lightweights in Europe are set for action as they bid to challenge for the vacant Cage Warriors lightweight title.

Following the news of Jai Herbert’s graduation from Cage Warriors lightweight champion to UFC newcomer, the race is on to capture the newly-vacated Cage Warriors 155-pound title.

The U.K. promotion’s lightweight division has proved to be something of a finishing school for Europe’s best 155-pounders, with former lightweight champions Herbert, Chris Fishgold, Stevie Ray and, of course, Conor McGregor all stepping up to the UFC after capturing Cage Warriors gold.

Now the coveted strap is up for grabs once again, and a host of talented 155-pounders are set to jockey for position in a bid to earn themselves a spot in the battle for the vacant title later this year.

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Liverpool fan-favorite [autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] will lead the charge when he returns to action against Belgian contender [autotag]Donovan Desmae[/autotag] on March 20 at Cage Warriors 113 in London, but he faces competition from a clutch of fellow lightweights who all have their sights set on the title.

Unbeaten Welshman [autotag]Mason Jones[/autotag] (8-0) has looked better with each performance in Cage Warriors, and in 2019 claimed notable wins over Desmae and Finland’s Aleksi Mantykivi. He’ll take on Italian former UFC lightweight and fellow contender [autotag]Danilo Belluardo[/autotag] (12-5) in London while looking to stake an undeniable claim for a title shot.

While Pimblett and Jones look set to compete in separate bouts in a bid to earn their crack at the gold, four more contenders will go head to head in a pair of bouts in Birmingham with the same goal in mind.

Former featherweight champion and all-action crowd-pleaser [autotag]Dean Trueman[/autotag] (10-6) has decided to step up to lightweight and will face Norway’s former lightweight title challenger [autotag]Alexander Jacobsen[/autotag] (9-5), while Cage Warriors officials confirmed Tuesday that another former title challenger at 155, England’s [autotag]Jack Grant[/autotag], will take on undefeated Frenchman [autotag]Mehdi Ben Lakhdar[/autotag]. Both matchups will take place at Cage Warriors 114 on April 18.

Grant (15-5) has long been considered a potential lightweight champion in the making, but he fell short against Herbert when the pair met at “Cage Warriors 106: Night of Champions” in July 2019. He’ll get the chance to re-establish his championship credentials against Ben Lakhdar (4-0-1), who announced his arrival in Cage Warriors with back-to-back first-round knockouts in 2018, then battled to a draw with Northern Ireland’s Joe McColgan in Cage Warriors’ “Fight of the Year” for 2019.

All eight men have a legitimate shot at the title, but only two can make it all the way to fight for the vacant belt. By the end of April we should know who has earned their shot.

Upcoming lightweight bouts:

Cage Warriors 113 (London, March 20)

  • Paddy Pimblett vs. Donovan Desmae
  • Mason Jones vs. Danilo Belluardo

Cage Warriors 114 (Birmingham, April 18)

  • Jack Grant vs. Mehdi Ben Lakhdar
  • Alexander Jacobsen vs. Dean Trueman

 

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