Five Fights to Make after Cage Warriors 72
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts
Cage Warriors 72 is in the history books. It will forever be remembered as the night where a new champion was crowned, a number one contender was born out of one of the biggest middleweight bouts in UK MMA history, and a controversial up-kick ended what was shaping up to be a good fight prematurely. With a number of incredible finishes and hard fought wars, here are five fights for the matchmakers to ponder from Cage Warriors 72.
Toni Tauru vs Brett Johns
It remains to be seen if Brett Johns even wants this fight, with Cage Warriors CEO Graham Boylan saying in the post fight scrum that Johns was actually offer a bantamweight title fight at Cage Warriors 72 but never returned the contracts. Johns is without doubt the obvious choice if he's ready to fight though.
A former Cage Warriors Bantamweight champion, Johns was stripped of his title in April after missing weight in a dominate victory over James Brum. A black belt in Judo, Johns has the grappling pedigree to stifle the suffocating style of Tauru. Johns represents an interesting challenge to newly crowned Tauru, and with Johns never actually losing the belt, the champion from Finland may feel he needs to beat Johns before he can truly consider himself the undisputed champion.
Jack Hermannson vs Jack Marshman
After beating Che Mills by 2nd round TKO in a bout that was billed as a middleweight title eliminator, Jack Marshman has staked his claim as the number one contender in the division and should he next to face champion, Jack Hermannson.
Having started his Cage Warriors career with a loss, Marshman is currently enjoying some of the best form of his career finishing Bola Omoyele, and Che Mills back-to-back and is now looking at a potential shot at the middleweight title. Questions remain though if Mashman is able to come in under the 185lb limit having come in heavy for this fight (188.3lb) and in previous fights has always made use of the 1lb allowance which fighters can use in none title fights.
Mateusz Gamrot vs Paul Redmond
While it's as yet unknown if Polish prospect Mateusz Gamrot will fight again under the Cage Warriors banner having previously fought under the KSW banner in his home country, Gamrot can't be far off a title shot if he does return following an emphatic victory over Tim Newman at Cage Warriors 72.
Another fighter who has painted himself in the title picture is Irish prospect Paul Redmond who has racked up an impressive 7-1 record since joining Cage Warriors. Of those 7 victories Redmond has 6 victories inside the distance, including 3 toe-holds making the young Irishman one of the most deadly fighters on the European scene.
With current Cage Warriors lightweight champion Stevie Ray set to lock horns with Curt Warburton in November, Gamrot vs Redmond would make an excellent number one contender bout between two of Europe's finest prospects.
Phil Mulpeter vs Lewis Long
After a come from behind victory over Steve Dinsdale at Cage Warriors 72, Lewis Long proves ones again he is one of the most exciting fighters to watch on the European scene. Having moved up from lightweight, Long bounced back to winning ways and now looks like he has found a home for himself at Welterweight.
Another former lightweight who is also looking to find a new home for himself at Welterweight is Irish prospect Phil Mulpeter, who is currently without a fight having seen previous opponent Jake Bostwick come in massively overweight for the proposed Cage Warriors 70 bout in August causing the bout to be scrapped.
Mulpeter and Long were previously set to fight at Cage Warriors 65 but an injury forced Long to withdraw. With both men sharing a similar position in the UK rankings, now is as good a time as any time to re-book that match up
Mario Saeed vs Azi Thomas
After a questionable up-kick ended what was shaping up to be a good fight prematurely, the rematch should be the next fight for both men.
For those who haven't seen the up-kick that ended the fight yet (watch it here) it wasn't questionable in the fact that it wasn't illegal, it's questionable if it hurt Saeed as badly as he made out. With fans debating / raging into the early hours on Saturday morning arguing if Saeed was that hurt how was he able to talk to the ref, and why did he randomly flop? Here is my take. While admittedly it looked a little dodgy the way Saeed takes the kick, tells the ref and the almost randomly falls back knocked out, it is entirely feasible he felt the effect slightly after.
In his post fight interview with Josh Palmer, Saeed said he was unhappy with the win and wants to rematch Thomas, for me this needs to happen to end all doubt regarding the incident in the first fight.
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