UFC Fight Night 53: Inconsistency From UK Fighters In Stockholm

By Connor Hutton - @ConnorHutton94


Many questions were answered following a hectic weekend of MMA action, featuring not only Bellator and Battlegrounds MMA, but a UFC double header.

Amidst the unfolding events, it was somewhat unsurprisingly the UK fighters who suffered a night of both triumph and anguish in Stockholm, Sweden.

Shorty after UFC Fight Night 48, Kingdom MMA analysed the performances of UK representatives in the UFC in 2014, and at the time the stats revealed an alarmingly low win rate of 30%. Now with the weekend's cards settling, it seems we are still hit and miss inside the cage on this side of the pond.

Heading up the preliminary card was a middleweight bout between the hometown hero Magnus Cedenblad (13-4) and octagon debutant Scott Askham (12-1). The former BAMMA middleweight champion put his undefeated record on the line at the Ericcson Globe Arena against a game opponent in Cedenblad, who for the second time in successive fights handed his opponent their first professional loss.

It has long been a reoccurring theme in the UFC that when wrestling comes to the forefront, UK fighters have a tendency to fold under the pressure, and history served us right yet again.

Although Askham landed a number of shots early in the fight, Cedenblad recovered, closed the distance and stifled the Brit with his top control and ground and pound for most of the opening round.

Despite his best efforts, Askham spent most of the second-round on his back once again, but with one minute remaining he found his first and only opening to land a flush front kick which visibly stunned Cedenblad, however he survived the round and re-established his composure on the feet, working yet another takedown in the third to secure the win in front of his home crowd.

The Englishman couldn't pin-point the root of his defeat after the fight, claiming to be fully focused on the job at hand.

Askham said: "This is my first defeat. No excuses. I had a good camp, I didn't get nervous, I didn't get octagon jitters or anything like that. I went out there feeling good, and Magnus just got the win, simple as that."

It's hard to sugar coat what was ultimately a very disappointing turn of events for Askham and his followers, he was unquestionably one of the top fighters outside of the UFC from our neck of the woods and many predicted a run of success for the Yorkshire man.

However, it wasn't all doom and gloom for the UK as the sizeable underdog Mike Wilkinson (9-1) silenced the Swedish fans by stopping Niklas Backstrom (8-1) within 79 seconds of the very first-round with a blistering KO.

Leading up to the fight, Backstrom had disregarded Wilkinson's ability, labelling him a 'sacrificial lamb', but it was the local man who was left to swallow his pride as he laid unconscious in the octagon, instantly regretting his patronising comments.

In the very early exchanges it appeared that Backstrom would control the fight with his awkward range, but as he leapt in with his leading leg, Wilkinson parried the kick and timed a counter right hand perfectly to send his opponent crashing to the mat, where a flurry of violent and unanswered strikes forced the ref to end the bout.

Wilkinson had overcome serious adversity to get back in cage, with injury, surgery and a struggle with depression inspiring the Brit on his way to a terrific upset, and he wasn't shy in showing his elation after the win.

Mike said: "I can't explain how it feels to go from a loss, to being injured, to having surgery, to this. He said he was being matched up to win. He disrespected me. There was no reason to disrespect me. There was no way I was stopping until I knew I had him and the ref stopped it."

The victory puts Wilkinson back in the win column after experiencing his first professional defeat to Rony Bezerra back in June of 2013, and now he believes the only way is up.

He added: "I'm climbing the ladder now, I've had an unlucky year but I'm back on track now, I'm fit, I just want to keep fighting and climbing that ladder to the gold, small steps climb mountains and that's the plan."

So with UFC Fight Night 53 in the books, and a 1-1 record on the night for the Brits, it would be hard to treat this one event as a reflection of the plethora of elite talent in the UK, however the past and present results spell nothing but mediocrity for the future.

An underdog succeeding and a highly touted prospect faltering is no final decision on whether or not the UK fighters can 'hang' with the best of the best, all it solidifies is our undeniable downfall to collapse with inconsistency, and what worries more is that a solution is far from the horizon.
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