Another Cage Warriors event has come and gone. Once again Europe’s leading MMA promotion delivered in style. From the opener to the main event, every single bout had something to discuss. We had showboating, upsets, masterclasses and post-buzzer controversy. The audience definitely had their money’s worth.
In the main event, George Hardwick showed his quality after finishing Yann Liasse at the back end of round 1. Both men came out with confidence. Liasse brought volume and gave the champion things to think about whilst Hardwick was favouring leg kicks and teeps to the midsection, one which sent the challenger far back across the cage and brought cheers from the Manchester crowd. The first half of the round displayed a boxing vs kick-heavy approach, Liasse with a higher output but Hardwick argue with the cleaner work up till that point.
However, the momentum changed when Liasse threw a straight left hand which Hardwick slipped to the outside whilst throwing a counter lead hook and straight right dropping the Cage Warriors debutant. Hardwick then jumped on a guillotine which seemed to be fair strong however after a bit of a scramble the challenger found his way back to the feet. Despite finding his way out of the submission he never seemed to be fully recovered. From that point, it seemed as if the champion could not miss, pushing Liasse around and back up against the cage landing 6 clean shots before Mark Goddard stepped in and waved it off.
The next step for George Hardwick seems to be the UFC which the 155lb champion has entertained the idea of. But for now, we have a masterful performance to marvel at from the Middlesbrough man.
Two major upsets by Dumitru Girlean and Michal Folc with both men taking their opponents’ undefeated records. With other standout performances from Nathan Fletcher and Luke Riley. The whole card delivered showed once again why Cage Warriors is one of the best promotions globally let alone just in Europe.
Cage Warriors visits Ireland next for Cage Warriors 153 headlined by the Welterweight title indication between Rhys Mckee and Jimmy Wallhead on April 29th.
Visit https://cagewarriors.com/ for more information
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