Cage Warriors 120 Preview

In Friday’s event, Cage Warriors 121, we will see eight bouts including two title fights. Jack Cartwright defends his Bantamweight Title against Sylwester Miller, and Donovan Desmae has stepped in at short notice to fight champion Agy Sardari for the Lightweight Title.

Saturday’s event, Cage Warriors 122 will have seven bouts with one title-fight. Featherweight champion Morgan Charriere defends his title against Jordan Vucenic, whilst we see the return of Paddy Pimblett taking on Davide Martinez in a lightweight bout in the co-main event.

Cage Warriors 120 Main Card Preview

Cage Warriors returns after their last trilogy of events were hosted back in December 2020. Cage Warriors 120 will see us having the opportunity of watching nine bouts, with a middleweight bout between a title challenger and a promotional newcomer headlining the event.

Main Event: Jamie Richardson (9-6) vs Kent Kauppinen (12-6)

Jamie “Young Gun” Richardson takes center stage for the second time after losing in his last bout for the Cage Warriors Middleweight Title against Nathias Frederick. He was knocked out in the third round in his first shot at the title. Richardson has had a knockout in eight of his nine victories. It’s a certainty he will look for another knockout as he’ll want to impress to work his way back to a title shot.

Kent Kauppinen makes his debut in Cage Warriors after joining the promotion from Bellator. His last bout came in September last year, where he lost to Will Fleury by unanimous decision. The Englishman started his MMA career back in 2009, but from May 2018 to June 2019 he tested himself in the boxing world. He fought an incredible 19 bouts in just 13 months, but unfortunately only won five of his fights.

Kauppinen has nine knockouts in his 12 wins, so, certainly expect a battle on the feet between these two middleweights.

Co-Main Event: Paul Hughes (6-1) vs James Hendin (5-0)

Paul Hughes looks to make a comeback from his split decision defeat to Vucenic back in December. Things could’ve been much different for Hughes because with Vucenic winning in their fight, he now is fighting for the Featherweight Title this weekend. The Irishman started his professional MMA career in 2017 and finished his first four opponents inside the first round. Hughes is a versatile fighter with three submissions and three knockouts on his record.

James “The Honeybadger” Hendin will be looking to continue his unbeaten record after beating all his five opponents, four of those coming in Cage Warriors. It’s been a whole year since Hendin’s last fight after coming away with the third decision win of his career, with the judges awarding him a unanimous victory over Kris Edwards.

This bout is one to watch, with both fighters on the charge for a title shot.

Middleweight: Will Currie (5-0) vs Christian Leroy Duncan (2-0)

Will “Drago” Currie is back in action for his second bout in Cage Warriors, after winning his debut on decision back in December against Dario Bellandi. The 22-year-old has become one to watch in the middleweight division, after impressing outside of Cage Warriors. He fought four times in the space of six months in 2019, submitting all of his opponents in the first round.

Christian Leroy Duncan made his professional MMA debut at Cage Warriors 116, putting on an extremely impressive display knocking out Kyle McClurkin in the second round. His last fight came on the same card as Currie fought on. Duncan knocked out his opponent Lukasz Marcinkowski with a delightful spinning heel kick inside the first round, to set up this quality matchup with Currie.

Lightweight: Declan McAleenan (7-3) vs Keiran Lister (7-1-1)

After losing his first professional bout in 2015, Declan “Decky” McAleenan got himself on the Cage Warriors roster in 2017 to face Thomas Terdjman. A perfect promotion debut as he came away with his first MMA victory, after submitting Terdjman in the second round.

McAleenan fought in three promotions such as Cage Legacy, Akuma FC, and Headhunters FC. After his first victory and being on a five-fight win streak, he joined Cage Warriors for a second time. He lost his first two fights on his return, but he bounced back by beating Antanas Jazbutis and Adam Ventre back at Cage Warriors 118.

Keiran Lister’s unbeaten record came to an end in his last bout at Cage Warriors 119, after he was knocked out with 13 seconds left of this first round against Joe McColgan. Lister has fought two fights in Bellator back in 2019. He knocked out Davie McLaughlin in the first round in his first bout, whilst drawing his second against Constantin Gnusarev.

Tim Mearns has fought both of these fighters, beating McAleenan in September 2019 and losing to Lister a year later.

Lightweight: Steven Hooper (5-3) vs Michal Figlak (4-0)

Steven “Clocky T” Hooper looks to go on a three-fight win-streak in the promotion after submitting Mearns and Craig Edwards in his last two bouts.

He had a disaster debut back at Cage Warriors 101, losing on a unanimous decision to Anthony O’Connor. Hooper has four submissions to his record and it’s going to be his game-plan to get another as he looks to cement his name in the lightweight division with a win over Michal Figlak.

Figlak holds an unbeaten record with three knockouts to his name. Two of those came in his two Cage Warriors bouts beating Oban Elliott and O’Connor, who we know beat Hooper in his debut.

It will be interesting to see what’s next for the winner of this one, with both fighters looking for a third win in a row in the promotion.

Cage Warriors 120 Prelims Preview

Featherweight: Scott Pedersen (0-0) vs Matthew Elliott (0-0)

Both of these fighters are making their professional debuts on Thursday night.

Scott “Denkharft” Pedersen has fought for several years in the amateur ranks, as the 24-year-old has won 16 out of 25 amateur bouts. The Welshman has fought the likes of Ben Ellis and Michal Figlak in the Cage Warriors academy.

Matthew “BDE” Elliott has only fought in four amateur bouts but has come away victorious in each one. The Northern Irishman has only submitted one opponent, which came in his first fight against Rory Girvan. His last fight was in March 2020 in a decision win against Matvei Zara.

Flyweight: Coner Hignett (8-6) vs Leigh Mitchell (3-2)

Coner “Hand Grenade” Hignett fought his first professional bout in Cage Warriors back in 2014. He lost the fight against Nawras Abzakh and moved on to fight in other promotions such as ACB.

In March 2020, he rejoined Cage Warriors coming up against Darren O’Gorman. In the third round, he knocked out the Irishman to get his first win in the promotion. Back at Cage Warriors 114, he hit a setback, losing on a decision to Adam Amarasinghe.

Leigh Mitchell is also looking to get back to winning ways after being submitted to Nathan Fletcher back in December. The Englishman lost his first professional fight by being knocked out to Liam Gittins. He put his career back on track by submitting his next three opponents.

It’s without a doubt a must-win for both opponents in this one if they want to work they want any chance of fighting the best in the division in the future.

Featherweight: Ben Ellis (3-0) vs Manny Akpan (2-0)

Welshman Ben Ellis has had the perfect start to his career since making his professional debut at Cage Warriors 104.

His first two fights were both first-round knockouts over Brad Evans and Rafael Skouras. He fought back in December at Cage Warriors 118, defeating Kingsley Crawford on a decision.

Manny Akpan also made his first professional fight in Cage Warriors back in November 2019, beating Jack Maguire on a decision. He then fought his second fight in Full Contact Contender over a year ago against Liam Molloy and has re-joined Cage Warriors against a tough opponent in Ellis.

Welterweight: Josh Plant (2-3) vs Mateusz Figlak (4-1)

Unfortunately for Josh “The Power” Plant, he’s the only fighter on the card to hold a negative record, but he can change that with a win over Figlak on Thursday.

Plant lost his first and only bout in Cage Warriors all the way back in October 2018, after being submitted to George McManus in the first round. Plant was scheduled to fight Mateusz’s brother Michal last year, but the bout was canceled.

So, Mateusz Figlak will be competing on the same card as his brother Michal. He looks to push on from his last fight after he submitted Madars Bertholds-Fleminas in the first round.

His only loss came in the first round of his Cage Warriors debut back in November 2019, he was submitted by Ian Garry.

You can tune into the fights from 7:15PM (GMT) on UFC Fight Pass.

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Featured Image Credits to Embed from Getty Images