Cage Fury Fighting Championships: A Primer for Novice Viewers

The Philadelphia-based MMA promotion, Cage Fury Fighting Championships, will return to live action on May 28 and 29 for CFFC 96 and CFFC 97, respectively, inside the promotion’s home venue, 2300 Arena in The City of Brotherly Love.

What Is Cage Fury Fighting Championships?

Cage Fury has been in operation since its founding in 2006, holding five events between June of that year and March of 2007—but an eleventh-hour postponement of what would have been CFFC 6 cast doubt as to whether the promotion would ever hold a live event again.

In 2011, with the promotion now under new ownership, CFFC relaunched with CFFC 6, and it has been putting on shows ever since, including doubleheader weeks since the promotion’s return from their COVID-19 hiatus last summer.

Back in April, the promotion garnered attention for what happened between rounds of the Khetag Pliev (4-2, 1 NC) vs Devin Goodale (3-0, 1 NC) co-headliner of CFFC 94 on UFC Fight Pass when Pliev lost his finger in the first round, an injury that was not discovered until the rest between rounds two and three.

Pliev’s corner resigned him from the bout, which was initially ruled a second-round TKO for Goodale. The result was overturned to a no-contest by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, which oversees Cage Fury events.

Cage Fury Fighting Championship Rules

With a pair of title fights happening this weekend, it’s important to note that Cage Fury has a key stipulation for championship contests:

In Cage Fury Fighting Championships, each title fight is just four rounds at five minutes per round, with a fifth round serving as a tiebreaker if the scorecards are deadlocked after 20 minutes of action. This came into play on April 1 at CFFC 94 when a fifth round was needed to decide the Bassil Hafez (6-3-1) vs Evan Cutts (12-4) Cage Fury welterweight title fight. Cutts took the 170-lb strap by unanimous decision after 25 minutes.

Note: This is a Cage Fury rule, not a Pennsylvania rule.

Notable Cage Fury Fighting Championships Alums

Cage Fury Fighting Championships has had many marquee alumni fight in the promotion, and we’d be here through this time next week if we tried to name them all.

Kimbo Slice, Dan Ige, Chris Daukaus, and Jimmie Rivera are just a few of the fighters who have graduated from Cage Fury.

In Daukaus’ case, he had been booked to fight Shawn Teed twice in 2020 for the CFFC heavyweight championship, with both fights canceled without a single punch thrown.

A March 21, 2020 fight between the two was scrapped, as was CFFC 82 in its entirety, due to COVID—with the pairing rescheduled for that August. However, just days before that fight was to occur, Daukaus was called up to the UFC.

Headliners For CFFC 96 and CFFC 97

CFFC’s cards this weekend are headlined by two title bouts.

Friday will see the promotion’s heavyweight belt at stake between incumbent champion Jamelle Jones (11-6) and challenger Rakim Cleveland (20-13-1), who is a PFL alumn.

On Saturday, strawweight supremacy is on the line as current champion Elise Reed (3-0) fights Hilarie Rose (5-2).

Both main cards in the Cage Fury Fighting Championships events this weekend are on UFC Fight Pass beginning at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT, following the prelims on Facebook at 5:30 pm ET/2:30 pm PT on fight nights.

Stay tuned throughout the week, as we’ll have more on CFFC 96 and CFFC 97 as fight night draws closer for both shows.

Be sure to watch CFFC 96 and CFFC 97 this Friday and Saturday night as Cage Fury Fighting Championships returns for another doubleheader weekend, its second this year.

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Featured image credit to Caged Fury Fighting Championships