Tengiz Express gets halted in his tracks by skilful Monson

^{CWFC Heavyweight Title Match}

Tengiz Tedoradze (GEO) (Champion) vs. Jeff Monson (USA)

American submission wrestling champion Jeff Monson made light work of Tengiz Tedoradze in what many

expected to be a hard fought bout. Finding himself victim of a trademark huge Tengiz-style suplex, the

Florida based grappler suffered no damage and calmly reversed the two time Greco-Roman wrestling champ

and choked him to submission at 3.51 of the first round.

Showing great technique, he put Tengiz in a position where no-one in the UK scene had ever seen him in.

Tengiz seemed not to know what a guard was, but Monson passed it with ease and took a brief mount.

Exposing his back, Tengiz gave Monson an early Xmas present in the shape of a rear naked choke.

The American Top Team member Monson suffered badly with jibes from the partisan home crowd, but stated

his intentions to return to defend his new crown of Heavyweight Champion of CageWarriors. Signing off his

victory speech with the statement “Fuck George Bush” he earned himself kudos not only by dismantling

Tengiz with such ease, but with his respectful and modest attitude to his fellow competitor.

Winner: Monson by Submission (RNC) 3:51 Rd 1.

Controversy shadows fight of night as Daley suffers doubtful draw

^{CWFC Welterweight Title Match}

Abdul Mohamed (AFG) (Champion) vs. Paul “Semtex” Daley (UK)

A questionable judges’ decision left challenger Paul Daley and his supporters unsatisfied in the only blemish

upon the evening’s proceedings. A classic striker vs. wrestler match, each fighter had a clear strategy- Daley

wanted to stay on his feet and pick apart his foe, whereas Mohamed clearly preferred to use his formidable

wrestling skills and be in control on the mat.

The first round saw excellent footwork and striking from Daley as he repeatedly avoided the takedowns of

Mohamed, but a throw near the fence midway through round one badly twisted Daley’s knee under him.

While he carried on regardless, his game clearly suffered as his mobility was reduced to attacking in flurries

in mostly straight lines. Becoming more vulnerable to the takedowns and consistent GnP of Mohamed, he

was put on his back repeatedly throughout the latter half of the first and the majority of the second.

Round three was uneventful, with both fighters stalking each other but refusing to engage with any

commitment. The fourth and fifth were different stories and Daley changed tactics by bringing out an until-

now unused leg kick to good effect.

It proved to be a clever strategy for Daley, as the tiring Mohamed lacked the reflexes to counter the kicks

with a takedown, and suffered a large number of stinging shots to both the inside and outside of his thigh.

Managing to get the slippery Daley back to the mat a few times in the latter half of the fight and even

securing a brief mount, it seemed fairly even at the final bell, but looking at my unofficial tally Daley had

edged it by one point.

The judges had it one for Abdul, one for Daley and one even, making the decision a draw. Abdul seemed

relieved but somewhat uncomfortable - Daley looked plain pissed off.

The belt remains in the hands of Abdul, and cries of rematch are being heard already. Daley is unconcerned

and already looking onward and upward, preferring to take the moral victory in this case. Manager and trainer

Ian Freeman has said he would prefer to start taking Abdul abroad to face international competition. If he

does and the CW WW belt becomes vacant, there is a strong indication as to who could pick up the vacant

title.

Mohammed and Daley draw after 5 rounds.

Calvacanti scores the win in dying seconds of the third

^{International Lightweight Superfight}

Gesias “JZ” Calvacanti (BRA) vs. Cengiz Dana (TUR)

With both fighters set to face other opponents, pullouts led to this last minute bout being put on. A Brazilian

fighting out of the ATT met a Turk fighting out of Germany, but this multicultural match-up left the Sheffield

fans somewhat cold due to its grappling bias.

Coming out with the obvious strategy of keeping the fight on the floor Calvacanti repeatedly shot in on Dana,

but his submission attempts were repeatedly nullified and his striking none-too-effective.

The pattern of takedown-stalling-minimum amount of work-restart continued throughout the fight till it got to

the point where people were leaving for the bar. Those who felt it an opportune moment to refill their pint-pots

missed out on Calvacanti finally finding his finish with a guillotine choke with only five seconds to spare in the

final round.

Winner: Calvacanti by Submission (Guillotine Choke) 4:55 Rd 3.

Mongoose wins battle of the middleweights

^{Middleweight bout}

Ian “Mongoose” Jones vs. Michael Hobbs

Anyone following the MW scene as of late will have heard great things about both these guys- Jones is a

local boy who trains with welterweight legend Andy Cooper in MMA, and Hobbs is a street fighter turned

athlete coming out of the North East and cornered by the equally legendary Geoff Oughton.

Jones got a wake up call from a Hobbs straight away, catching a big right hook on his chin, but managed to

limit further damage by controlling a clinch and landing several knees to the body. A trip from Hobbs put

Jones on his back, and Hobbs began dropping very accurate and big power shots from inside Jones guard.

To his credit, Jones didn’t seem fazed, and calmly defended both a heelhook and triangle submission from

the versatile Hobbs before deftly catching a guillotine in the scramble. Jones fans went wild and their cries of

“Goose!” rang out loud and long.

Winner: Jones by Submission (Guillotine) 3:10 Rd 1.

Soares gets shut down by strong Niinimaki

^{International Featherweight Superfight}

Tom Niinimaki (FIN) vs. Andres Soares (BRA)

Another Brazilian representing the American Top Team, Soares was tipped to be an exciting grappler who

had unorthodox attacks. Indeed he did, but they had little effect upon the impassive Finn Niinimaki, who

brushed off many of Soares takedowns and totally nullified his ground attacks.

Literally throwing Soares around the cage, he manhandled him with his superior wrestling skills and used

noticeable size advantage well. Even the desperate leg lock attacks and little seen X-guard had no effect on

the member of Team Scandinavia.

Dominating the ground game Niinimaki continually pounded Soares throughout the fight. While the brave little

Brazilian kept attacking over and over, he would have had more success running into a brick wall, for

Niinimaki was relentless and unyielding. A decision could only go one way, and did.

Winner: Niinimaki by Unanimous Decision.

Owen scratches wins over Fernandez in sluggish snooze fest

^{International Featherweight Superfight}

Alex Owen (UK) vs. Frederic Fernandez (FRA)

BJJ brown belt Fernandez and notable UK grappler Owen met in what turned out to be the only really bad

fight of the night.

Neither man had any striking skills of worth and, the only excitement came when Owen seemed to have a

triangle locked in tight for practically the whole of round one. The inactivity that passed while he vainly tried

to finish the submission was nothing in comparison to the following two rounds, which were two of the most

uneventful I have ever seen in UK MMA. Owen would fall to his rear if so much as touched with a jab, and for

a BJJ brown belt and Judo black belt, Fernandez seemed to have no idea how to counter takedowns.

Winner: Owen by Unanimous Decision.

Hardly a sweat broken for Hardy in shortest fight of the night

^{Welterweight Bout}

Aaron Barrow vs. Dan Hardy

Handy Dan Hardy has just come back from a lengthy trip to stay with the American Top Team- if it was

expected that he win with some newly acquired funky submission from those master grapplers, then it was

an incorrect supposition.

Using probably the greatest yet most unusual set-up for a KO shot I have ever seen, Hardy dropped his

hands to taunt Barrow, telling him to bring it on. Barrow responded, but as his guard came down Hardy used

his longs legs to wrap a foot around the side of Barrows skull that sent the Washington powerhouse crashing

to the mat. Following it up with a barrage of punches, Hardy was dragged off and declared the winner in no

less than 13 seconds.

Winner: Hardy by TKO (Punches) 13 seconds Rd 1.

Summary

The huge cage, the blaring sound system, an exhibition Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match and the tailor made venue

all contributed to an entertaining event that only just pulled itself back from the brink of failure.

With only days and hours to spare the card seemed to be falling apart around them, but the CageWarriors

staff performed admirably and some hasty reorganisation saw a 7-fight bill that while not quite as explosive

as the original planned roster of fighters, was solid and well rounded.

Report by

Hywel Teague

Freelance MMA reporter

hywelteague@hotmail.com