Cagewarriors Quest Volume 1 Report

The first Cagewarriors franchised show, “Cagewarriors Quest,” unleashed its semi-pro division in style

with a dazzling display of high impact mixed martial arts action at the Sheffield Octagon Centre.

Friday, April 8, 2005

Sheffield Octagon Centre

Sheffield, UK

Special Thanks go out to Ian Dean and Cagewarriors.com for the Great recap:

Sheffield, England – The highly anticipated Cagewarriors Semi-Pro division “Cagewarriors Quest” debuted at

the Sheffield Octagon Centre on Friday the 8th of April and went some way to dispel the myth that big

names, big fights and big money is needed to sell a mixed martial arts show to the general public.

Like other smaller events dotted around the UK, Cagewarriors Quest focused on the basics and delivered

eight high octane match-ups as the next generation of MMA stars took the first step towards the

professional circuit and put many professionals to shame with some impressive performances inside the

octagonal cage in what was a crowd pleasing show which no doubt secured Cagewarriors with a solid base

for their return to Sheffield on the 29th of July.

The night started with a bang with a featherweight Cage Kickboxing bout between local lads, Derek

Robinson and Amjed Shaffique, who entertained the crowd with a cat-and-mouse encounter, containing

numerous taunts, flashy striking and some furious flurries. However, Robinson took the taunting too far and

was tagged by Shaffique several times which eventually led to a knockdown in round three and as the fight

ended, the bad blood intensified leading to both men having to be physically pulled away from each other by

referee Richard Pep. Despite the theatrics, the crowd enjoyed the fight and as the Judges gave the win to

Shaffique, the crowd signaled their approval in this scrappy but entertaining bout.

Bout number two featured 16 year old Shirleen Fullerton from Clay Lane Gracie Barra against Lisa

Newton from the Lodge Fight Club. Again, this bout went to a decision but the crowd was impressed by this

bout which started off with Newton displaying superior striking and clinch work. However, the BJJ stylings of

Fullerton came into play once the fight hit the floor and although a no head strikes rule was in effect, once

the action hit the mat, Fullerton use her size advantage and skills to full effect and dominated the action with

superior positioning whilst looking for the sporadic submission attempt. After 10 minutes of contrasting

action, the Judges awarded the fight to the youngster from Gracie Barra who could be a name to look out for

and can only benefit by participating on shows like this.

Next up was another bout that went to a decision which featured "Psycho" Steve Tetley, the first of the

night’s fighters from the now infamous Rough House gym in Nottingham. He made his cage debut against

Andy Denny from nearby Wakefield. Despite this fight going the distance, the crowd still approved and

cheered enthusiastic throughout as Tetley showed the typical roughhouse attitude by mixing some punishing

striking with some impressive heavy hitting ground and pound en-route to win via unanimous judges’

decision.

The final fight before the break was a match up between Ben Lukowski from Sheffield Shootfighters taking

on Christian Dashwood who had previous amateur experience at Full Contact Fight Night in Portsmouth.

Dashwood cornered and trained by Andy Walker from Poole Jiu-Jitsu traveled up on the day and he showed

that he has a bright future ahead of him by taking on a local favorite, which gave this contest a red hot

atmosphere. Like the previous three fights, it was a battle of attrition which contained long periods of ground

work.

However, both men did look to finish the bout and openly traded whilst on the offensive. Driven on by the

home support, Lukowski won the opening round but looked tired and was bleeding as the fight drew to a

close. Dashwood was able to gain dominant positing on the floor and worked past Lukowski‘s resistance

with some ground and pound before ending the fight with a guillotine choke for the win after 3.38 of round

two. This was another good fight by two individuals who entertained the crowd and showed their eagerness

to impress in this semi-pro division.

The first bout after the break was a “Cage Kickboxing” bout featuring Paul "Collision Course" Clarke from

Rough House Nottingham. His team warned Cagewarriors staff to expect fireworks during his bout with Pete

Leviss from Sheffield Kondei Ryu, and those in the audience who were still queuing up at the bar missed an

explosive display as Clarke flew out of his corner and unleashed a huge shot to the side of Leviss’ head

which sent him down to the canvas in a heap. The velocity of the knockdown was so great that the referee,

Mr. Richard Pep, did not bother issuing a count and stopped the fight after just eight seconds of round one,

which resulted in wild celebrations from the Nottingham fans who again attended the Octagon centre in

droves. “Collision Course” is his nickname and this was only his second appearance under “hybrid

kickboxing” rules. Watch out for him as he’ll certainly be making an impact in the middleweight division later

on this year.

The next bout featured Craig Ford and Mark Ashworth who were another two Yorkshire lads who could not

be separated after 10 minutes of welterweight semi-pro action. Despite a brave effort from Ford, he was never

in the running as Ashworth got the early takedown twice and took control from top position through the fight.

Looking back on his performance, Ashworth may be disappointed not to have made more of his domination

and stop the fight earlier on.

The final semi-pro fight of the night was between Jim Wallhead (Urban Combat Leicester) and the

Cagewarriors 5 veteran Steve Matthews. On the day of the fight, many had talked up Wallhead’s chances

despite giving up a lot of weight to the more experienced Scotsman. As soon as the bell started, Matthews

found himself mauled by the bulldog style tactics of Wallhead who used his grappling background to

aggressively take down Matthews and open him up and pound on him. Matthews did his best to cover up

and then to turn and shake off Wallhead, however this did not stop Wallhead’s aggressiveness and as he got

Matthews back, he quickly sunk in a rear naked choke for a very impressive win in under 20 seconds which

provoke a huge reaction from his fans and the general public who rose the their feet in approval. Wallhead’s

performance was so impressive that many now expect him to debut in the light-heavyweight division in one of

the professional Cagewarriors shows very soon.

The main event of the evening featured a professional MMA clash between Dan Hardy and Andy Walker.

Hardy was the third of the night’s fighters from the Rough House gym in Nottingham. Hardy has been on a

roll as of late and has been calling out several other UK welterweights in order to rise up the rankings. After

seeing his eagerness to fight Cagewarriors Quest, organizer Rob Butler contacted Hardy and was able to

match him up with the experienced Poole Jiu Jitsu fighter Andy Walker in this hastily arranged but

interesting main event.

Walker, who traveled several hundred miles on the day to fight Hardy, was calm and started off brightly and

traded with Hardy who has a perfect 3-0 record in Cagewarriors MMA and Cage Kickboxing competition.

After initially trading, both men clinched where Walker delivered an accidental a low blow to Hardy which led

to the fight being stopped to allow Hardy time to recover as he was in some pain. After this delay, the fight

was restarted and Walker continued to start brightly by taking the Nottingham based star down to the mat

and swiftly looking for a submission by turning around Hardy’s back and aiming for a face down armbar to

the surprise of some inside the Octagon Centre.

Hardy patiently waited and tried to work out of the submission attempt showing that he has been working on

this side of his game since his loss in the USA against Pat Healy at AFC 10. Hardy was eventually able to

power out of the hold and instantly went on the attack and struck from top position whilst working forward

with more aggression. Hardy was then able to connect with some glancing blows before working further into

Walker’s guard and landed a series of painful looking hammerfists which weakened Walker’s defenses and

eventually left the referee with no choice as more and more got through, forcing the end of the fight after 3.26

of round one. After the fight, Hardy was interviewed inside the octagon where he let everyone know that he

means business as he improves to 5-2 in MMA action and will be looking to challenge the likes of Wesley

Murch, Sami Berik and more in the future as he continues to rise up the rankings.

All in all, this was a very successful start to this “semi-pro” series, although Cagewarriors has found a

number of potential stars that with the correct nurturing, could progress through to the pro ranks with ease.

Whilst the crowd reacted well to every fight and although their may not have been as many KO or stoppages

as the organizers had hope, everyone seemed to walk away happy and this certainly gives Cagewarriors a

great base to build their semi-pro show on.

For full results go to http://www.cagewarriors.com/page.asp?ID=886

Cagewarriors Quest returns on July 29th in Sheffield, for more updates and information on this and all

Cagewarriors show go to www.cagewarriors.com and if you feel you’re good enough to get into the cage,

then e-mail the Cagewarriors Quest Organizer Rob Butler at rob@bprint.org.
 

- From Ian Dean and Cagewarriors.com with a little editing from us (color, etc...)

(4/14/05)