Cage Warriors 51 bill includes a Conor McGregor title fight while the UFC will be back in London in 2013.
By Fergus Ryan
McGregor goes for double gold
After capturing the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship featherweight title in June, Conor McGregor (11-2) will look to become Ireland and Europe’s first two-weight MMA world champion.
McGregor was originally supposed to defend his featherweight strap against US fighter Jim Alers at CWFC 51 in Dublin on New Year’s Eve. After Alers was forced to pull out due to injury the cage Warriors team scrambled to get McGregor a worthy opponent. With no featherweight available Cage Warriors have offered McGregor a chance to snatch the lightweight strap in a bout with Ivan Buchinger.
The lightweight belt is up for grabs once again following a mutual agreement between Cage Warriors officials and previous champion Ivan Musardo, who clinched the title with a victory against Joseph Duffy over 12 months ago.
Check out this video shot by Conor’s coach, John Kavanagh in the Mjolnir Gym in Iceland where Conor is currently training.
Buchinger (21-3), who’s signed exclusively to Cage Warriors, had an impressive second-round TKO victory over Diego Gonzalez at May’s CWFC Fight Night 6 in Bahrain. Currently ranked as one of Europe’s top ten lightweights, the 26-year-old Slovak has secured 19 of his 21 wins by stoppage, with two of his three losses coming via decision against UFC duo Anton Kuivanen and Akira Corassani.
McGregor (11-2), who fights out of SBG Ireland, was crowned CWFC featherweight champion at June’s Cage Warriors 47 in Dublin when he submitted Dave Hill in the second round of their clash for the vacant title.
The Irishman is ranked as one of Europe’s top ten featherweights but also fights regularly at lightweight. Two of McGregor’s four bouts under the Cage Warriors banner have been at 155lbs.
Victory over Buchinger on New Year’s Eve would see McGregor become the first fighter to simultaneously hold Cage Warrior titles in two weight classes.
Tickets for Cage Warriors 51 will go on sale on Thursday, December 6, with more bouts still to be announced. Keep track of Cage Warriors on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and updates. Here’s a list of the fights announced so far.
MAIN CARD
- Conor McGregor (SBGi) v Ivan Buchinger
- Aisling Daly (SBGi) v Katja Kankaanpaa
- Liam James v Alan Philpott (Next Generation)
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Philip Mulpeter (SBGi) v Tommy Quinn
- Charlie Watts v Henry Fadipe (Lucan MMA)
UFC returns to London in February 2013
The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that it will return to England’s capital on Saturday 16th February, 2013 for ‘UFC on Fuel TV 7’.
The event will be the fifth time the UFC has come to London since its conception in 1993, the first being back in July 2002 with UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall which was held at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall. Since then, there have been four events held at the 02 Arena, most recently with sell-out crowds to see UFC 120: Bisping vs. Akiyama. This will be the first time the UFC has ever brought a show to Wembley Arena, the iconic London venue that holds in excess of 10,000 people.
“The UFC has seen significant international growth with nearly a third of all the live events now held outside the USA. London is one of the world’s major capital cities and is a fitting host to kick off 2013 for the first of three European events taking place this year,” commented UFC’s Executive Vice President and Managing Director of EMEA, Garry Cook. “We work hard in Europe to keep UFC at the leading edge of MMA and as always our show will not disappoint our loyal followers.”
Of particular interest to Irish MMA fans will be the possibility of Norman Parke making his debut appearance for the UFC outside of the TUF format. Norman is through to the TUF ‘The Smashes’ Finale, which will take place on December 14th at UFC on FX: Sotiropoulos vs. Pearson.
In addition to Parke there are a number of Irish fighters knocking on the UFC’s door like Conor McGregor, Chris Fields, Cathal Pendred and Neil Seery among others. I think we should tweet the UFC and their staff to let them know the level of interest in seeing an Irish fighter on this card.
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