It was the third show in as many week’s as Britain’s Cage Warriors headed to Kiev in Ukraine for their latest offering, Cage Warriors 46, shown on Sky Sports this past Wednesday night here in Britain.
The broadcast began in the flyweight division as Neil Seery went up against Artemij Sitenkov.
This one lasted under a minute. After both fighters tested the waters they engaged in a clinch against the cage. The clinch didn’t last long as Sitenkov went downstairs within seconds with a rolling knee bar. Seery didn’t have much hope of escape, tapping out almost immediately.
Then it was up to welterweight as Dan Hope faced Alexander Voitenko.
An entertaining encounter saw Voitenko putting in a good display, the local hero seemingly able to take Hope down at will. Hope put in some good defensive work but it was all to no avail.
Although Voitenko rarely went for a submission hold his ground and pound was spot on, bloodying Hope’s nose in the first and doing even more damage in the second.
By the time the third round started Hope looked exhausted, easy prey for another of Voitenko’s takedowns, and it came as no surprise when the referee stepped in when Voitenko’s barrage of blows went unanswered, giving the Ukrainian the TKO win.
It was back to flyweight for the next fight as Phil Harris took on Remi Morvan. Now although this was announced as a flyweight bout Morvan had actually missed the 125 pound limit by just over five pounds.
This one featured an even better display of ground fighting. Morvan scored with the impressive takedown early on and put in some good work before Harris reversed the positions.
We saw another couple of reversals until Morvan moved into Harris’ guard, only for the Englishman to lock in a triangle armbar for the impressive submission win.
The next fight featured middleweight action as Alexander Starikov went up against Pavel Kusch.
Starikov scored with the takedown within seconds of the start, but it proved to be his undoing as Kusch quickly locked in the alma plata for the submission win after just 30 seconds.
Then it was on to highlights from the bantamweight bout between James Brum Leandro Gontiho.
Beginning in the second round, Gontiho put in some good work on the ground, only for it to be spoiled by a two points deductions, one for continually grabbing the cage and one for head butting.
As the fight progressed Brum did a good job of spoiling the Spaniard’s attempts at turning this into a grappling contest, mainly because the Englishman was doing well in the striking department. His kicks looked brutal, and as the fight neared the end Gontiho was visibly limping.
With the fight going the distance it went down to the judges as Brum took the unanimous decision, unsurprisingly really considering the points deductions.
The co-main event featured lightweight action as Diego Gonzalez faced Ivica Truscek.
Truscek came forward as soon as the fight began, rolling off a succession of left jabs to the head and the body. Gonzalez soon grew tired of this and took the fight to the ground, taking Truscek’s back, looking for a rear naked choke.
We almost had a controversial moment when Gonzalez connected with a knee to Truscek’s chest while the Croatian was grounded. The referee thought the Swede had connected with the head, but in a great show of sportsmanship Truscek told the referee where he’d been hit.
Truscek continued his striking tactics into the second round, again scoring with some good shots to the head and body before Gonzalez took the fight to the ground once again. This time around though he had even more success, locking in an arm-in guillotine for the submission win.
The main event featured heavyweight action as Andreas Kraniotakes faced Dmitry Poberezhets.
No testing of the waters for these guys, they began to swing early, although it wasn’t long before the fight went to the ground.
Once there it wasn’t long before Kraniotakes took Poberezhets’ back, and although it took him a few moments Kraniotakes eventually synched in a rear naked choke for the submission win.
In conclusion – for the third week in a row the Cage Warriors crew put on another good show.
Each fight was great in it’s own way, and the mixture of British and European fighters showed that there is a great deal of untapped talent outside of the big American and Japanese-based organisations, talent that’s just screaming out for greater recognition.
So with that being said Cage Warriors 46 gets the big thumbs up from me as another example of British and European MMA at it’s best.
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