Cage Warriors 80: Amoussou defeats Inman

Cage Warriors opened their calendar year this evening with a highly-eventful show that saw all but one bout end in a finish. Taking place inside the The O2 Arena’s Indigo building, a smaller concert designed venue, within the main O2 arena dome, Cage Warriors president Graham Bowler confirmed during the prelims that the indigo is now exclusively the “London home for Cage Warriors.”

The preliminary card, which aired live on ‘TheSportsBible’ for the first time since a new partnership between the two companies, was highlighted by Irish born Decky McAleenan managing to pick up the first professional win of his career defeating Thomas Terdjman via triangle choke submission.

Over on the main card, Tim Wilde took on Norwegian born Alexander Jacobsen, Wilde came out throwing a number of combinations early and looked to be largely in-control of the fight, however Jacobsen managed to weather the storm and dropped Wilde to the floor with one huge counter-punch, before quickly finishing Wilde who stood up shortly after the ref ended the fight, dazed and confused. During his post-fight interview Jacobsen told the crowd that he could also knock-out current lightweight title holder Chris Fishgold with one-punch.

Martin Stapleton suffered a defeat to Frenchman Anthony Dizy, a bout largely contested on the ground for the duration of the three rounds, leaving the judges to score the contest with Dizy winning unanimously. (30-26, 29-26, 29-26)

The co-main event saw London’s own Brad Wheeler, who arguably had the biggest support of the evening from the crowd, defeat Warren Kee.

Kee looked very focused during his walkout, however never really managed to get things going in the fight, Wheeler was very successful with combinations of punches and knees in the early goings of round one and then finished the fight landing a shot to the liver that downed Kee, before laying further damage to his downed opponent.

The main event saw German-born Karl Amoussou extend his current win streak to 7 fights since being released from Bellator, defeating Manchester’s Matt Inman via TKO mid-way through the first round after he landed a strike that stunned Inman, before referee Marc Goddard intervened when the Manchester native could no longer defend himself.

Other highlight’s of the evening included a Paddy Pimblett DJ set and photo opportunities for fans with the likes of Dan Hardy. Tom Breeze and John Gooden.  The promotion also announced it’s next London show will be Friday June 2^nd.