Cage Warriors
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Cage Warriors Fighting Championship (CWFC), more commonly known as Cage Warriors, is a United Kingdom-based mixed martial arts promotion.
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[edit] History
Formed in 2002 the UK’s first Cage Show being promoted in Portsmouth, and local Businessman Dougie Truman was offered to sponsor some fights in what was Britain’s first “Cage Fighting” event. Mr Truman, a lifelong combat sports/martial arts fan gladly accepted and was amazed by what he saw.
Within a few short months Truman injected funds into a new project and held his own event which was entitled “Cage Warriors”. The first Cage Warriors event was held in London’s York Hall (a world famous London boxing venue) and Truman started the Cage Warriors brand with an 8 man single elimination heavyweight tournament with £3,000 pounds at stake. (A figure that was unheard of in the UK at that time)
After his first event in July 2002, Truman devoted more and more of his time into developing the Cage Warriors brand and the sport of MMA into being an accepted mainstream event, adding glitz and glamour but keeping the raw action which makes this evolutionary sport, a true 21st Century event.
With the addition of a 27ft cage (now 32ft) which at the time was the standard bearer in UK MMA, the concept of Cage Warriors was formed, and the brand is now an internationally recognised MMA event. Cage Warriors held their first 2 shows in London before travelling around the country, bringing their brand of “Ultimate Cage Fighting” or “Mixed Martial Arts” to new areas during 2003 and 2004, and after just 2 years held shows in Barnsley, Newcastle, Weston Super Mare, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Sheffield (as well as assisting other promotions around the country.)
However in 2005, a new dimension was added to the Cage Warriors brand as several new franchises were added to the Cage Warriors’ brand. This led to a semi-pro feeder show in Sheffield (Known as “Quest”) being created, in which young and up-and-coming fighters would have a platform to perform on. Cage Warriors also held shows in conjunction with other promoters which led to events being held in Wales under the “House of Pain” banner and a one off full pro event in Sheffield, titled Cage Warriors: Ultimate Force.
However the biggest change took place when three Coventry based businessmen Andy Lillis, Jason Dimmock and Dean Griffiths purchased a stake in Cage Warriors and set up a parent company known as “Warrior Promotions”. Warrior Promotions bought their skills and expertise from promoting a range of other events in the UK into the field of MMA and helped to transform Cage Warriors into a truly international event which is able to bring in top fighters from Europe, USA and beyond.
The first Warrior Promotions show was held on the 21st May 2005 and was called Cage Warriors: Strike Force 1. Held at the Skydome Arena, Coventry, it saw a 10 bout UK vs. France series which drew a UK record of around 3500 people. The “UK” team consisted of Michael Bisping, Ross Pointon, Antonio Silva and more, in an event which highlighted just how far Cage Warriors had developed.
During 2005 there were a total of 4 “Strike Force” events in Coventry which had a variety of themes such as “UK vs. France”, “UK vs. the World”, “UK vs. Scandinavia” and finally their biggest event to date “The Night of Champions” which saw the debut of the brand new CWFC World Title Belt and also had all 9 CWFC Titles on the line in 1 night. This was an unprecedented event, which pushed many of the fighters involved into the big shows in the USA and Japan and led to Cage Warriors receiving a huge amount of interest around the world.
2005 also saw Cage Warriors join forces with the Wolfslair Academy, who became the Cage Warriors official pro fight team. The Wolfslair Academy is home to UFC's The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Michael Bisping, who run the CWFC Light-Heavyweight Title outright in 2005. The Wolfslair Academy is also home to UFC veterans Mario “Sukata” Neto, Ian “The Machine” Freeman, several other Brazilians and up and coming contenders Tom Blackledge and Alex Cook, Lee Dickson, Paul Kelly plus many more. The Wolfslair has also bought over stars such as Antonio Silva (The CWFC Super Heavyweight Champion, who now fights in K-1 Heroes), Zuluzinho (Who now fights in PRIDE Fighting Championships) and will no doubt continue to bring over more stars due to their world class facilities and training team.
During the 4th Quarter of 2005, Cage Warriors and Warrior Promotions managed to secure a TV deal with TWC. (Sky Channel 427) This deal gave Cage Warriors a weekly in which archive Cage Warriors footage will be shown, alongside the newer “Supercards”
During 2006 Cage Warriors continued on with 2 more Strike Force shows, which highlighted more top European talent and even saw an 8 bout UK vs. Germany series at Strike Force 6. Cage Warriors also worked with the Wolfslair Academy to produce Cage Warriors “Enter the Wolfslair” which saw an exciting 8 man Welterweight tournament featuring fighters from the USA and Europe, and also saw the return of the Heavyweight Vale Tudo star Mario “Sukata” Neto (Who has since gone to the UFC)
Cage Warriors has since turned its attention into producing more new shows and returned to Sheffield in the Autumn of 2006 with a brand new pro show called “Showdown” and will be returning later this year with an 8 man Lightweight Tournament. Cage Warriors will also produce the first “Cage” event in Nottingham entitled “Enter the Rough House” which will highlight members of “Team Rough House” as well as the usual mix of up and coming European talent.
Cage Warriors also recently joined the World Wide Cage Network (WWCN) which is headed by the Japanese GCM Communications organisation. The WWCN was established to develop fighters and to spread and support the fighting business market by exchanging fighters of cage fight promotions in Europe, Australia, North America and Japan. The WWCN's first goal in the future is to become a structural organization to help great fighters from this network step up the scene of their activities into big promotions like UFC. Cage Warriors hope this will expand their horizons aboard and will give UK and European fighters more opportunities to success on the world stage. However Cage Warriors will continue to work with their domestic partners for the good of everyone in the UK scene.
[edit] CWFC current champions
| Division | Champion | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Heavyweight | ||
| Light Heavyweight | ||
| Middleweight | Vacant | |
| Welterweight | ||
| Lightweight | ||
| Featherweight |
[edit] Notable fighters
[edit] External links
| Professional mixed martial arts organizations | |
|---|---|
| Major promotions: | Ultimate Fighting Championship | PRIDE Fighting Championships | HERO's |
| Other promotions: | Pancrase | KOTC | Rumble on the Rock | EFC | WEC | MFC | ZST | DEEP | Cage Rage | Cage Warriors | FFC | IFL | TKO | Strikeforce | WWCN |
| Defunct promotions: | IVC | RINGS | WFA |
| Sanctioning bodies: | Shooto | International Sport Combat Federation |
