Paddy Pimblett, Chris Fishgold Retain Titles at Cage Warriors ‘Unplugged’
Rising British prospect Paddy
Pimblett struggled mightily against ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ 22
veteran Julian
Erosa in the main event of Cage
Warriors “Unplugged” on Saturday night, but “The Baddy” managed
to escape with his featherweight title.
The battle took place at the BT Sport Studio in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, England, and their duel capped off a terrific night of action on UFC Fight Pass. But when the dust settled inside the CWFC cage at night’s end, Pimblett wasn’t overly enthused about his win — and for good reason.
Pimblett controlled the action early on with powerful takedowns and
a better overall approach to the fight. But “Juicy J” rallied in
the middle rounds, capping off a solid third by buckling the
champ’s knees with a flying knee to the head. Pimblett stumbled
back and was in serious peril of being stopped, but Erosa was
unable to finish him off. With Pimblett still a little groggy and
passive in the fourth, Erosa had a golden opportunity to close him
out, but he incredulously opted to play it safe and clinched with
the Brit against the cage.
With Pimblett let off the hook, Erosa needed to win the fifth, but didn’t step on the gas pedal as much as he should. Still, he landed some scattered punches and appeared to control the pace of the majority of the round, but his reluctance to gun for the stoppage in the third and fourth rounds cost him dearly. The judges favored the local fighter visa unanimous decision, allowing Pimblett to hang on to his 145-pound title, though a large faction of observers felt that the American should have won. The official scores, however, favored Pimblett: 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47.
The co-featured bout of the evening saw Chris Fishgold edge Nic Herron-Webb in a tightly-contested back-and-forth battle that could have gone to either man. Fishgold landed the better overall strikes on the feet and was slightly better on the ground. While both men left it all in the cage, it was Fishgold who was awarded a somewhat surprising unanimous decision. Fishgold won via tallies of 48-47 on all three scorecards, allowing him to defend his Cage Warriors lightweight title.
There were plenty of stoppages on the undercard. Matt Inman submitted Che Mills courtesy of a triangle choke at 4:09 of the second; Karl Moore knocked out Paco Estevez with punches at 3:23 of the first; Leeroy James guillotined John Redmond in just 34 seconds; Kenneth Bergh took out Ross Cooper 2:46 into the first round via arm-triangle choke; and Lloyd Manning stopped Nathan Sparks with punches in 50 seconds. The only fight on the undercard to not end in a finish was Shaj Haque’s unanimous decision win (30-27, 29-27, 30-26) over Sam Creasey.
The battle took place at the BT Sport Studio in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, England, and their duel capped off a terrific night of action on UFC Fight Pass. But when the dust settled inside the CWFC cage at night’s end, Pimblett wasn’t overly enthused about his win — and for good reason.
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With Pimblett let off the hook, Erosa needed to win the fifth, but didn’t step on the gas pedal as much as he should. Still, he landed some scattered punches and appeared to control the pace of the majority of the round, but his reluctance to gun for the stoppage in the third and fourth rounds cost him dearly. The judges favored the local fighter visa unanimous decision, allowing Pimblett to hang on to his 145-pound title, though a large faction of observers felt that the American should have won. The official scores, however, favored Pimblett: 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47.
The co-featured bout of the evening saw Chris Fishgold edge Nic Herron-Webb in a tightly-contested back-and-forth battle that could have gone to either man. Fishgold landed the better overall strikes on the feet and was slightly better on the ground. While both men left it all in the cage, it was Fishgold who was awarded a somewhat surprising unanimous decision. Fishgold won via tallies of 48-47 on all three scorecards, allowing him to defend his Cage Warriors lightweight title.
There were plenty of stoppages on the undercard. Matt Inman submitted Che Mills courtesy of a triangle choke at 4:09 of the second; Karl Moore knocked out Paco Estevez with punches at 3:23 of the first; Leeroy James guillotined John Redmond in just 34 seconds; Kenneth Bergh took out Ross Cooper 2:46 into the first round via arm-triangle choke; and Lloyd Manning stopped Nathan Sparks with punches in 50 seconds. The only fight on the undercard to not end in a finish was Shaj Haque’s unanimous decision win (30-27, 29-27, 30-26) over Sam Creasey.
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