Cage Warriors 96 takes place today, live from the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

The main event will see Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett take on Soren Bak for the CW Lightweight Title – Also featuring on the card is Jonas Billstein as he takes on latecomer Mick Stanton on less than 24 hours notice – Jonas was expected to face off against Lee Chadwick who would be making his second defence of the Middleweight Title, however, Chadwick failed to make weight and was instantly stripped of his title on the scales – Jonas will now face Stanton for the now vacant CW Middleweight Title. The event will also see an amateur Grand Prix tournament.

Check out the results below live as they happen

Fight Card:

CW Academy North West Undercard (NON-TELEVISED)

Luke Bennett vs Sam Irving
Sam Irving def Luke Bennett – R1 0:54 – Submission (Guillotine Choke)

Mike Thompson vs Sean Alpin
Mike Thompson def Sean Alpin – Unanimous Decision – 30-27, 30-27, 30-26

JJ Jones vs Liam Carrol
JJ Jones def Liam Carrol – Split Decision –  29-28 28-29 29-28

CW Academy NW Grand Prix Semi-Finals

Light-Heavyweight
David Piotrowicz vs Carl Dilks
David Piotrowicz def Carl Dilks – TKO (Ground & Pound) – R2 0:44

Welterweight
Ivan Blanita vs Adam Cullen
Ivan Blanita def Adam Cullen – R2 – Submission (Americana)

Lightweight
Constantine Blanita vs Danny Williams
Constantine Blanita def Danny Willaims – Unanimous Decision – 30-25, 30-25, 30-25

Featherweight
Scott Harvey vs Liam Molloy

Prelims (6:30 pm – Sports Bible – Facebook)

Flyweight
Liam Gittins vs Kevin Cordero Lopez
Liam Gittins def Kevin Cordero Lopez – R1 4:36 – TKO

Lightweight
Anthony O’Connor vs Mehdi Ben Lakhdhar

Flyweight
Sam Creasey vs Conor Hignett
Sam Creasey def Conor Hignett – R1 4:03 – TKO (Ground & Pound)

Lightweight
Elliot Jenkins vs Mahmod Faour
Mahmod Faour def Elliot Jenkins – R2 – TKO

Main Card  (9pm – BT Sports / UFC Fight Pass)

Welterweight
Tim Barnett vs Matthew Bonner
Tim Barnett draws Matthew Bonner – Majority Draw -28-27, 28-28, 28-28

Welterweight
Nicolas Dalby vs Roberto Allegretti
Nicolas Dalby def Roberto Allegretti – R2 – Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

Lightweight
Jack Grant vs Aleksi Mantykivi
Jack Grant def Aleksi Mantykivi – R1 4:20 – KO

Vacant Middleweight Title Bout
Mick Stanton vs Jonas Billstein
Jonas Billstein (C) def Mick Stanton – R1 3:20 – Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

Vacant Lightweight Title Fight
Paddy Pimblett vs Soren Bak
Soren Bak def Paddy Pimblett – Unanimous Decision – 48-44, 48-45, 48-46

Keep checking back with MMAThread as we will be bringing you all the live backstage interviews with all your Cage Warriors 96 fighters.

Cage Warriors returns to the Echo Arena, Liverpool this Saturday, September 1st. The event is headlined by a lightweight title fight between Liverpool’s own Paddy “The Baddy” Pimbeltt and Demark’s Søren Bak

Paddy Pimblett (14-2-0) is fighting for the second time at Lightweight since moving up a weight class after losing his Featherweight Title to Nad Narimani back in 2017 at CW82.

Soren Bak (11-1-0) comes into this fight riding a three-fight winning streak with submission wins over Alexander Jacobsen and Martin Stapleton – This will mark Bak’s fourth Cage Warriors appearance.

Also fighting on the card is another Liverpool native, Lee “The Butcher” Chadwick (24-13-1). Chadwick is on a three-fight winning streak and is set to defend his Middleweight Title for the first time since beating Victor Cheng for the vacant strap back at CW88 in October 2017.

Chadwick’s opponent will be in the form of Germany’s Jonas Billstein (19-5-1), who himself is on a four-fight winning streak and is making his Cage Warriors debut. Billstein is a veteran of Bellator and ACB. His last fight back in May ended in a majority draw, but before that, he has won his previous two bouts, both by way of second-round submission.

Several other big names on the UK regional scene are also set to square off including the likes of Jack Grant (14-4-0), Connor Hignett (6-3-0) Liam Gittins (2-0-0) and Mick Stanton (3-2-0).

As well as a pack main card and prelims, before the show even begins fans will be treated to a wrath of amateur bouts, as Cage Warriors Academy: North West returns to action. The amateur card will feature a title bout at Light Heavyweight between David Piotrowicz and Carl Dilks, as well as a scrap for the Welterweight Title, as Ivan Blanita takes on Adam Cullen – Then at Lightweight, Ireland’s Constantin Blanita will take on Wales’ Danny Williams, and finally at Featherweight Scott Harvey will take on Liam Molloy for the title.

Cage Warriors 96 will take place this Saturday, September 1st from the Echo Arena in Liverpool. The event will air live on BT Sports for the UK fans and UFC Fight Pass for international viewers.

MMAThread will be live at the event conducting post-fight interviews with all your winners so be sure to check back, and don’t forget to comment below and share.

Former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson is set to make his return to the octagon on the main PPV card of UFC 229: Khabib vs McGregor

Ferguson, whose MMA record currently sits at 23-3 (12-1 UFC) has been out of action since April after injuring his knee whilst tripping over production cables. This injury forced him out of his then highly anticipated bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov and forced the UFC to strip him of his Interim title – Instead of facing the new UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib upon his return, Ferguson will instead take on another former UFC Lightweight Champion, Anthony Pettis.

The bout was revealed earlier today and will be added to the huge PPV card that is UFC 229, which features a Lightweight Title bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and returning former Champion, Conor McGregor – It is unclear at this time where the fight will be placed on the card, but it is highly likely the bout will indeed be on the PPV portion of the event, if not Co-Main event.

Anthony Pettis (21-7 MMA, 8-6 UFC) comes into this fight with a submission win over Michael Chiesa back in July at UFC 226 – Petits, who was the last ever WEC Lightweight Champion, won his UFC Lightweight Title after beating Benson Henderson back at UFC 164 in 2013, he defended the belt once, before losing to Rafel Dos Anjos in 2015. Pettis is currently 3-2 in his last five UFC outings.

As things now stand UFC 229’s fight card is as follows:

Main Event – UFC Lightweight Title Bout:
Khabib Nurmagomedov (c) vs Conor McGregor
Co-Main Event – Heavyweight Bout:
Derrick Lewis vs Alexander Volkov
Lighteweight Bout:
Tony Ferguson vs Anthony Pettis
Flyweight Bout:
Sergio Pettis vs Jussier Formiga
Light Heavyweight Bout:
Ovince St Preux vs Dominick Reyes
Welterweight Bout:
Ryan LaFlare vs Tony Martin
Women’s Bantamweight Bout:
Lina Lansberg vs Yana Kunitskaya
Women’s Strawweight Bout:
Michelle Waterson vs Felice Herrig
Bantamweight Bout:
Sean O’Malley vs Jose Alberto Quinonez
Lightweight Bout:
Gray Maynard vs Nik Lentz

UFC 229 comes to you live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on October 6th on PPV.

Brian Ortega walked into UFC 222 on Saturday and took the right to be Max Holloway’s next challenger for the featherweight title.

Ortega stepped in to fight Frankie Edgar in the evening’s co-main event after Holloway, who was originally scheduled to headline the card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas against Edgar, had to pull out of the fight due to injury.

Ortega left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who should be the next contender for the belt as he became the first man to finish the former lightweight champion, and in the opening round no less.

UFC president Dana White confirmed at the UFC 222 post-fight press conference that Ortega is next in line for Holloway.

“The fact we now have a title fight with him against Holloway, you know, Holloway looked incredible against Jose Aldo in his last fight and I’m excited about this” White said.

The only thing that surprised White about Ortega’s performance was the fact the submission specialist got the job done by way of his strikes.

“The guy is so incredible and well-rounded” White said of Ortega. “You’d think when he goes in and fights Frankie Edgar you’d bet anything he’s going to submit him if he’s going to win. And then he goes and knocks him out in the first round. This kid is super talented and has an incredible personality.”

The fight could well take place at UFC 226 in Las Vegas with both fighters already saying they would like to fight on the card, it’s just depending on Holloway getting cleared to fight by the doctors.

“I just saw Max, he came on The Ultimate Fighter as one of the coaches” White said. “He looks good, he’s walking good and, I don’t know, we gotta see what his doctor says and when he’s cleared, we’ll make that fight immediately.”