CW40 - Programme by PaulStafford

CAGE WARRIORS ACADEMY

SOUTH EAST 39

Josh Onwordi capped a night of dramatic ﬁnishes with a one hand kimura submission of opponent Danny Blundell in the main event of Cage Warriors Academy South East 39.

Onwordi thrilled the crowd at the Charter Hall in Colchester, and collected the professional lightweight title, when he locked on the rare submission in the second round.

Blundell appeared to tap once and then tried to ﬁght through the pain, but Onwordi's strength and technique left him with no alternative but to fully concede defeat seconds later - or risk having his arm broken.

Onwordi, who ﬁghts out of Colchester's BKK Fighters, moves to 7-6 with the win, while Blundell drops to 6-5.

In the co-main, BST Northampton talent Reise Teasdale used the perfect gameplan to smother the explosive striking of BKK product Mitchell Thorpe, lifting the interim amateur lightweight title.

Teasdale, now 7-4, simply didn't give Thorpe the time or space to launch any of his patented karate-based attacks, and took a unanimous points win with a smothering, aggressive, takedown-heavy approach.

There were good wins for BKK ﬁghters elsewhere on the card though. Superprospect Mason Kinsella moved to 8-0 and defended his amateur featherweight title in the toughest test of his career so far against Irish visitor Michael Cronnelly.

Cronnelly pushed Kinsella, but ultimately the home ﬁghter's superior, varied striking attacks and his takedown defence carried him to a unanimous points win. Kinsella is now 8-0, with Cronnelly dropping to 8-5.

Fellow BKK prospect Ben Edwards secured a spectacular win against the tough Toby Jackson, sinking in a swift and nasty rear naked choke to defend his amateur welterweight title in the ﬁrst round.

Edwards improves to 9-1-1, while Jackson drops to 4-4.

Knockout of the night, meanwhile, went to the fast-rising Force MMA product Darnell Jackson, who iced foe Tommy Gibbs in the ﬁrst round with a picture-perfect head-kick.

Josh Onwordi

Reise Teasdale

Jackson, now 5-1, claimed the interim amateur bantamweight title with the violent victory, which will no doubt make highlight reels across the world.

In the other title ﬁghts on the card, Ozzy Jatta won the amateur ﬂyweight belt with a points win over Nathan Verpillot, while Tobias Bartak lifted the European amateur lightweight strap with a decision win against Marco Esposito.

Meanwhile, BKK ﬁghter Ethan Lewis turned in the performance of his career so far to beat the dangerous and previously undefeated Lillian Pavalache in a featherweight dispute.

Lewis, now 7-5, used slick and brutal body punching and a non-stop offensive output to earn the split decision win and consign the heavy-handed Pavalache to his ﬁrstever loss.

Featherweight Marcin Kochel, of Thetford's Tsunami Gym, tapped Fares Benahmed to a second round rear naked choke after suplexing him onto his head, as he improved his record to 5-1.

There were several other slick submissions on the night too. Mani Odoucha scored the ﬁrst ﬁnish of his career with an Anaconda

choke of Aiden Bond in the ﬁrst round of their light-welterweight clash.

And Mitchell Kennedy pulled off a rare V-lock submission at the end of a wild first round firefight against Troy Sudbury, a welterweight bout which saw both men rocked and swinging for the fences.

That was certainly a contender for ﬁght of the night too, as was the back-and-forth bantamweight battle between Tselmunn Gerel and Freddie Gant, won by the former via a split decision.

Finally, there were two more first round stoppages also worthy of a highlight reel. Billy Broster stopped Jack Williams with a barrage of heavy artillery in their lightweight fight to move to 3-0, while Ben Hodgson scored a huge surprise by dropping and halting BKK's Danny Parker with just a second left in the first stanza of their welterweight bout.

Top tier striker Parker had dominated the round, but Hodgson found an opening for a head-kick which crumpled the Colchester man and earned him the ﬁrst KO of his nine-ﬁght career to date, improving his record to 7-1-1.

By Mark Heath www.eadt.co.uk