It’s been a busy couple of weeks down the pub. Cage Rage 10 has come and gone, but UK MMA fans are like those Hungry Hungry Hippos you used to have as a kid. Talk has already turned to the rumored match ups for Cage Rage 11, as well as all the other goodies that we’ll be seeing, with glamorous offerings from CageWarriors and the new FX3 show set to debut in the coming months.
Here goes …
Cage Rage 11 Card
You could barely move at Cage Rage 10 for fear of tripping over another rumor about Cage Rage 11. Everywhere I turned I could feel the semi-solid things, slimy and slithering across my skin, singing siren songs to me and generally trying to seduce me until I believed their gospel truths.
Like others, I hoped and prayed that some of these rumors were true. I probably even went a little bit over the top—when some guy down the pub pointed out a particularly juicy specimen (Igor Vovchanchyn to take on Ian Freeman at Cage Rage 11), I think I may have reacted in a most inappropriate manner.
Like the best things in life, anticipation is full of triumphs and frustrations. Below is the confirmed card, so far, for Cage Rage 11, dubbed: “Face Off.” The absence of Lee Murray is conspicuous, but since he’ll be fighting at UFC 52, that’s probably forgivable. There is still plenty here to wet even the driest whistle, as it were, as even the quickest glance at the card will demonstrate.
The message to take away seems to be that this show will have less of an emphasis on bringing along home grown talent and more of an emphasis on just making great fights.
The encounter between Anderson Silva and Jorge Rivera will represent Silva's first defense of his CR world middleweight title since he won it by defeating Lee Murray at Cage Rage 8 last year. Mark Weir versus Curtis Stout has all the hallmarks of being a great striking battle with the possibility of ending by a knockout every bit as grotesque as that produced by Stout at CR 10. And the fight between Manhoef and Rea is another to look forward to. Both of these guys produced impressive performances at the last show and I'll be extremely interested to see how they match up.
Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos will be brought back, too. The intimidating, tattooed Brazilian will come face to face with the scariest man in England: Mark "Face like a Murderer" Epstein. I have to say that I'm also looking forward to the clash between Daley and Jenkins, with the latter almost guaranteed to make a characteristically ludicrous and entertaining ring entrance.
The final fight that I wanted to talk about is the Jess Liaudin-Abdul Mohammed clash. I had a chance to catch up with Liaudin the other day, and right before he kicked me savagely in the face, he offered his opinion on his opponent.
"He's good at what he does," Liaudin said. "He's a wrestler, and he's good at taking people down and keeping them there. I just hope that he won't try to lay on me as if he hasn't had a girlfriend for months ... but either way I'll open up Abdul's head like a tin of baked beans."
I presume that in France people open tins of beans with knees and elbows because I'm not sure whether the referee will be particularly pleased to see Liaudin trying to fasten a manual can-opener to Mohammed's head.
Cage Rage 11 is set for April 30, once again at the Wembley Conference Centre. The card, so far, is:
Ian "The Machine" Freeman vs. Kristof Midoux
Anderson Silva vs. Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera
Curtis "Red Nose" Stout vs. Mark "The Wizard" Weir
Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos vs. Mark "The Beast" Epstein
Melvin Manhoef "Holland" vs. Antony "The Wild Thing" Rea
Sol "Zero Tolerance" Gilbert vs. Damien Riccio
Jess Liaudin vs. Abdul Mohammed
Paul “Hands Of Stone” Jenkins vs. Paul “Semtex” Daley
Alex “Reidernator” Reid vs. Hassan Muridi
Andy “The Rock” Costello vs. Robert “Buzz” Berry
Brad “One Punch” Pickett vs. Aaron Blackwell
Atilla “Mr T” Kubilay vs. Richard Bowkett