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Lesser-known Brits steal show at UFC London to cap big week for domestic MMA

UFC London – March 17, 2018
UFC London – March 17, 2018

Amidst the usual fight week grumbling of Europe being given another low-priority fight card at UFC Fight Night: London came the announcement that the MMA juggernaut is going all-in on Darren Till, confirming their debut in the unbeaten welterweight’s hometown of Liverpool for May 27.

Days later, a Michael Bisping-less card at the O2 Arena in Greenwich lacked the allure it no doubt would have boasted, had ‘The Count’ indeed headlined in potentially his final fight. That provided the lesser-known Brits on the card the opportunity to put their own exclamation mark on a big week for domestic MMA – and several of them made the most of that opportunity.

One of the biggest roars from the London crowd came courtesy of a Liverpool fighter, too.

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Former boxer Danny ‘Hot Chocolate’ Roberts got back to winning ways with an emphatic first-round TKO of Oliver Enkamp, turning the Swedish fighter inside out with a perfectly-timed straight left after 2:12 on a prelim card that was coming to boil nicely by that stage.

Three guesses where he wants his next fight to be booked.

“Next up, it’s got to be Liverpool for me,” Roberts told media after the win. “It has to be Liverpool.

“It’s a realistic turnaround time and that’s my home so we can do that easy, come on!”

He continued: “I feel on top of the world right now.

“To have that outcome – there’s not many things that can top it so for me it’s very special. This is where I grew up.

“The UK has molded me into the person I am today so to be able to come back and give the fans something that they deserve, and to feel the love and respect back from them, it’s electric.

“We’ve got a good strong team coming up through the UK now and it feels good to be a part of that – loads of dynamic fighters, personalities like myself, Darren Till, Leon Edwards.

“We’ve all got our own powers and abilities but it’s good to be able to establish ourselves as a country, in one of the biggest sports in the world.”

And yet things could have been so differently on the night, from a ‘home hope’ standpoint, just a few fights prior to Roberts’ win.

After Taunton’s Mark Godbeer was outlasted and submitted by Russian heavyweight Dmitry Sosnovsky in the curtain-raiser, popular Scottish lightweight Stevie Ray was controversially ruled by the cageside judges to have lost to in-form Canadian Kajan Johnson in what was a very close slow-burner.

And when Ray’s light-heavyweight compatriot Paul Craig spent almost his entire three rounds neutralised, out-worked and out-struck by Magomed Ankalaev, a demoralising evening for British fight fans appeared to be on the cards… only for Craig to produce an incredible triangle tap-out with, officially, 0.32 of a second remaining in the fight when he looked to be hoping to settle for a decision loss only moments beforehand.

Not only did Craig snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat, his evasion of a third straight loss may well have saved his UFC career in the most dramatic manner imaginable.

“To come back after two losses and get that finish, it just means so much,” Craig said backstage after the fight, still clearly buzzing from the late result.

“Now I’m going to take my kids to Disneyland and give them something special to make up for all the time I spend training and preparing.”

Perhaps that UFC record for a late finish served as additional motivation for Danny Henry, the third Scot to enter the Octagon: a considerable underdog going in against unbeaten Calgary prospect and company debutant Hakeem Dawodu, the unfancied featherweight rocked his foe almost immediately with a left arm before clinching a devastating guillotine with near-perfect execution for a stunning 39-second stoppage.

Despite maneuvering himself into a position of maximum leverage, Dawodu could not shake off the submission and the official was forced to call it, for his own safety. What looked set to be a big night in his UFC bow turned into an evening of devastation for Hakeem – but the British roll continued.

The final prelim bout brought that to an end. After Roberts’ quick win over Enkamp, it took American Charles Byrd only a shade longer to take down Welshman John Phillips and work his way towards a rear-naked choke tap-out at the 3:58 mark.

Welsh MMA has been on the rise over the last few years, capped by the UFC call-ups of Jack Marshman, Brett Johns and Phillips himself. After Marshman’s fight on the card was cancelled, the hopes of a nation sat on the shoulders of the middleweight on the night, but ‘Kid Dynamite’ was too much to handle.

When the time came for the four-fight main card, the familiar yet contrasting strains of ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Face The Pain’ were followed by another huge roar as Bisping himself made his way through the crowd to take his seat. Though tonight wasn’t to be the night of perhaps his final Octagon homecoming, it’s another big moment these shores surely have to look forward to post-Liverpool.

In London, it’s said that you wait an age for a bus only for two to come in quick succession. And at the 02, the same could certainly be said of unprecedented fight finishes with a second to spare.

Leon Edwards added another ‘W’ to the Brit column in the main card opener when he finally drew a stoppage over Peter Sobotta, the Polish-German also representing Jamaica on the night (to, in his own words, “send a message of ‘one love’ across the globe”). The referee’s wave of the hand came milliseconds before the official end of the final round, meaning it’s a photo finish as to whether Edwards or Craig ended the evening with the latest finish in UFC history.

After a hot start, however, Edwards cooled off and spent much of the fight at serious risk of falling to Sobotta’s ground game. The Birmingham man probably did enough to earn a decision, but that date with fate was taken off the table at the death.

And Leon’s emphatic post-fight calling out of Till for Liverpool was not backed up by a similarly-majestic performance.

“Darren Till, in Liverpool, let’s go,” Edwards barked at a ringside Till from inside the cage. “Me and you, Liverpool versus Birmingham, let’s go. All day, easy work. I’m the best fucking welterweight in the UK, soon to be in the world. End of. Bye.”

After Tom Duquesnoy took a hard-fought decision win over Terrion Ware, it was time for the biggest domestic name on the card by a country mile, Jimi Manuwa, to attempt to steer his ship back on course with a second bounce-back win over Jan Blachowicz.

Having lost in the headline bout to Alexander Gustafsson in the very same building four years prior, the ‘Poster Boy’ rebounded with victory over the Polish light-heavy but did so without stopping the fight early for the only time in his career.

The atmosphere for the chief support bout containing the biggest local draw was, unsurprisingly, the loudest yet. Their second battle was a brilliant and bloody war but not only was Jimi again unable to end the fight early, he came out on the wrong end of the judge’s scorecards. It leaves a third and deciding fight Manuwa’s biggest option going forward and at 38 years of age, serious opportunities at the top of the card are running out fast.

And after ranked heavyweights Fabricio Wedum and Alexander ‘Drago’ Volkov provided a main event that failed to follow the physical drama preceding it until Volkov sprang to life to end it in the fourth, the biggest stigma surrounding many cards on this side of the Atlantic was reinforced: this wasn’t a place for today’s biggest stars, but for those who could perhaps reach that plateau in the future.

If they do follow in the footsteps of the Michael Bispings and, one would assume by now, the Darren Tills, perhaps they’ll then have the clout to compel Dana White to bring more big events over here. Of course, most fighters who make it big fight less and less in their own back yard. We can only hope for a fair share of the fighters we watched rise through the ranks here in the UK and Ireland.

Until then, while the ‘building to the future’ mantra doesn’t do a whole lot for potential ticket buyers, it’s worth remembering that when it comes to the bigger picture the future for British MMA really is quite bright after a week like this.