Nicolas Leblond now has his third opponent for this Saturday’s Cage Warriors 174 card.
The card, which takes place inside the Indigo at The O2, has been hit time and time again with athletes withdrawing from scheduled bouts but the promotion have still managed to produce a top card for July 20.
The card still goes ahead with, at the time of writing, 19 bouts which will feature former champions, rising prospects and everything in between.
Initially, Leblond was scheduled to face the champion, Shaj Haque, for the Cage Warriors Flyweight Championship. However, an injury led to Haque having to remove himself from the bout, leaving Leblond without an opponent. Cage Warriors matchmaker, Ian Dean, worked tirelessly to make sure that all was not lost for the Frenchman, just over two weeks out from fight night.
It was confirmed that Leblond would take on the ever-dangerous Amir Malekpour for the interim Flyweight title but just days later, Malekpour was out of the contest.
Once again it was back to the drawing board, but once again, Ian Dean pulled out all of the stops to keep Leblond on the card. It was then announced on the Tuesday of fight week that the 29-year-old would remain on the card but there will no longer be a title on the line as he will move up a weight and face Gerasimos Sioutis in a Bantamweight contest.
Leblond vs. Sioutis will now be one of seven bouts to be competed 135lbs on Saturday night, with four of those contests making up the PrizeFighter tournament. The PrizeFighter will see Aidan Stephen take on Alexander Loof in one semi-final, as Shirzad Qadrian and Weslley Maia square off in the other. The two winners will then fight later that night to see how will be crowned the PrizeFighter champion, collect the $50,000 prize check and book their place to face Cage Warriors Bantamweight champion Liam Gittins, next. Alessandro Giordano and Michele Martignoni will battle it out in a reserve bout.
