Omiel Brown was crowned the Cage Warriors Welterweight PrizeFighter as George Hardwick defended his Lightweight title in an action packed night at Cage Warriors 176.
In what was yet another relatively dominant night for the Scottish athletes in front of a home crowd, the promotion returned to the Braehead Arena after success earlier this year.
Brown’s route to the $50k prize started with a round one stoppage against Henri Lintula. With 30 seconds to go in the opening stanza, the former welterweight title challenger caught the promotional newcomer with a big body shot that clearly hurt Lintula. Brown then followed up with a barrage of punches to get the stoppage.
Bourama Camara booked his spot in the final with a comfortable unanimous decision win against Marko Kisič.
Brown & Camara then met in the final. It’s was a much closer contest than the two had experienced in their semi final bouts, going to war over 15 minutes. It was Brown who took the win by way of split decision.
George Hardwick retained his Lightweight strap with a unanimous decision win against Christian Iorga. Although never particularly looking in any real danger, the long reigning champion was pushed all the way by Iorga, who was one of the biggest surprise packages of the night. Hardwick took all 5 rounds on all three judges score cards with a 50-45, 50-45, 50-45.
The other surprise package of the night was undoubtedly Andrey Augusto. The Brazilian faced ‘The Bad Guy’ Chris Bungard on less than a weeks notice, after Bungard’s initial opponent pulled out.
Agusto’s aggressive wrestling style was too much for ‘The Bad Guy’ and the Brazilian managed to Dulce the Scottish crowed by claiming a unanimous decision win.
However, that was one of only 2 upsets for the Scottish athletes on the card, with 7 of the 9 of the home fighters getting their hands raised.
Some of the most the notable wins for Scottish athletes included Reece McEwan getting back in the column with a second round Rear Naked Choke against Miguel Haro, the surging Sean Clancy Jr.’s first round submission win against Rafael Aronov, Damon Donald’s unanimous decision win after a war with Kallum Parker and Jordan Stronge’s first round stoppage over Wesley Machado.
