Former Cage Warriors Welterweight title challenger Justin Burlinson will return to the cage, after a lengthy lay off, when he faces Sado Uçar at Cage Warriors 181.
The Sunderland based man will make the walk in front of a home crowd for the first time since 2019, as Cage Warriors head back to the North East on November 23.
The Welterweight contest is the first to be announced for their upcoming Newcastle date. At present, the promotion have an abundance of North East talent on their books, most notably being world champions, and brothers, George and Harry Hardwick.
For Burlinson, the upcoming contest will be the first time he will set foot inside the cage since March 2023, when he picked up a third round stoppage win against Jamie Richardson. Although he has only competed under the Cage Warriors banner four times, the 27-year-old is a familiar face to many fans, due to his highly entertaining bouts.
His most notable bout in the yellow gloves, without doubt, was his 2022 Cage Warriors Fight Of The Year against Rhys McKee for the vacant Welterweight strap. The bout lasted just shy of 11 minutes but both men finished the contest blood-soaked and their names etched in the promotion’s history books forever. The back and forth affair saw both take severe damage but neither man take a step back. It was McKee who found the path to victory first and stopped Burlinson with strikes 20 seconds into the third round.
The last few months have been a whirlwind for top Welterweight prospect. After the delight of becoming a father for the first time in April of this year, Burlinson revealed, just three months later, that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Luckily it was caught early enough that the spread was prevented and he could focus on returning to fighting.
Uçar will be Burlinson’s most experienced opponent to date, having made the walk to the cage 27 times and holding an impressive 20-7 record. The 35 year old enters the bout on a on a three fight win streak, with all three coming inside the distance. After an extremely active start to professional life, ‘The Panther’ has slowed up somewhat in terms of activity, having fought four times over the last 2 years. The Cage Warriors 181 bout will see the Turkish native pull on the yellow gloves for very first time but, as fans have seen so often with Cage Warriors newcomers, Burlinson could be in for a tough night.
