Cage Warriors bantamweight contender Shirzad Qadrian was in attendance this past weekend for CW 181 at the Indigo in London.
The 23-year old rising star was set to be in action in one of the night's two title fights at the top of the card until some unfortunate news was announced at the start of fight week.
His opponent Liam Gittins, CW's bantamweight champion, was forced to withdraw from the bout due to an injury that stopped Qadrian from continuing his breakout year.
In an interview with Cage Warriors at the event on Saturday night, he spoke about his reaction to the fight being postponed:
"First of all I want to say hello to everyone, I hope everyone be okay, and obviously that's one of the parts of the business so it's happened. I hope so the champion is going to be better soon as possible. Inshallah he going to be better soon as possible like I say and yeah, it is what it is. It's so hard when you have very hard camp, especially one week before they letting you know fight is cancelled, that was very bad."
Qadrian earned his title shot by winning two fights in one night in July during the return of the Prize Fighter tournament.
The two men that he beat in consecutive decision victories faced off with one another at CW 181 where Weslley Maia made a statement by submitting Alexander Lööf in the first round.
As the only man to beat Qadrian, Maia called for a trilogy fight between them but the next title challenger only has eyes on CW gold or his dream of fighting in the UFC right now.
"I'm not very interested in that fight. I see Weslley, he do good job, he win the fight but I beat him and his opponent Alexander Lööf in the same night, you know. It's not any point for me to give these boys in a rematch or he just have one-win streak now he want to fight me but I think you may have to go maybe two more, three more win streak and after we can talk about some rematch and for me, UFC or championship is going to be next. I want fight before March or after March, I don't know which the champion or maybe (Alessandro) Giordano for interim belt, I don't know. Cage Warriors has my number, just call me and send location and I come to kill all the guys. I don't care, just let me know when."
The UFC is set to return to English shores on March 22 at the O2 Arena but as Qadrian stated, waiting until then to fight doesn't line-up with his schedule.
He has no problem going to the MMA leader first if they won't come to him if it means getting that contract to step inside the Octagon.
"Like I say, I want to fight before Ramadan in March because Ramadan, I cannot fight in March but if Cage Warriors have any event in February, let's do it. If not, Dana, Sean, it's time. Give me my contract before I come to your location."
Watch the full interview below:
