In the main event of Cage Warriors 181 on Saturday night, Harry Hardwick defended his crown in front of a Newcastle crowd that supported him from start to finish.
The featherweight champion faced his toughest test to date but the danger that his opponent presented brought out the very best in one of the countries most exciting fighters.
Brazil's Keweny Lopes was undefeated since his second pro fight in 2016 and in that time, he'd put together a highlight reel of devastating knockouts.
After overcoming some early adversity, the trademark output and relentless offense of the champion began to add up and in the fourth round, he got the finish.
In a post-fight interview with Cage Warriors, Hardwick reflected on the win in the immediate aftermath:
"Yeah, don't get me wrong, there was a ropey moment or two in the first. That man hit hard like as much as you can prepare and visualize and drill, when someone who is a bonafide knockout artist who's probably put dozens of people in his life to sleep with the power in his hands, when you feel that for the first time, there is a moment of oh damn, ohhh damn. But my training was good, I had good training partners, we prepared well, I did the appropriate things to put myself right back in the fight when the bad things happened and I just stayed calm, I stayed composed.
"He landed some solid body shots in the first round, some really hard ones. Obviously I'm used to George hitting us with them but I was also like, I could see his back and his shoulders and everything tense up and I could feel his breathing and I was like okay, this is taking as much out of you as it's taking out of me. Keep f****** throwing them."
Hardwick knew that this would be his biggest challenge to date and after stopping Lopes, he had one thing on his mind.
With both him and his brother George holding gold in Cage Warriors, he believes that with this win, he has proven once and for all that he's an elite mixed martial artist.
"Just tell me I'm not one of the best fighters in the world. Tell me it now. Tell me I don't deserve to be on the biggest stage. I have just stopped, stopped and won 10-8 rounds against a guy from Nova União on an 11-fight winning streak who was a champion in multiple weight classes in multiple other organizations and I just stopped him. I 10-8'd him, I battered him and I stopped him. Tell me I'm not one of the best fighters in the world."
Watch the full interview below:
