UCMMA 26 Brings another Solid Card to the UK Tomorrow

MMA returns to the UK capital this weekend and, speaking ahead of this weekend’s UCMMA show at the Troxy in London, fight promoter Dave O’Donnell has revealed that ‘Cage Rage’ is dead and ‘UCMMA’ is the way forward, starting now. Planning a full-scale assault on the MMA world in 2012, O’Donnell has spoken of his plans for everything from his White Collar MMA and Contenders events for up and coming fighters to taking MMA to the mainstream and beyond. 

O’Donnell is a man who will lay his life on the line for the MMA scene and nothing will stop him. Not even the recent withdrawal of a bill-topping, crowd-pleasing, seat-filling name like Paul Daley will stop O’Donnell in his quest to take UK MMA out of the back streets and into the homes of millions of fans around the world. His assault starts this weekend with the return of UCMMA and, aside from the aforementioned withdrawal of Strikeforce fighter Paul Daley, there is little doubt that this white-knuckle ride of a show is going to set Dave a tall order for the rest of 2012.

As usual, the undercard is packed with the cream of the up and coming MMA scene here in the UK as there are quick returns for Andy Cona and Steven Stanley amongst others. However, while this impressive undercard will surely give fight fans a taste of what the future holds for UKMMA, you only have to look further up the bill to see that these guys are going to have some big boots to fill.

Finishing 2011 as one of our fighters to watch in 2012, Iain ‘Bad Man’ Martell returns to the cage to take on Mohamad Ali and, having demolished every fighter put before him, it’s hard not to see the end result of this contest being any different although I’m sure Ali will have something to say about that.

Following the Martell/Ali fight is going to be a tall order for Ray Edgar and Ashleigh Grimshaw but expect fireworks from these two once the cage door clicks shut. As for Stav Economou vs. Tomasz Czerwinski, well, Economou may have a fancy haircut but does he have the strength to take on the mighty Pole Czerwinksi? Make no mistake, Czerwinski might be politely spoken away from the cage but, again, once that cage door closes, there is only one thing on the mind of a fighter who a fellow MMA fan described to me as “a monster in the cage”.

Following the recent withdrawal of Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley, the main fight of the night sees Luke Sines return to The Troxy clearly disappointed not to be able to pit himself against the might of Daley. His opponent Pete Irving makes his return to The Troxy for the first time since his defeat to John ‘The One’ Maguire and will be hoping to show fight fans that it isn’t just the big name fighters who deserve to headline a fight show like this.

Tickets and further details available from http://www.cagerageuk.com

Tags: Andy Cona, Ashleigh Grimshaw, Cage Rage, Dave O'Donell, Iain Martell, John Maguire, Luke Sines, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, Mohamad Ali, Ray Edgar, Stav Economou, Steven Stanley, Tomasz Czerwinski, UCMMA, UK

Category: Cage Rage, Exclusive, MMA, UCMMA