Cage Warriors 96: Soren Bak raids Liverpool to become Lightweight champion

Soren Bak is the new Cage Warriors Lightweight champion following a unanimous decision win over Liverpool’s own Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett.

2 new champions 👑, and some of the craziest finishes of the year so far. What a night. 👊

Here's the highlights from an incredible #CW96 in 60 seconds ⏱👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/rubX7mzZLG

— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) September 2, 2018

It wasn’t plain sailing for “The True Viking” though, as in the first round Pimblett came agonisingly close to securing a submission win via a rear naked choke, but Bak’s mind over matter approach with his never say die spirit allowed him to hold on to the end of the round.

Over the next four rounds, Bak dominated the fight in both the stand up and on the ground, capturing the title and going 11-1 in the process.

Scouser Mick Stanton couldn’t complete his own “Rocky” story in front of his home crowd, losing in a Middleweight title clash to Jonas Billstein.

Billstein was originally scheduled to face former champ Lee “The Butcher” Chadwick, but Chadwick failed to make weight, and was stripped of the belt on the scales, and Cage Warriors matchmakers hastily got Stanton (who is usually a welterweight) in as a replacement.

The German wasn’t fazed at all though by a last minute change in opponent, and secured a rear naked choke halfway through the first to take the title back to Cologne.

Jack Grant put on a very impressive display in front of Liverpool’s Echo Arena, as he beat Aleksi Mantykivi in the first round via KO, making him the early favourite to take on Soren Bak for the Cage Warriors Lightweight championship.

Grant looked to finish early, and although he was rocked by a solid left hand from the Fin, he bounced back, pushing the fin to the cage and delivering a barrage of elbows to get the win and show that he means business.

Nicolas Dalby got his first win since 2015 after beating Italian Roberto Allegretti with a second round submission.

After landing a hard head kick, he followed his opponent to the ground, delivering a few hard strikes before syncing in a seriously tight submission to get the “W”.

Tim Barnett was also in welterweight action in front of his home Liverpool crowd, but the slightest mistake may have cost him the fight against Matthew Bonner.

Barnett was dominated in the first, and the second round was close and judges could have given it either way, and in the third he was definitely on top, but while landing some ground and pound offence, he illegally held the cage and was deducted a point, meaning the fight ended in a draw.

But with the fight being pretty entertaining, there is every chance that a Barnett Bonner rematch could be made on a future card.

In the prelims, Mahmoud Faour, Sam Creasey, Liam Gittins and Mehdi Ben Lakhdar all secured victory with KO/TKO’s, getting the crowd pumped for the main card in the process.

What are your thoughts on Cage Warriors 96, let me know on Twitter by tweeting me @Cobleyreporting.