Even though Cage Warriors 62 took place last weekend, the organization will be putting on Cage Warriors 61 this weekend. Some funky scheduling caused this show to be relocated from Baghdad and now leads the organization all the way from Newcastle, England to Amman, Jordan in the span of six days. The King Hussein Youth City Boxing Arena always provides an intimate setting for MMA, and with one of the local favorite fighters on the card the crowd should be in full force on Friday. For the second consecutive week, Cage Warriors didn’t make it through their weigh-ins without incident. Last week, the flyweight title bout between Neil Seery and Ulysses Gomez was cancelled as Gomez was not cleared by doctors due to his weight cut. This time around, the travel bug caused two bouts to get dropped from the card. Matt Inman and Mukhamed Berkhamov were left without opponents when a flight with Hakon Foss and Mohsen Bahari couldn’t make it in time to weigh in earlier today. Despite the hiccup, the card will still go forward and the organization hopes they can replicate the in-cage effort from last week’s event, which saw entertaining scraps from top-to-bottom. The new main event is in the bantamweight division and features James Brum (13-2) and Marat Pekov (10-4). Brum is on quite a roll at the moment, with a seven-fight winning streak that has extended over two years. His last loss was actually to highly touted 135er Erik Perez who now makes his home in the UFC. If Brum hopes to follow his former competitor to the UFC he’ll need to keep his winning streak going. He’ll also need to build off of the submission in his last fight, as the previous six victories in his streak were all by decision. That’s going to be a tough task against Pekov, who was on his own four-fight winning streak prior to running into Ronnie Mann last time out. Pekov holds eight of his wins by submission, but showed off some much improved striking against Mann. The well-rounded and much improved Pekov opened as a slight underdog at +100 (bet $100 to win $100) at Several Bookmakers, as Brum’s superior wrestling gets him just a bit more respect on the books at -140 (bet $140 to win $100). If there’s a play to be made in this fight, I believe it to be on the more durable and more dynamic Pekov. Also on the card, welterweight Jack Mason (25-12) makes his 12th appearance in Cage Warriors. He has gone 6-5 in his previous fights for the organization, but has won four of his last five, which coincides closely with his drop to welterweight. His opponent, Seydina Seck (15-9) is going to be severely undersized in this bout, but likely has an overall speed advantage. Seck is a fairly straightforward fighter. He throws one, twos, leg kicks and shoots a double leg, and there isn’t a great deal of venom behind anything that he does. Against unskilled competition this may be enough to get him by, but Mason is a massive welterweight with solid wrestling, better ground and pound, and a striking game that is developing nicely. Mason opened as a -315 favorite, and I believe that line to be deserved. The comeback on Seck is +235. Mason could serve as a parlay leg with some of the other events taking place this weekend. The third fight where odds will be offered should have the crowd at its loudest level of the evening. That’s because Egyptian Mohamed Ali (8-5), who is always well-received by the crowd in Amman. Normally a brawler, Ali said he had a surprise in store at his last Cage Warriors bout, and showed flashes of a developing submission game, winning by guillotine. His opponent in this bout, James Hurrell (6-3), should offer an opportunity for Ali to either show off that submission game once again or engage in an all-out brawl. Hurrell has all six of his wins by (T)KO, and two of his losses are by submission. He is a massive light heavyweight at 6’7 though, and if this turns into a striking match that length could tip the scales in his favor. Cage Warriors rarely matches fighters hoping for a certain result, and this fight seems to just be geared at providing an entertaining bout. As far as the odds go, Hurrell opened as an ever-so-slight favorite at -135, with Ali at -105. At these odds, I would pass on this fight but if Ali climbs to some plus money he could be worth a bet. As usual, Cage Warriors will be available almost in it’s entirety online. The prelims will stream on Cage Warriors’ facebook page starting at 11:30am ET, with the main card being shown at MMAJunkie.com at 1pm ET. To recap, here are the opening odds for Cage Warriors 61: ——————– James Brum -140 Marat Pekov +100 Jack Mason -315 Seydina Seck +235 James Hurrell -135 Mohamed Ali -105 ——————–
