Event: Cage Warriors 49 Date: Saturday, October 28 Location: Cadiff, Wales, U.K. How to Watch: Preliminary card streams on Facebook.com at 2:30 p.m. (ET), main card streams on MMAjunkie.com at 4 p.m. The U.K.’s premier MMA organization stages its 49th event on Saturday as Cage Warriors is back for what should be another entertaining show. In the main event of the evening, Brazilian welterweight Bruno Carvalho squares off against Ireland’s Cathal Pendred. Carvalho opened as a -240 favorite (bet $240 to win $100) while Pendred is a +180 underdog (bet $100 to win $180) according to the MMA odds. The 30-year old Carvalho enters the contest with a 14-5 record and holds a notable submission win over TUF vet Kyacey Uscola. He has been on a roll, winning nine of his last 10 fights, save a KO loss to Marius Zaromskis (via summersault kick). He is a second-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has five submission wins to his name, and he’s also a black belt in judo, so Pendred is going to have his hands full. The 25-year-old Irishman enters with a 10-2-1 record, including five wins via knockout. He’s also on a roll, having gone undefeated in his last five outings, including a notable decision win over UFC vet David Bielkheden. There’s no doubt Pendred is going to be looking to keep this fight standing and knock out Carvalho, but the question is if he can stop Carvalho’s takedown attempts, not to mention Carvalho has underrated striking, as demonstrated by his five TKO/KO wins. This is one of the better fights in MMA this weekend. In the co-main event, lightweight Greg Loughran squares off with Tim Newman. Newman opened as a -165 favorite while the comeback on Loughran is +135. Newman carries an 8-3 record into the bout with two wins via TKO/KO and three via submission, including a sub of TUF alum Aaron Wilkinson. However, the 29-year-old Newman has been inactive for quite a while, having not fought since a loss to former UFC fighter Curt Warburton last December, and cage rust may play a factor here. Loughran enters the bout at 22-18, including seven wins by knockout and 13 by submission, and holds notable victories over Jonathan Brookins, Norman Parke, and Andre Winner. The 29-year-old’s biggest problem though is inconsistency, as before he was on his current four-fight winning streak, he was on a six-fight losing streak. He’s also been submitted 10 times in his career and has been knocked out three times, although one of those sub losses was to Eddie Alvarez at Bellator 1, so Loughran clearly has the experience factor going in his favor. My gut feeling tells me someone is getting submitted in this fight. Next up is a middleweight contest between Faycal Hucin and John Michael Shiel. Shiel enters as a -280 favourite, while Hucin is a +210 underdog. Shiel is undefeated at 8-0 with six of those victories coming by way of knockout and two by submission, and holds a notable victory over TUF veteran Ross Pointon. The 24-year-old Hucin comes in at 7-3, including one win via T/KO and three via submission. Hucin was knocked out by a punch in his very first MMA bout, so keep that in mind as he matches up with the heavy-handed Shiel. Merv Mulholland and Daniel Thomas then tango in a lightweight affair. The line opened as a pick ’em, with both fighters -120. Mulholland is 9-4 in his career, with all via by finish (three knockouts, six submissions). However, in his losses he has been submitted once and knocked out twice, including a notable TKO loss to the aforementioned Pendred, and keep in mind he hasn’t competed since September 2011. Thomas, on the other hand, enters the bout at 19-8-1, and he has five wins by knockout and 14 via submission, including a notable sub win over the aforementioned Wilkinson. He has also been finished six times, four times via TKO/KO and twice via submission, and in his last four fights is only 1-2-1 with both losses coming via knockout. There’s a reason this fight is a toss-up because it could go either way. Next is a lightweight contest between Lew Long (-350) and Paul Redmond, who opened as a +250 underdog. Long is 6-1 in his career including three wins by submission and one by knockout, and he’s riding a four-fight winning streak. Meanwhile, Redmond comes in at 3-3, and although all three of his wins are by knockout, he’s also been knocked out once and submitted twice in his young career. It’s likely Long will look to get this fight to the ground and go for subs while Redmond will try and keep it standing and look for the knockout. And finally, the opening bout is a bantamweight contest between Kris Edwards (-170) and Alan Philpott (+140). Edwards is 8-3 in his career with five submission wins and two knockouts to his credit, so he definitely has a solid ground game. It should be noted he was cutting to fight at flyweight until a late opponent switch meant that Philpott got the call on very short notice, as he actually competed just last week, winning 54 seconds into the first round over Rich Edgeworth. Philpott is 6-2 in his MMA career, and all six of his wins have come via submission, so it’s obvious he likes to drag the fight to the floor. This fight should end up on the mat, and it’s possible someone gets submitted to open Cage Warriors 49.
