UFC 304 takes place this weekend so we will be getting a 21 fight card from Cage Warriors. Aside from Cage Warriors, there are some very small local promotions hosting events with promising prospects as well.
Cage Warriors 175
UFC 304 and Cage Warriors 175 will both be taking place in Manchester, England. Cage Warriors takes place on Thursday night in Manchester. When local promotions host events in the same city before big UFC events, fighters typically get signed to the UFC as the matchmakers attend them. For example, Steve Erceg was signed to the UFC because Mick Maynard and Sean Shelby both attended his fight at Eternal MMA 73 in Perth. Cage Warriors 175 will be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass at 12:00 PM ET on Thursday 25 July.
DARIO BELLANDI (7-1) vs. ROBIN ROSS (7-4) – Middleweight Championship
Mick Stanton defended the Cage Warriors belt at 185 lbs against many up and coming prospects, including Contender Series 2024's Will Currie. Dario Bellandi was able to dethrone him in his most recent fight using his grappling. On the feet Bellandi is very basic and flat footed but his striking is competent enough to avoid getting hurt by most. It is his grappling where he excels. He is surprisingly athletic for his build and is very tricky when the fight gets to the ground. He does well to find the back of his opponents. Robin Roos is a brawler, with all 7 of his wins coming by KO.TKO. He is very fun to watch but he does have a grappling weakness. He will have opportunities in this fight to land big shots and Bellandi doesn't have great movement but I don't think he will be able to defend the take downs. I am going to pick Bellandi to win by submission, and with an impressive performance we may see him sign to the UFC or fight on the Contender Series as it seems like UFC is trying to sign a lot of guys from the heavier weight classes.
MASON JONES (14-2) vs. MICHAEL PAGANI (7-0) – Lightweight
This could be a UFC fight. Mason Jones was signed to the UFC but chose to not renew his contract because he didn't believe he was ready. He has since looked great fighting for Cage Warriors again, finding three wins in a row, all by KO/TKO. This is the toughest fight of Mason Jones' post UFC run. Pagani is an undefeated Italian fighter. He is a striker who fights from range, mostly throwing straight punches and push kicks. He can wrestle and is heavy on top, and it was this wrestling which secured him his best win to date against the undefeated James Power. This should most likely be a striker vs. striker fight and out of the two I do like Mason more. I think he has the much better movement and also more power. Pagani fights with his pretty high and he doesn't move much. He just controls the middle of the cage and remains somewhat stationary. Mason Jones has looked great in his last few and I think he gets his best win to date. Hopefully he chooses to sign with the UFC again after this because if he wins he won't have much more to prove. I am picking Jones by KO.
STEFANO PATERNO (17-4) vs. OLLI SANTALAHTI (14-6) – Welterweight
Paterno is definitely one of the fighters the UFC will be looking at on this card. He has fought a lot of his career for the Italian promotion Venator FC, but has also fought for Cage Warriors, OKTAGON, and Bellator. He is a finisher with 7 wins by KO and 5 wins by submission. He has been showcasing his grappling recently with two wins in a row by submission. His opponent Santalahti is also a big time finisher, with 9 wins by finish, and all 9 of those finishing occurring in the first round. He has lost a couple of fights recently but his resume is impressive as he does hold wins over some good prospects such as Georges Eid who is signed to the PFL. I am most impressed by Paterno and his performance over Ion Surdu at OKTAGON has aged will. With OKTAGON cutting a large portion of their roster recently, they may look to sign Paterno to an exclusive contract themselves. So it will be interesting to see if he signs with a big promotion next. I am picking Paterno to find another submission.
OTHER PICKS:
Adam Cullen by Submission
Dylan Hazan by Domination
Matthew Camilleri by Decision
Giuseppe Mastrogiacomo by Submission
Ieuan Davies by Submission
Harel Cohen by Submission (Very low confidence, I think his opponent Jan Quaeyhagens is very good)
Naglis Kanisauskas by KO/TKO
Teddy Stringer by Submission
Hexagone MMA 19
Hexagone MMA is a small promotion based in France. I can't find where this event will be broadcast, I think it's on TrillerTV, but I will be checking the results to see who wins the main event.
PRINCE AOUNALLAH (18-12) vs. HIDETAKA ARATO (10-0) – Heavyweight Championship
This fight interests me a lot as I have somehow never heard of Arato. He is 36 years old but at heavyweight he probably has a couple good years left, and he has only competed since 2019. When looking in to him I saw someone describe him as a “sort fat guy who throws punches in the hopes of knocking out his opponents” which was hilarious. His opponent Prince was on a pretty solid win streak but lost recently at KSW. Should be a fun fight but I hope Arato wins.
Inka FC 44: Ramses vs. Henrique
Inka FC 44 takes place on Monday, July 22 at 9:00 PM ET. The card will be broadcast on Twitch.
RAUL RAMSES (10-0) vs. RONY HENRIQUE (13-11) – Bantamweight Interim Championship
Raul Ramses looks like he could be the next big thing out of Peru. He is a big bantamweight like Daniel Marcos is but still hasn't been tested against great competition. Rony Henrique is the best fighter he has fought so far to give you an idea of his competition. Henrique might be able to give Ramses some trouble as he has recently put together some big wins against other prospects with padded records. Ramses does seem to be pretty legit though so I'm hoping he pulls through. He trains with PFL's Jesus Pinedo and UFC's Kevin Borjas so he probably has some big eyes on him already.
