After a 17-month layoff, what can we expect with Cage Warriors' upcoming return?[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2G73E7N0wk[/youtube]
Between 2010 and 2014, Graham Boylan helped Cage Warriors grow into one of the most well known MMA promotions in Europe. In early 2015, several months after the promotion held its final event of 2014, Cage Warriors 74, Boylan resigned his position with the promotion.
Cage Warriors hasn’t held an event since Boylan’s resignation. But that last fact is about to change.
The promotion returns to action on April 15. Not only is Boylan once again involved with the organization, he returns to the fold as the president and largest shareholder of Warriors Development Agency, the organization that purchased Cage Warriors in mid-2015.
The promotion’s return event, Cage Warriors 75, takes place at Camden Centre in London (past events streamed on MMAjunkie, but Boylan is expected to announce a new deal shortly). Both fans and fighters are excited to see the promotion making its return after a 17-month absence.
Graham Boylan
“We had a massive response to the announcement that the events were kicking off in April,” Boylan told MMAjunkie. “You’ll see a lot of familiar faces back competing with the organization, and others who have signed elsewhere will come back once they finished out contracts they’ve signed elsewhere.”
When Boylan resigned and the promotion fell into stasis, Cage Warriors had more than 180 fighters under contract. Each was given the option to look for work elsewhere while the promotion considered its future.
Now that the fighter friendly organization is back in business, Boylan has had no trouble getting those competitors to return to the fold. Out of the 16 fighters currently booked for Cage Warriors 75, 10 have fought for the promotion in the past.
Cage Warriors’ current roster boasts approximately 100 fighters, but Boylan’s plan is to grow that number over the course of 2016.
“I’m still putting everything together, but I’ll be working on developing the best young talent out there,” said Boylan, who’s seen many of his top fighters graduate to the UFC. “You will be seeing plenty of stars coming from Cage Warriors, as you’ve seen for many years previously.”
Boylan’s words are not mere promoter bluster. Cage Warriors has a solid history of developing talent. Some familiar names who fought for the promotion include Dan Hardy, Michael Bisping, Ross Pearson, Paul Daley, Ian Freeman, Gegard Mousasi, Neil Seery, Aisling Daly, Nicolas Dalby, Joseph Duffy, Tom Breese and current UFC champions Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Conor McGregor.
Fighters, though, weren’t the only ones to respond favorably to the return of Cage Warriors; fans also welcomed the announcement of the April fight card.
“The entire time I was away from the scene, I was getting messages daily from fans, coaches, managers and fighters asking when the team would return,” Boylan said. “Our supporters are loyal and very excited to see a team that knows the sport working on developing the sport again.”
The word “team” is one you’ll often hear from Boylan. He may be the president and majority owner of the promotion, but he’s quick to point out that he’s only a single cog in the machine that makes Cage Warriors a success.
In Boylan’s view, the Cage Warriors team consists of three pillars. The first is the core executive group. Boylan is part of that team, along with matchmaker Ian Dean, who returns to the promotion, and newcomer Casimir Knight, who takes over CEO duties under the new regime.
The second pillar is the event team – a group that consists mostly of the same individuals that were involved with the promotion in the past. The third and final component is the team of investors who are involved with the new version of Cage Warriors.
MMA is a fickle sport, fans forget and move on quickly, and with an absence from the fight scene that dates back to November 2014, one could excuse Boylan if he felt some trepidation about bringing the promotion back after such a long time away.
He feels no such worries.
“It doesn’t feel to me like much happened in the European fight scene in 2015,” Boylan said. “Too many fighters have been kicking their heels. And everyone knows that between 2010 and 2014, we put on better shows than anyone else and helped 50 fighters develop to such an extent that they went on to the top of the sport, so hopefully we’re in a good place.”
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