Last night, the Pro Elite-owned English-based mixed martial arts promotion, Cage Rage, hosted its 27th event dubbed “Step Up” at the Wembley Arena in London, England. Add only 126 miles away in Nottingham, its own welterweight champion, Paul “Semtex” Daley, was fighting for a rival organization, Cage Warriors.
Daley decided to take a break from competing after his January win over Sam Morgan in Atlantic City, N.J.. He went as far as to say he was retiring from MMA altogether. However, last night — just under six months after announcing his retirement — Daley was back in action.
He decided to make his return in his hometown of Nottingham with a local organization. His contract with Pro Elite is non-exclusive, but one can imagine the promotion didn’t like one of its champions fighting for the other guys … on the same night they’re hosting an event.
Daley made the dispute public with some comments before this fight, but despite the hesitation from Pro Elite, the fight happened anyway … and Daley did not disappoint. His opponent was no push over either. Bojan “Zelva” Kosednar was undefeated at (6-0) coming in and many expected him to put up a decent fight.
That didn’t happen.
“Semtex” made short work of Kosednar, handing the Slovenian his first defeat in just four minutes and fifty three seconds. This gives Daley thirteen career technical knockouts and marks his sixth win in a row.
There are some good match-ups for him in Elite XC’s welterweight division. We know Diaz can fight there, or possibly at a catchweight, but he already has fights lined up. The more likely candidates are guys like Hector Lombard, Jay Heiron, Jake Shields, Nick Thompson and maybe even Eddie Alvarez at a catchweight. The point is, he should be welcomed back to Elite XC with open arms — even with the dispute over fighting for Cage Warriors.
Here are the rest of the results for Cage Warriors: “Enter The Rough House 7:”
Simeon Thoresen defeats Matt Thorpe by submission (Kimura) at 51 seconds of Round 1
Andre Winner and Abdul Mohammed fight to a Draw.
Paul McVeigh defeats Steve McCombe at 2:27 of Round 2 (Rear Naked Choke)
Jim Wallhead defeats Fabricio Nascimento by Unanimous Decision.
Lee Livingstone defeats Wayne Murray by submission at 1:32 of Round 1 (Triangle Choke)
Cliff Hall defeats Rocci Williams (Guillotine Choke) at 2:24 of Round 1
Chris Cooper defeats Tommy Rasmussen by technical knockout (strikes)
Pete McGurk defeats John Phillips (Armbar) at 1:05 of Round 1
Eddie Podolski defeats John Brotherhood (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:08 of Round 1
Kristoff Woodhouse and Lee Donald fight to a Draw.
Matteo Minonzio defeats Wayne Buck by technical knockout
Cage Rage 27: “Step Up” featured Phil Baroni’s debut at 170 pounds against Scott Jansen as its main event. “The New York Badass” was successful, moving him back over a .500 average in the win/loss column. He landed a right hook in the first round that dropped Jansen and ended the fight.
Coming off three straight losses, this was a “must win” for Baroni and he came through. Believe it or not, there are some marketable fights out there at 170 pounds for him, too. I mentioned welterweight candidates above for Paul Daley … you can add Phil Baroni’s name to that list.
Baroni’s next fight is already scheduled against Ron Verdadero (3-5) on August 2 at Icon Sport: “Hard Times” at a catchweight of 175 pounds.
The co-main event for Cage Rage was a heavyweight rematch between Neil Grove and Robert “Buzz” Berry. Grove got the win over Berry the first time with a technical knockout when Berry couldn’t answer the second round bell. It took him a couple minutes longer this time around, but the result remained the same.
Grove is now (6-1) with six technical knockouts. Sounds like a fun match-up for Kimbo. I wouldn’t mind seeing that. I know the English fans would go crazy. Maybe after Brett Rogers … who knows.
Here’s the rest of the Cage Rage 27: “Step Up” results:
Jason Young defeats Francis Heagney bye decision
Brad Pickett defeats Christian Binda in Round 2 by submission (guillotine)
Robbie Olivier defeats Ashleigh Grimshaw by technical knockout in Round 2
Stav Economou defeats Piotr Kusmierz by decision
Tom Watson defeats John Phillips by decision
Mustapha AlTurk defeats James McSweeney by technical knockout (strikes) in Round 1
24 Comments »
Why didn’t this article mention that baroni got headbutted by one of jansens conermen after the match. Baroni went to see if jansen was alright and this guy just headbutted him for no reason.
Yeah that guy was a tool, if u cant watch your mate getting hurt i suggested no one goes to any loved 1’s fights lol.
I conqure.
There is a .gif of the head-butt over at fightlinker.com.
What a spineless twat. Baroni had the sporting courtesy to see if Jansen was OK and that donut lays the nut on him. The security should have pulled him back into the cage and let him try it with Baroni when he wasn’t off-guard!
I’ve had my vent.
It was just a poor representation of British MMA.
On the positive side, this will gain Baroni an army of fans in the UK. Everyone saw his sportsmanship, he wasn’t disrepsectful in victory.
I’d love to see Scott Jansen and his girlfriend back in the studio with Dave. Could you imagine him calling them the Posh and Becks of mma again?
Can’t remember seeing Victoria giving anybody the wan_er sign or David Beckham’s sister headbutting Rebecca Loos lol
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/?go=forum_framed.posts&forum=1&thread=1309215&page=1&pc=58
Head butt comes on toward the end after the knockout:
That’s insane! I also can’t believe the ref stood them up 20 seconds or so after Baroni got full mount.
Yeah, it was a little soon, but Baroni stopped working the advantage as soon as he got the mount. What I can’t believe is organizations who let ANYONE other than the fighters and corner people into the octagon (Elite). They have no business there. And I hope Baroni takes that f@gs belt and beats him with it.
Unbelievable! I was also surprised that the ref stood them up when Baroni had mounted Jansen.
Great video mania. I only saw a GIF of it on other sites. Charges really should be pressed against that guy.
i’m not a fan of boroni but that head nudge was very stupid
He did get head nudged. Didn’t you hear the great announcer? He got ‘nutted’ on!
Wow, Baroni is .524 now! They had to put him against a guy just under .500 with not much experience to secure a win. The announcers were the worst. They obviously know nothing about MMA. When Baroni was trying to get a kimura on “Too Smooth” they called it an armbar, and before the fight they were saying stuff like all of Baroni’s fights were really exciting weather he’s won or lost and that a victory over Baroni for “Too Smooth” would make him internationally known or something (maybe these guys should do stand up because that was some funny shit). Give me a break. This was the only bout I was able to see last night, and If it was an indicator of how the rest of the bouts were, being the Main Event and all (another joke), Im glad I missed it. This is pure speculation, but Im assuming it was an overall C- event. What else would you expect from a promotin with the Elite XC logo on the mat?
Actually he did have an armbar on him, but it wasn’t working, so he transitioned and kinda gave a half assed attempt at a kimura. I have to agree that they were a going a little overboard on what a win against Baroni would mean for Jansen though. At least they were correct in calling his headbutting cornerman an idiot.
I agree with Addict, I am wondering why he stood them up when Baroni had mount.
Another thing, I don’t like Baroni, but much respect for taking the high road and not pouncing on Jansen knowing he was already out and also showing restraint after the head butt.
What an absolute dick!!
No idea who that muppet is but he should be banned from MMA events.
….and yeh, strange decision to stand the guys up, but i guess phil wont be complaining
he should just be happy the hammer coleman didnt get his hands on him for that stupid attempt at a headbut
having loked at it again he is very luck mark coleman wasnt there! anybody see coleman flip off at the shogun fight?
guy has serious roids rage that chap in yellow would have been hurt! bad!
as for jansen it looks bad now and he wont get any fights again after that stuff
Coleman was there.
on a side note!
cage rage is really struggling to put on a decent show!
head butt not called for, that dude a sore looser, been a bit of that lately, whens rampage coach retiring