Liverpool’s Next Generation MMA will be well represented with six fighters set to compete at Cage Warriors 152 in Manchester on Saturday night.
‘The Southport Strangler’ Nathan Fletcher will be looking to state his case for a second title shot in the co-main event as he takes on Daan Duijs on a packed card at the BEC Arena.
Two of Next Gen’s undefeated fighters will be hoping to preserve their 0s as lightweight Adam Cullen is up against Dumitru Girlean in the first fight of the main card, and Luke Riley faces Kallum Parker to close the prelims. The main event will see lightweight champion George Hardwick defend his belt against Yann Liasse.
Fletcher is coming into his fight against Duijs with his confidence rejuvenated after a decision win at Cage Warriors’ New Year’s Eve card following more than a year long hiatus from the cage.
His last fight before the turn of the year was for the bantamweight title against Dominique Wooding, a contest in which he was up on the judges scorecards until he got knocked out at the end of the third round. The vacant bantamweight title is on the line in Rome on May 6, as Dylan Hazan and Caolon Loughrane compete to become champion. A win for ‘The Southport Strangler’ over his dutch opponent would most likely put him in line to face the winner of that fight.
Kicking off Saturday night’s main card is undefeated lightweight Cullen. He has won every fight in his career by way of first round finish, even when he went up to welterweight in his last fight when an opponent couldn’t be found in his natural division. The 25-year-old’s opponent on Saturday night has a 5-1 record with all of his fights ending in a finish as well so you wouldn’t expect the judges to be needed in this bout.
The fight before Cullen’s will feature fellow scouser Riley. The 23-year-old fight-finishing fanatic has knocked every opponent out that he’s faced as a professional. In his last outing, he starched Polish opponent Karol Kutyla forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight inside the first five minutes.
Riley was originally scheduled to face fellow 5-0 featherweight Alexander Loof on Saturday, but a late change of opponent means he’ll be taking on Parker at a catchweight of 150lbs.
Liam Gittins will be attempting to elongate his winning streak against Rory Evans in Manchester. Gittins has won his previous two fights moving his record to 9-4. ‘Nightmare’ started his professional career off with five straight wins, before hitting a rocky patch during 2020 and 2021, losing four of his six fights in that time. His counterpart has won his last four but that last victory came a year and a half ago.
In the first fight of the night, 3-2 Liam Molloy will be facing experienced Welsh fighter Josh Reed. Having only had two fights in his Cage Warrior career, with the last one being over a year ago, Molloy will be hoping to make an impression on Cage Warriors’ featherweight division with a good outing against his 12-8 opponent. Molloy won that last fight by knockout in round one against Ben Rees.
