ONE OF THE most exciting young prospects in mixed martial arts will defend his Cage Warriors featherweight title next month in London.
Paddy Pimblett (12-1) is set to put the belt on the line against Julian Erosa (16-3) at Cage Warriors Unplugged, which will be hosted by BT Sport on Saturday, 12 November as a warm-up for their live broadcast of UFC 205 from New York later that night.
Having clinched the title — which was once in the hands of Conor McGregor — by defeating Johnny Frachey via first-round TKO last month to extend his winning streak to eight fights, Pimblett has generated huge interest from around the MMA world.
The 21-year-old Liverpool native had been linked with a UFC contract until it was announced recently that he had extended his deal with Cage Warriors for the time being. Nevertheless, a move seems inevitable in 2017, although he’ll need to continue his progress in the meantime against a more experienced opponent.
Erosa competed on the 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter last year, which featured Conor McGregor and Urijah Faber as coaches. He made it to the semi-finals, where he suffered a first-round KO defeat to Artem Lobov, McGregor’s team-mate.
In spite of that result, the 27-year-old American was offered a chance in the UFC. He overcame Marcin Wrzosek via split decision at last December’s TUF 22 Finale, before being given his marching orders following a second-round KO loss against Teruto Ishihara on the undercard of UFC 196: McGregor v Diaz in March. Erosa rebounded by defeating Daniel Swain in Idaho in May.
Chris Fishgold (15-1-1), Pimblett’s team-mate and the reigning Cage Warriors lightweight champion, will also put his title at stake at next month’s London event. Fishgold is set to face TUF 16 contestant Nic Herron-Webb (19-7).
The bouts were announced during last night’s broadcast of Cage Warriors 79 in Newport, where another TUF 22 veteran — Martin Svensson — bounced back from his defeat to David Teymur at UFC Fight Night 84 in February by submitting Scott Clist in the second round.
However, perhaps the biggest winner on the night was Englishman Dean Trueman, who scored a KO victory over France’s Arnold Quero after just 12 seconds.
