Magnificent seven sign with Cage Warriors

CAGE WARRIORS has added seven more top class fighters to its roster on multi-fight deals.

Mats Nilsson, Matteus Lahdesmaki, Diego Gonzalez, Brett Bassett, John Michael Sheil, Pavel Kusch and Vladimir Katyhin have all committed to fighting exclusively for the organisation for the foreseeable future.

Nilsson (8-1-1), a 28-year-old Swedish middleweight, impressed by defeating ex-UFC fighter Tommy Speer at CWFC Fight Night 3 via second-round arm-triangle choke in Beirut, Lebanon earlier this month.

28-year-old Lahdesmaki (12-7-3), a featherweight from Finland, was also victorious at Fight Night 3 when he submitted Graham Turner by rear-naked choke after just 2:19 of Round 1.

Gonzalez (15-6-0-1nc), a 27-year-old Swedish-based lightweight, defeated Ivica Truscek at Cage Warriors 46 in Kiev, Ukraine last week and also holds notable victories over the likes of Steve Berger and Arni Isaksson.

London native Bassett (7-3-0) made an impressive Cage Warriors debut at CWFC 45 on February 18, despite suffering a second round loss to Brett Sizeland having sustained a cut to the head.

Sheil (6-0-0), an unbeaten 27-year-old Dubliner, recorded Cage Warriors victories last year over Marek Piekarski and Victor Cheng, who recently reached the semi-finals of the CWFC middleweight title tournament.

23-year-old Kusch (12-2-0), who hails from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was the talk of his hometown last week when he submitted Alexander Starikov with a remarkable omoplata after just 30 seconds of their CWFC 46 bout.

Russia’s Vladimir Katyhin (13-4-0), aged 31, was also successful at last week’s show in Kiev when he secured a second-round submission (rear-naked choke) victory over Anatoly Safronov.

“All of these fighters have shown what they’re capable of on Cage Warriors and I’m happy to offer them the opportunity to fight exclusively for the organisation,” said Cage Warriors director Graham Boylan.

“Cage Warriors prides itself on providing a platform for some of the best fighters in the game and I believe we’ve got some top prospects in these seven guys.”