FightHounds

The two Irish fighters on the Cage Warriors 45 main card secured hugely impressed knockout wins tonight. Conor McGregor and Chris Fields, both out of SBG Ireland took home KO wins, further enhancing the reputation of one of Ireland’s most successful MMA gyms. The event aired live on mmajunkie.com.

‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor took less than a round to add a sixth consecutive 1st round TKO to his record as he used some vicious elbows to finish British prospect Stephen O’ Keefe.

McGregor started aggressively, taking the centre of the cage and forcing O’ Keefe back with a combination of punches. O’ Keefe covered up and McGregor started throwing knees from the clinch. O’Keefe dropped for a single leg but as in his last fight against Aaron Jahnsen, McGregor showed great takedown defence.

O’Keefe did secure a very brief takedown but McGregor was straight back to his feet. O’Keefe had an arm around McGregor’s neck and tried to take the fight down to secure a possible rear-naked choke but McGregor escaped and when O’Keefe went low for another takedown, McGregor defended with his back to the cage and delivered a series of hard elbows to the side of O’Keefe’s head. The referee stepped in after the eighth or ninth connected and O’Keefe dropped to the canvas.

McGregor improves to 10-2 as a pro and the Dublin native was not shy in demanding a featherweight title shot at the Cage Warriors event in Dublin in May.

Chris ‘The Killing’ Fields, was equally impressive in his middleweight tournament quarter-final bout, taking under two minutes to finish Jack ‘The Stone’ Mason  with a hammer fist after flooring him with a head-kick.

Perhaps better known as a grappler, Fields came out with a high kick that was blocked and followed up with a hard leg kick that kept Mason guessing. They circled briefly but Fields was the more aggressive fighter and took advantage of Mason’s reluctance to engage, wasting little time in finishing his powerful looking opponent. Afterwards fellow tournament participant John Phillips was of the opinion that the stoppage was premature but replays show Mason dropping his hands after the first hammer fist and the only reason he was so clear eyed afterwards was because the referee had stopped the action.

Fields used the post fight interview to point out to his future opponents that he has far more skills than just his grappling and promised his fans he’d bring home title gold to add to his Cage Contender middleweight belt. It was a great nights work for both SBG fighters and yet more proof that MMA in Ireland is a force to be reckoned with. Fields improves his professional record to (9-3).

Alan Keane

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