Paul Hughes Outclasses Jordan Vucenic, Unifies Featherweight Championship at CW 145

By Martial Arts Videos November 5, 2022
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Paul
Hughes left no doubt as to who was the better man tonight
inside of the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship cage.

The CW
145 headliner saw the championship unification clash between
featherweight titleholder Jordan
Vucenic (9-2, 5-1 CW) and interim champion Hughes (9-1, 6-1
CW). The two first met at CW 119 in 2020, and Vucenic emerged with
a narrow split decision after 15 minutes of combat. In their
25-minute rematch, the contestants put on an entertaining
back-and-forth clash that turned into a blood bath. After a fairly
close first round, Hughes spent most of the second frame on his
opponent’s back fishing for a rear-naked choke that never
materialized. Hughes’s speed gave him the upper hand towards the
end of Round 3, when he caught Vucenic with a clean uppercut and
attempted to finish the job before the sound of the horn.

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Sensing that his foe had not recovered entirely between rounds,
Hughes kept pressuring Vucenic in the fourth stanza, clipping him
with a potent combination that forced Vucenic to dive in for a
takedown. The damage was done, and the corner of Vucenic’s left eye
split wide open to start spraying blood on the mat. In the
subsequent scrambles, Hughes again hunted for submissions, but at
least in part thanks to the copious blood flow, he could not lock
one down. Hughes dropped Vucenic again in the fifth period, and
scored with more punches as he kept a high pace, but fell short of
finishing his opponent from the back as the fight went the
distance. Ultimately the cageside judges cast 49-46, 50-43 and
49-43 scorecards for Hughes, who officially became the undisputed
featherweight champion and exacted revenge on the only man to
defeat him as a pro.



In the welterweight co-main event, James
Sheehan outsmarted Jamie
Richardson to take home a well-deserved unanimous decision
triumph. The pair kept the contest on the feet for much of their
encounter, as both fighters scored with their jabs and marked up
one another’s faces. The 170-pounders were evenly matched going
into the third round, until Sheehan (6-2, 5-2 CW) scored a takedown
and trapped the arm of Richardson (11-8, 7-5 CW) between his back
and the cage. The favorable position allowed “Jimbo Slice” to land
several effective shots, and swinging the bout in his direction.
The ring announcer read three 29-28 scorecards in favor of the
Irish fighter, who advanced his win streak to five straight under
the Cage Warriors banner.



Earlier on the billing, Ultimate Fighting Championship alum Modestas
Bukauskas (12-5, 6-1 CW) outworked former CW champ Lee
Chadwick (28-17-1, 3-2 CW) en route to a unanimous decision win
(29-28, 29-28, 30-27); 155-pounder Mehdi
Ben Lakhdhar (6-0-1, 4-0-1 CW) notched a unanimous decision
victory over Xavier
Sedras (8-3-1, 0-1 CW); unbeaten bantamweight Caolan
Loughran (7-0, 3-0 CW) stopped former flyweight kingpin
Luke
Shanks (10-4, 6-3 CW) with punches at 3:46 of Round 2.

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On the preliminary card, former 185-pound
titleholder James Webb
(9-4-1, 8-4-1 CW) upended Paddy
McCorry (2-1, 0-1 CW) courtesy of three matching 29-28
scorecards; 145-pounder Ryan
Shelley (6-0, 4-0 CW) forced Josh Reed
(12-8, 8-8 CW) to tap to a rear-naked choke at 3:00 in the opening
frame; in a featherweight affair, Harry
Hardwick (9-3-1, 3-0-1 CW) defeated Steve
Aimable (18-9, 8-6 CW) via lopsided decision with a trio of
30-26 tallies on his side; Oban
Elliott (7-2, 7-2 CW) outpointed Sean
McCormac (2-2, 1-1 CW) on all three scorecards (30-27, 30-27,
30-27) at middleweight; the event began with Adam
Shelley (3-2, 2-1 CW) defeating El Hadji
Ndiaye (4-2, 0-2 CW) at lightweight by unanimous decision
(30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

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