Lukasz Chlewicki was able to withstand Paul Daley’s vicious Muay Thai assault in the opening round of their Cage Warriors 57 bout on Saturday.
But the cageside doctor had seen enough. A nasty short elbow opened a deep cut on the Polish fighter’s skull, causing the doctor to call off their main-event welterweight bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, at the end of the opening round.
“We knew he was a tough fighter and we knew some of the stuff he was going to do was difficult,” said the 30-year-old Daley (33-12-2). “But I knew when we got in the clinch I’d be able to hit those short elbows and some of the things we’ve trained to do.”
The victory was Daley’s fourth in a row since losing to Kazuo Misaki in Strikeforce. Since the bout goes into the books as a TKO, it also marks his fourth straight finish.
It also came a week shy of the British fighter’s 10th anniversary of his first Cage Warriors bout.
“Cage Warriors did a lot of good things to be back early on, so it’s good to be back fighting in the Cage Warriors cage,” he said.
Chlewicki dropped to 10-3-1 and had a six-fight unbeaten streak snapped.