Paddy Pimblett | Dolly Clew/Cage Warriors
Davide Martinez was previously scheduled to fight the Liverpudlian but can’t fly to the UK, due to an Italian ban on all non-essential travel from the country.
Paddy Pimblett’s opponent for Cage Warriors 113 has been changed once again.
The European MMA star will now face Irish lightweight, Decky Dalton—the fourth different opponent booked to fight the ‘Baddy’ in the past four months. Due to a combination of weight trouble, injuries, and now COVID-19, none of those bookings have ended up with both fighters in the cage on fight night.
Italian Davide Martinez was scheduled to compete against the 25-year-old next weekend but can no longer make the trip to England, due to travel restrictions in place to and from Italy because of the virus. Cage Warriors 113 takes place on Friday, March 20 from the Indigo at the O2 in London and will be broadcast live on UFC Fight Pass.
Pimblett (14-3) hasn’t competed since he fell short in his effort to capture the Cage Warriors lightweight title against Soren Bak in September 2018. He was supposed to return to action four months ago against TUF veteran, Joe Giannetti, but the American missed weight by a significant margin so the bout was cancelled. With the lightweight title currently vacant following Jai Herbert’s signing to the UFC, a big win for Pimblett will likely place him in immediate contention for the belt.
Dalton (11-4) only competed just last weekend, where he picked up a submission victory to improve his winning streak to four. If more bad luck doesn’t strike, he is set to compete for the second time in just fourteen days. The BAMMA and BRAVE CF veteran fights out of Fight Academy Ireland alongside fellow lightweight, Joe McColgan, and will be looking to jump straight into the title picture if he can pull off the upset.
Two other Italian fighters had previously withdrawn from the card due to injuries sustained over the weekend rather than the Coronavirus travel restrictions.
With this latest development, the Cage Warriors 113 card is as follows:
Main Card
Interim Featherweight Title Fight – Morgan Charrieré vs Darko Banovic
Flyweight Title Fight – Samir Faiddine (c) vs Luke Shanks
Lightweight – Paddy Pimblett vs Decky Dalton
Lightweight – Mason Jones vs TBC
Prelims
Lightweight – Joe McColgan vs Rafael Macedo
Featherweight – Perry Goodwin vs Steve Aimable
Bantamweight – Cory Tait vs TBC
Welterweight – Nathan Jones vs David Bear
Featherweight – Aidan Stephen vs. Emrah Sonmez
Featherweight – Lewis Monarch vs Kingsley Crawford
Featherweight – Kris Edwards vs James Hendin
Middleweight – Matthew Bonner vs. Jamie Richardson
Flyweight – Darren O’Gorman vs Coner Hignett
Flyweight – Adam Amarasinghe vs Jake Bond
Lightweight – Joshua Onwordi vs Jack Collins