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Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 71 Moves From Sweden to Jordan

Cage Warriors Fighting Championship (CWFC) has just confirmed the decision to move next month's CWFC 71 event to Amman, Jordan.

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Cage Warriors Fighting Championship (CWFC) has just confirmed the decision to move next month’s CWFC 71 event to Amman, Jordan.

Originally scheduled to take place in Stockholm on Saturday, August 23, issues outside of CWFC’s control have forced officials to move the event to Jordan, with CWFC 71 now booked to go ahead at Amman’s King Hussein Boxing Arena on Friday, August 22.

CWFC 71 will be Cage Warriors Fighting Championship’s tenth event of 2014. Bouts and further details will be announced in due course.

The decision to move CWFC 71 from Sweden to Jordan has come as a result of the nonsensical refusal of the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation (SMMAF) to approve several bouts to be contested under full unified rules.

As a promotion, CWFC is shocked and bemused by the SMMAF’s apparent reasoning for preventing these bouts from taking place, given that Cage Warriors Fighting Championship has developed into one of the world’s leading promotions based largely on these very qualities.

This has led CWFC officials to question the motives of the SMMAF in this instance, as up until this issue arose, both parties had co-operated effortlessly to lay the platform for CWFC to stage an event in Sweden.

From the outset, CWFC officials assured the SMMAF that their protocol would be followed throughout each step in the process, and even agreed to allow the CWFC 71 undercard bouts to be contested under the SMMAF’s ‘Swedish rules’ i.e. with elbows and up-kicks prohibited.

“Moving this event out of Sweden is a decision we really wanted to avoid, but because of the actions of the SMMAF, we have unfortunately been left with no choice in the matter,”

said Cage Warriors CEO Graham Boylan.

“To ask our elite fighters, who are among the best in Europe and the world as a whole, to compete under a diluted set of rules to what they have been doing throughout their professional careers is an abhorrent insult to these outstanding athletes and their abilities.”

Nevertheless, while the SMMAF has ultimately prevented Cage Warriors from staging this event in Sweden, the promotion is extremely appreciative of the widespread support it has received from the Swedish MMA community, particularly from former SMMAF and IMMAF president August Wallen.

“I’m very sad about this situation,” August Wallen said. “Many have worked hard to get Cage Warriors to Sweden and, as someone who helped to build MMA here, I’m concerned as I believe this could be a major setback for the development of MMA in the whole region.”

Cage Warriors Fighting Championship has been at the core of the global MMA community since its inception in 2002 but, in particular, the significant growth of the promotion since 2010 has been built on a foundation laid by the ability of its fighters and the quality of its matching, courtesy of exceptional matchmaker Ian Dean.

Stay tuned on for more on Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 71!

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