Baghdad Iraq Set to Host Cage Warriors 61

Baghdad Iraq Set to Host Cage Warriors 61

Cage Warriors Fighting Championship is to sign off on its busiest year to date with a hectic December schedule which will feature three events in three different countries.

CWFC officials can today confirm that terms have been agreed to bring Europe’s leading MMA promotion to Baghdad for a ground-breaking event on Saturday, December 14.

The Iraqi capital will play host to Cage Warriors 61 just seven days after CWFC’s next scheduled event, which is set for Newcastle, England. Once again, the curtain will be brought down on the year in Dublin, Ireland, on December 31, when Cage Warriors will stage its fourteenth and final event of 2013.

However, the promotion’s visit to Baghdad next month is sure to attract worldwide attention, as Cage Warriors Fighting Championship continues to expand into previously uncharted territories with a view to satisfying the enormous appetite for mixed martial arts in the region.

While some small-scale shows have taken place in Iraq in recent years, Cage Warriors 61 will mark the country’s first taste of an internationally-recognised MMA event, which will feature some of the top talent on the CWFC roster.

Iraq will become the eleventh country to play host to a Cage Warriors event since the start of last year. At the outset of 2012, the promotion embarked on an ambitious international schedule, breaking new ground for the sport of mixed martial arts in countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Ukraine.

That campaign of expansion has continued in 2013, the highlight of which thus far was an extremely successful and hugely significant event – Cage Warriors 58 – in the Russian republic of Chechnya this past August.

“Cage Warriors Fighting Championship is an international promotion, the biggest and busiest outside the USA, and this announcement further enhances that fact and that reputation,” said Graham Boylan, Cage Warriors CEO.

“We’ve shown our ambition for breaking through frontiers in the past so I’m sure it will come as no surprise to see us confirming an event in Baghdad. It has had a troubled past but we’re looking forward to visiting this fantastic city and giving the people there a taste of world-class MMA.

“The event will be one of three in December, which allows us to finish this year having staged 14 shows in the space of 10 months; that’s 26 in total across 11 different countries since February of last year. With 18 shows scheduled for next year, you can expect our international growth to continue at pace in 2014.”

Cage Warriors 61 was originally scheduled for Dagestan on November 16, but a number of logistical issues paved the way for the change of date and venue to December 14 in Baghdad, with a strong fight-card matched for the event which will be revealed in due course.

While the chronological order of numbered events has subsequently been impacted, officials have opted to continue with the December 7 event in Newcastle being billed as Cage Warriors 62, with Cage Warriors 61 following a week later in Baghdad.