With all the success of fighters originating from the Irish MMA promotion CageWarriors you might ask why they are not putting on events anymore. Well they have made some changes but might be back in 2015 - 2016.
Here is the full story, taken from two separate articles found on the web.


Cage Warriors Postponement Leaves European Market up for Grabs

The Irish MMA community woke up on New Year’s Day 2013 with sore heads and pep in their steps.

"The Notorious" Conor McGregor had claimed his second world title under the Cage Warriors banner in six months the night before, and due to the dominance of his performance over Ivan Buchinger it seemed like it wouldn’t be long before the outspoken Dub would be competing in the Octagon.

12 months later, ‘Ais the Bash’ Daly picked up a big win that gave her some momentum ahead of the TUF 20 tryouts when she saw off Karla Benitez. Furthermore, Catherine Costigan added another ‘W’ to her unbeaten record, while John Redmond and Kieran Davern ended their war of words in an all-Irish affair that would see Redmond’s hand raised.

There was a lot of anticipation ahead of 2014’s NYE card too. After suffering his only loss under the CWFC banner the year before, Paul Redmond was seemingly one win away from a UFC bow. Media and fans were confident that the Team Ryano man might even headline the card given his strong hometown support in Dublin.

The Helix had long been the host of those magical Cage Warriors nights in the Irish capital. On the same campus where Cathal Pendred obtained his degree, he would also take the biggest step in his MMA career to date when he saw off Che Mills in the collegiate venue in June 2013.

Around October 2014, it became clear that Cage Warriors would not host their marquee New Year’s Eve event in Dublin and the talk began about the future of the promotion.

Paul Dollery, the promotion’s director of media and operations, stood down from his role just before the start of 2015 to pursue journalism adding further fuel to the fire.

Six days ago when Graham Boylan, Cage Warriors CEO, broke the news of his own resignation to his former employee, Dollery, in his new role as a sport columnist for Irish sport’s site The 42, there was added speculation regarding the future of the brand.

For a long time, Boylan’s role as CEO of Cage Warriors, while also being the owner of Intensiti Fighter Management, had been called into question. The fact that some active Cage Warriors fighters were being represented by Intensiti while potentially looking to move to different promotions appeared to be a cut and dry conflict of interest.

Neil Seery, Joseph Duffy and Paul Redmond—all represented by Intensiti—are now on the UFC books. Perhaps Boylan’s stepping away from Cage Warriors was focused on giving his full attention to his management obligations.

The day following Boylan’s resignation, Dollery and The 42 broke the news of the postponement of the Cage Warriors’ London event, which was scheduled for March 21. Furthermore, due to the postponement of the card, Cage Warriors also indicated that they would allow fighters a one-fight exemption from their current contracts to compete due to their “search for a new CEO”.

“While we focus our efforts on the search for a new CEO, we have taken the decision to postpone the event which was scheduled for the Copper Box in London on March 21st.

“A new date for this event will be announced in due course, and the patience of our loyal fans is appreciated. All contracted athletes will also be granted a one-fight exemption from their Cage Warriors deals to compete for another promotion in the meantime,” read the press release, which was signed by Shadi Tahboub of Cage Warriors’ Board of Directors.

The day after the announcement of the postponed London event another key member of the team, play-by-play commentator Brad Wharton, stepped back from his position with Cage Warriors.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the promotion, but based on their last event being held on November 15, fighters could be waiting quite a while before the former European powerhouse kicks back into action.

And that is a problem. Due to short life span of a fighter’s career they don’t really have time to stay inactive over a few months. Especially when considering those on the brink of making it to the big stage where they could potentially make life-changing money on the back of some good performances.

There was a time when being a Cage Warriors champion would nearly guarantee fighters some attention from UFC. Jack Hermansson, Nicolas Dalby, Stevie Ray, Alex Enlund, Toni Tauru and Pannie Kianzad—all current CWFC champs—must now wait to see how the future unfolds.

This Saturday night BAMMA 18 rolls into Wolverhampton with a card that packs plenty of punch for European MMA fans. Due to the dominance of the Cage Warriors brand since Boylan’s emergence as CEO in 2010 and the current hiatus, this could be a perfect opportunity for BAMMA to take back the reins with regard to the continental scene.

Tom "The Fire Kid" Duquesnoy, a man marked out as the featherweight division’s top prospect for 2015 by Bloody Elbow, headlines the card where he will look to defend his title against Polish prospect Krzysztof Klaczek.

To add to that, the long awaited return of Chris "The Killing" Fields commands the billing for the co-main event when the former Cage Warriors champion meets dangerous French striker Cheick Kone. A booming MMA market at the moment, it will do BAMMA no harm having an Irish interest on the card.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look good for Cage Warriors. However, they still have essential personnel on board including one of the geniuses of the sport, Ian Dean. If the promotion can get the fighters on board, there is no limit to what the matchmaking guru can do for business.

To add to that Dem Marquez was the videographer that was behind the amazing promotional media that Cage Warriors built fighter brands on, which helped them access a whole new audience. Josh Palmer is another vital cog in the wheel as color commentator that remains with the promotion.

Under the Boylan regime, European MMA witnessed something special. Cage Warriors became the MMA equivalent of The Silk Road as one of the most frequented trade channels for UFC. Their ground-breaking deal with MMA Junkie allowed fans from all over the world access to what were fantastically run events, full of passion and grit.

Fans of the promotion knew that they were watching the UFC’s stars of tomorrow which gave they them a sense of being clued in, a sense of belonging to a community.

Irish MMA in particular owes a lot to Boylan and the Cage Warriors platform. With seven of the eight charges from the island formally contracted to the European powerhouse, there is no doubt that without the pathway from Cage Warriors, without the platform they provided the athletes with – things could have been a lot different.

Even if the promotion does get back on its feet, it feels like there has been quite a shift already. With so many of the most recognizable faces disappearing from the backroom, there will be growing pains that make it hard to imagine the events re-emerging like the well oiled machine it once was.

If another promotion takes over the European stomping ground with similar high production values, it will still be very difficult to repeat what has happened over the last four years.

Casual fans in Europe consumed Cage Warriors as well as UFC. The magic nights that saw McGregor announce himself as one of the most exciting fighters to ever emerge from Europe were so memorable, those who missed out wanted to be a part of the next wave.

This was evident from the social media campaigns that helped to push Seery, Pendred and Redmond onto world’s biggest stage. The fan base was so vast, so clued in, we may never see the likes of it again.

The news that there would be no New Year’s Eve card in Dublin this year left a lot of people without something they hoped would be as constant as Auld Lang Syne, a feeling they may have to get used to based on the latest developments of Europe’s flagship MMA promotion.

Source: http://fightland.vice.com/blog/cage-war ... -for-grabs



Graham Boylan acquires Cage Warriors brand, eyes potential rebrand and two shows in 2015

What happened to Cage Warriors? The arguable top European promotion had a 12-year history of not just running successful shows, but producing top prospect after top prospect. Yet, after November of 2014, everything seemingly went quiet. No new events were announced and by February, the former CEO Graham Boylan, announced he was resigning, spurring even more rumors about the once-great promotion's future.

Today, however, those questions were answered as Boylan appeared on Monday's The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.

"In December after our last London show, we had a lot of big meetings and they dragged into January. We have a lot of fighters on the roster and there were a lot of things going on internally with the current owners," Boylan explained.

"It was time for me. It was a five-year, six-day-a-week, 24/7 run when we ran Cage Warriors and did what we did. We did 68 shows or something internationally. It was a long five years. It was life for five years, in and out, just like you're doing now. I'm not going to wait around for the meetings to finish, i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed, and called it a day," he continued.

As it turns out, Boylan may have left Cage Warriors, but that was only to return to the brand in a different capacity. "Over the past week, other business brought me back to speaking with the guys. We've finished Friday and I've acquired the brand."

Boylan said he had kept busy in his time off with his other business ventures and working with other fighters, but realized with the right opportunity, he wasn't ready to leave all the work they'd put into the organization to go to waste.

"No, never something I was looking to do," he noted. "I was hoping things would move on in the direction that they'd been moving because at the end of 2014, I left a pretty large brand, a large organization considered to be top five in the world, to move forward."

The former CEO said the organization could have kept going, but through bureaucratic inertia, never did. There were partnerships in place, he said, and "a lot of deals didn't happen that were supposd to happen", all due to the inability of the organization to collectively move forward with the appropriate vision and strategy.

That came to an end when the old ownership decided to move on and Boylan decided to step in. "At the end of the meetings, we've reached a deal where I've acquired the I.P. (intellectual property) and I now own Cage Warriors."

Boylan contended if the brand is to move forward, some things have to change. The old ownership had investors from the Middle East, which made acquiring gambling or alcohol sponsors a challenge. Boylan no longer views this as an obstacle. Second, the entire Cage Warriors brand may get a face lift and even a new name.

"What I want for the brand is one giant step and leap," he argued. "It may be rebranded to something else with the people I'm speaking to, provided we can come to some kind of arrangement and all move forward in the right direction." Boylan wouldn't share what direction that is, but noted if and when the change happens, all questions about getting rid of a well-known brand will cease.

"I think the rebrand may be something when you see the name of it you take that question back on," he said.

As for moving forward, Boylan said there are meetings with interested parties, old and new, to get to when he returns to England. He claimed they're looking at staging one, potentially two events within 2015, but as of now, nothing is set in stone. More importantly, Boylan claimed, is next year, not this.

"I'm speaking with a lot of people for 2016 to kick off. I've already touched base with all of my previous TV partners. They're all on board, so the TV footprint doesn't change. It'll still be shown in over 120-something countries. That's still there. There are other plans I what I want for what Cage Warriors stands for in Europe. Providing we can move that plans and get that plans to happen, I'd be a lot happier for the brand to move in that direction," Boylan told Helwani.

Most importantly for Boylan, though, is getting back to the organization's original mission and central function in Europe. He is the first to note the powerful role in had in giving European fighters a place to compete and eventually move on to the world's highest stage.

"We produced big, big, big names," Boylan noted. "I think Cage Warriors, in terms of giving guys to the big show, 60-something guys have gone to the UFC since the inception of Cage Warriors. That's a big number.

"The European scene since Cage Warriors did their last show in October has left a massive, massive vacuum. There's nowhere for guys to fight. There's no exposure for them if they do get a fight on a show. A lot of the shows that are running, there isn't a great deal of medicals that go on at those shows. Some shows don't even have doctors there. So, a lot of the guys who were contracted to Cage Warriors, it's been a massive eye opener for them, clubs, coaches and managers alike, over the past four months, five months because there are very limited options that are there for them," he stated.

As Boylan sees it, his work isn't done with Cage Warriors and Cage Warriors' place in Europe is as valuable as ever.

"It's good for the sport if Cage Warriors gets back in full swing, which I'm pretty confident it will very soon, so these guys will have somewhere to go and so the bigger shows a year from now have the future Conor McGregors and future Joannas [Jedrzejczyk] and future Joe Duffys and Nicolas Dalbys and Tom Breeses because where are they going to come from, how are they going to develop if there's no shows if after only five, six months of Cage Warriors sitting on the shelf?," he asked.

That said, change isn't just inevitable, but critical. Some things have to go differently this time, but in talking to Boylan, there is plenty of purpose in the Cage Warriors cause.

"If it's back, it's back big," he said. "It's going to be back bigger than what it was."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2015/6/29/88 ... ebrand-and

Also check out: http://www.cagewarriors.com/news/articl ... cwfc_brand