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Cage Warriors champ Liam Gittins talks title defense, PrizeFighter and why he only fights in England
Liam Gittins. Photo via Cage Warriors
The Cage Warriors bantamweight PrizeFighter tournament will go down on July 20 and is one of the highlights of the European MMA summer.
One who will keep a close eye on the tournament is Cage Warriors bantamweight king Liam Gittins. The reigning champion has called for the winner of the tournament as the next man to challenge him for the strap.
When asked about his pick for winning the tournament, he claims Sweden’s Alexander Lööf is the most dangerous of the bunch.
”I pick Lööf to win,” Gittins tells Frontkick in an exclusive interview. ”As long as he makes weight he’s got a very good chance. He’s a big guy. The question is how much time he did have to drop weight. I’m not sure, he could have known about his tournament for ages. That will be interesting to see.”
”As a fan I love it, as an athlete I don’t agree with it”
The champion is impressed by what he has seen of the Swede, and is sure that a potential fight would be an absolute banger.
”He gave Luke Riley a good fight. I would like to defend the belt against Lööf. It would be a crazy fight. A good fight. I think I will finish him too. I’m not overlooking him, he’s a good fighter, but I will finish him. I will finish him with pure pressure. He would probably be the most fun to fight of the PrizeFighters.”
Even though he somehow likes the idea of the tournament, the 27-year-old is not interested in participating in anything like it.
”As a fan, I love to watch it, but I would not want to fight more than once a night,” he laughs. ”It’s tough. If you win the first fight but get beaten up, and then face someone fresh in the second fight. As a fan I love it, as an athlete I don’t agree with it.”
Photo via Cage Warriors
Liam Gittins is a company man
At 27, Liam Gittins is already a veteran in Cage Warriors. Known as a relentless pressure fighter with good ground-and-pound, high finishing-rate and solid defense, the ”Nightmare” really lives up to his nickname.
Gittins made his promotional debut in 2017 and was crowned the new bantamweight champion in front of a sold out crowd at CW 164 in November 2023. He took the fight as a replacement, but after five rounds of action he defeated Reece McEwan via unanimous decision to claim the vacant belt.
Winning the title was a big thing for the fighter who spent most of his pro and amateur career in the organization.
”I have always seen them as the leading promotion. When I was an amateur, I saw Cage Warriors as the show you want to be on,” Gittins explains. ”When they made the amateur Academy I really wanted to fight there. As an amateur I fought at Echo Arena which of course was huge. I was like ’shit’!
How was that experience?
”It helped a lot, you know, then you won’t ever be bothered about a big crowd again.”
Since spending most of his pro career competing in Cage Warriors, the 27-year-old actually never fought outside of the UK.
”I’m a bit lazy, I guess,” Gittins laughs. ”I prefer to just go down the road to fight. Obviously, if I go to the UFC I will have to. But I prefer to fight in England. Some people like to travel to fight, but how much time do you actually get to see anything? You are not going there to enjoy yourself, it’s work!”
Want to read more about Cage Warriors?
- Cage Warriors Special: Here are the six PrizeFighter contestants!
- Robin Roos honored to fight for the Cage Warriors title: “They see me as one of the best middleweights in Europe”
- Lööf excited to enter CRAZY tournament: “You fight twice the same night!”
