On Saturday 8th September, the Cage Warriors Academy takes over Belfast’s Devenish Complex in what will be an exciting and explosive night of amateur Mixed Martial Arts.
The Academy develops young, talented fighters through the ranks of amateur, and then feeds them into the main Cage Warriors promotion. Highly touted UK and Irish talents such as Cory McKenna and Cage Warriors’ new signing Liam Gittins and all have worked their way up in the development program.
The main event sees a bantamweight title fight between ZKJ’s Ciaran Breslin and Fight Academy Ireland’s Glenn McVeigh. Also on this card as well we also see two very important Cage Warriors Academy bouts as local fighter Ciaran Mulholland takes on Francis Breen of England.
However, make no mistake, the rest of the card also has a multitude of talent going head to head. I will give you a little bit of background on a few of the guys that will be competing below.
Ciaran Breslin (5-6 Amateur)
Zanshin Karate Jutsu’s and Belfast native Ciaran Breslin is tactical Karate fighter, with three of his victories coming via decision, one via TKO and one via submission (both in the 3rd round). Coming out of the 2018 IMMAF Championships with two victories and one defeat, his confidence will be high after proving his skills at the highest amateur level.
With two of his six losses, coming via submission, one could guess that his vulnerability lies in the grappling department, while not completely incompetent, his losses have been against grappling heavy opponents. However, it is also clear that Ciaran Breslin has an exciting style and always comes to fight. Breslin had an extremely tough when he takes on highly touted prospect Glenn McVeigh, who is undefeated as a professional and also 5-3 as an amateur.
Glenn McVeigh (1-0 Pro, 5-3 Amateur)
Showing pits of heart with an impressive Guillotine victory against Brandon Myers to secure the Cage Legacy featherweight championship, McVeigh extended his win streak to an impressive 4 wins in a row. His ability to survive adversity was on full display as he survived an early rear-naked choke to eventually win by Guillotine.
Fighting out of a very good gym in Belfast’s Fight Academy Ireland, Glenn is a well-rounded fighter with multiple wins by decision and submission. McVeigh also possesses great striking attributes but he will go into his fight with Breslin’ as a big favourite. If he can get the job done he will add the Cage Warriors Academy belt to his collection. McVeigh has also shown
Ciaran Mulholland (7-6 Amateur)
Ciaran Mulholland is currently holding the Cage Warriors South East 125lb championship. He is a Rangy Grappler with a finish-first mentality – all seven victories coming inside the distance.
Mulholland, 22, has already had 13 amateur fights under his belt. Fighting the majority of his career at flyweight, he has also dipped his toe into the bantamweight weight class and has shown a vast repertoire of skills that would certainly fair well in the professional ranks.
Mulholland is a submission specialist and in the last 12 months has finished three of his wins by that very method. He defeated Jack Eglin via first round Armbar in order to secure his strap, a first-round armbar on Jack Temple, and a second round Guillotine choke against SBG prospect Dylan O’Donovan at the 2018 IMMAF Championships.
The semi-finals of the Cage Warriors Academy Grand Prix goes down on September 8th at the Devenish Complex, Finaghy Road North, Belfast. Follow along with us at @MMAMotion for all of the results and post-fight content.
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