Pieced together from the remnants of not one but two fallen UFC London bouts, the Cage Warriors 113 main event featured middleweights Darren Stewart and Bartosz Fabinski facing off. Stewart had been scheduled to meet Marvin Vettori inside the octagon on Saturday. Fabinski had been expected to face Shavkat Rakhmonov. Instead, thanks to to coronavirus pandemic cancelling that card, combined with the resulting travel restrictions, Stewart and Fabinski would face off for Cage Warriors instead.
Kicking off the three-round main event, Fabinski almost immediately put Stewart’s back on the fence. They’d reverse several times, exchanging knees in the process. The grappling battle went on for over a minute, with the pair very evenly matched. Right around the midway point of the round, ref Marc Goddard had seen enough, and opted to re-start the pair at center. Not that it mattered, as they went right back to the fence. Fabinski, however, got Stewart down this time — only to eat a huge elbow than immediately sliced him open. With the cut to the side of the head, Fabinski was able to keep working, trying to pin Stewart while adding strikes. Poland’s Fabinski, however, was leaking blood, making things a bit slick.
Fabinski was able to get a hook in, however, as he flatted Stewart out. ‘The Butcher,’ despite being the one bloodied, unloaded with some elbows of his own. Stewart answered with a guillotine attempt, but the round came to a close.
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Between rounds, ref Goddard would call in the cutman to clean up the vaseline left on Fabinski’s cut. Once round two got underway, the Polish fighter a) took Stewart down almost immediately and b) was also bleeding, almost immediately. That cut, luckily, was not in a spot that would bother his vision however. Fabinski had to contend with a guillotine, which Stewart didn’t really have. He countered with a Von Flue, which also wasn’t full in. Eventually Fabinski would just get to work with ground n’ pound inside Stewart’s guard. He worked to soften up the body, adding in the head when he could. A few elbows were tossed in for good measure, while Stewart tried to return strikes from bottom — including more elbows. Some smashing elbows came in response from Fabinski, and they closed out the round in that fashion.
Fabinski looked to set up a takedown with big punches early in round three. He couldn’t land the shot, and Stewart in turn took Fabinski down instead. Fabinski risked giving up his back as he regained his feet, and was grazed by a knee. However, the pair would wind up back in the middle; Fabinski then closed the distance, eating a right hand, but stayed on the takedown attempt before planting Stewart on his back. Fabinski, shorts stained with blood, would not let Stewart out of his grasp. When Stewart got to his feet, they were quickly pulled out from under him.
Time was ticking away, but Stewart didn’t seem to have a viable escape plan. In the final minute he made it up for a mere second before Fabinski hoisted him up and dropped him back down. This time, Stewart was in the center of the cage. There was no escape. Time ran out, and Bartosz Fabinski had the win.
Official Result: Bartosz Fabinski def. Darren Stewart by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
