In the latest look at mixed martial arts UK style, we hear from the region's largest promoter, Cage Rage, regarding last week's news of the sale of the PRIDE Fighting Championships. Also, information from other UK organizations and fighters round out the latest "Brawl Britannia."

Cage Rage forms ‘alliance' leading promotions

As reported last week, Cage Rage has formed an alliance of promotions in what appears to many as a defensive reaction to the Fertitta brothers' recent purchase of the PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Certainly the list of promotional teams said to be involved is impressive with EliteXC, California's Strikeforce, Korea's Spirit MC, FEG's K-1 HERO'S and Bodog Fights — though, at this stage, the nature of Bodog's involvement remains uncertain.

However, with such well-established promotions joining the team it could rival the apparently impending UFC-PRIDE domination of the sport.

Speaking from Los Angeles, Cage Rage co-promoter Andy Geer had a few comments on the situation. "The general idea behind this amalgamation of promotions is really just to try and unify the sport a bit more," he told Sherdog.com. "Unify the rules and the weight categories and produce a true world champion. MMA is becoming very fragmented — we don't really want to make the same mistakes that boxing has made, so we feel that joining together will help us achieve that.

"When something like this happens, everyone wonders what the ulterior motives are, but as I said in the press conference, this isn't really about Cage Rage; it's not about Spirit MC; it's not about K-1. It's about MMA and trying to push the sport forward. Everyone knows now that we are on the brink of mainstream: we're out-selling boxing in the UK; we're out-selling basketball in the USA and around the world we're hearing the same story. So before the sport flies off into several different directions, we just want to make sure we move it forward in a professional manner."

If it does come down to a promotion battle between Cage Rage and the UFC, the London-based promotion will need all the help it can get as the UFC is heavily rumored to be putting on a further four shows in the UK this year alone.

Cage Warriors sign main event but lose fighters to injury

In a bad bit of luck for both fighters and the promotion, fan favorites Paul McVeigh and Ian Butlin (Pictures) have unfortunately suffered injuries in training and will now not be able to compete on the show on April 28.

It may be of some consolation to Ian Butlin (Pictures) and Andre Winner that, barring any further injury, their fight will now go ahead in June for the FX3 lightweight title, recently vacated by another sidelined fighter, Ollie Ellis.

This fight is certainly worth waiting for, but for now Butlin will first have to concentrate on his next fight on the Cage Rage Contenders show in Dublin next month.

In some good news for the Cage Warriors promotion, the main event match-up between the Roughhouse's Dan Hardy and Holland's Willy Ni was announced. Willy lacks striking ability next to the seasoned former Cage Warriors welterweight champion, but he is said to have a very tight submission game, so look out for an exciting clash of styles.

Retirement for another mainstay of the UK scene

Earlier last month, we heard that Robert Berry (Pictures) has called time on his career, leaving the sport with a very respectable record of 11-6-0, allowing K-1 fighter Gary Turner (Pictures) to step in to face Bob Sapp (Pictures) at Cage Rage 21.

Adding to the list of familiar British fighters calling it a day is Matt Ewin (Pictures), a man known for years on the UK scene as one of the top middleweights to beat. Unfortunately, Ewin's growing commitments away from the fight game are taking up so much time that he is now unable to put in the necessary hours to prepare for competition.

This will mean that Ewin's scheduled fight against Damien Riccio (Pictures) on the Cage Fight Series promotion will not go ahead. Stepping in to replace Ewin is his teammate Jake Blyth in a fight which may well retain some of the simmering rivalry.

Paul Daley (Pictures) talks about his short-term plans

In his last outing, Paul Daley (Pictures) took little over two minutes to defend his FX3 welterweight title in decisive fashion, smashing Germany's Daniel Weichel with a beautiful knee.

Asked how the fight went, Daley had no hesitation: "Perfect, just as planned. I've been working on knees a lot with my Thai instructor and he just fell on one. Awesome, yeah, real easy."

Looking ahead to his near future, he added, "I've got a fight on Cage Rage, keep both of my belts as I promised in a previous interview, go to America and start smashing some of those guys up, Elite XC, June 9. [Cage Rage opponent] Paul Kelly is a tough guy. He's only 3-0. I don't go for records, I go for ability and he's got a lot of ability — but we'll see what happens on the day I plan to go to Elite with both the belts."

Phil Harris shines on awkward debut show for Fight First

In the first event put on by the new Fight First promotion on March 23, London's Porchester Hall witnessed quite a testing night for the inexperienced organizers as they struggled to hold together what was, in all honesty, a fairly disjointed evening of action.

But aside from the difficulties, one fighter making a big impression was Phil Harris, who moved to 14-5-0 after defeating French Top Team fighter Nayeb Ezam.

Nayeb looked dangerous early and landed a couple of hard low kicks before Harris took control, finishing the fight with an ankle-lock.

Harris later gave his verdict: "It went pretty much to plan. I started feeling the leg kicks. He was getting the slight upper-hand in the stand-up, so I thought I'd better take it to the ground … and see what he's got on the ground. I think I'll probably fight again in May, the Cage Fight Series."