Heavyweight Dispute
Easily worthy of main event status, the battle between Cage Rage's
British heavyweight champion Tengiz Tedoradze (Pictures) and challenger Mustapha al Turk (Pictures) was the closest, most bitterly
contested fight on the promotion's Sept. 22 card.
After three rounds of back-and-forth action, Tedoradze walked away with the decision -- a verdict that was booed by large sections of the Wembley audience.
"I felt my standup was a lot stronger than his," a disappointed al Turk reflected on the September defeat. "I felt quite comfortable kicking and punching. He was quite strong, when he was on top; he was quite strong I must say. Finishing 21, 22 fights by ground-and-pound, there's a lot of experience to deal with there."
Although highly complimentary of his dangerous Georgian opponent, al Turk was more than convinced that he had done enough to take the title back to the London Shootfighters gym.
"It could have gone two ways," he said. "From a sporting point of view, I won the fight. But from a survival point of view, Tengiz finished with me in my half guard and him throwing the last punch; he won the fight. But from a sporting point of view, and it is a sport, I won the fight."
As you might expect, Tedoradze's manager, Paul Murphy, saw the contest differently. He conceded that al Turk was the clear winner of the first stanza, but he gave the next two rounds to his fighter.
"Second round, Tengiz took him down repeatedly and kept him on his back, hit him from the top," Murphy said. "There weren't many telling punches, but [al Turk] wasn't throwing any. … Tengiz was on top for the majority of it; it's his round. Third round, without a shadow of a doubt, was Tengiz's."
Insisting that Tedoradze is still the man to beat in the U.K. heavyweight division, Murphy underlined that the noted ground-and-pounder wants more than anything to set the record straight and erase the memories of being booed by the London crowd.
"We want the rematch," Murphy said. "I want it on my show, Ultimate Force, on December 16. If he's willing to take it, we're willing to do it. We'll even put the Cage Rage title on the line if Cage Rage will let us."
Murphy continued on the subject of Cage Rage, revealing deeper concerns with the London promotion. "I have a problem with Cage Rage in that they treat us incredibly bad anyway," Tedoradze's manager said. "They do everything to get Tengiz beat because obviously he lives up north -- he's not their boy.
"It's very much a southern show, without sounding bad there. The majority of their poster boys are all from down south. I guarantee the next challenge we will probably get will be from the newcomer Neil Grove (Pictures). Because he's from down south, he sells a lot of tickets. That would be their next step, I would imagine."
In response, Cage Rage co-promoter Andy Geer denied favoritism. "If we didn't want a northern champion, we wouldn't have put [Tedoradze] up for it in the first place," he said. "It's not us as an organization, but he is fighting in London, and it's essentially a London crowd out there and the London crowd gets behind the London fighter. It doesn't change the decisions on the night at all."
"All we want is the best fighter in each weight category holding the belt," Geer continued. "It doesn't matter where he comes from, but I don't think that a Cage Rage belt will be fought for anywhere outside of our arena -- that's for sure."
After three rounds of back-and-forth action, Tedoradze walked away with the decision -- a verdict that was booed by large sections of the Wembley audience.
"I felt my standup was a lot stronger than his," a disappointed al Turk reflected on the September defeat. "I felt quite comfortable kicking and punching. He was quite strong, when he was on top; he was quite strong I must say. Finishing 21, 22 fights by ground-and-pound, there's a lot of experience to deal with there."
Although highly complimentary of his dangerous Georgian opponent, al Turk was more than convinced that he had done enough to take the title back to the London Shootfighters gym.
"It could have gone two ways," he said. "From a sporting point of view, I won the fight. But from a survival point of view, Tengiz finished with me in my half guard and him throwing the last punch; he won the fight. But from a sporting point of view, and it is a sport, I won the fight."
As you might expect, Tedoradze's manager, Paul Murphy, saw the contest differently. He conceded that al Turk was the clear winner of the first stanza, but he gave the next two rounds to his fighter.
"Second round, Tengiz took him down repeatedly and kept him on his back, hit him from the top," Murphy said. "There weren't many telling punches, but [al Turk] wasn't throwing any. … Tengiz was on top for the majority of it; it's his round. Third round, without a shadow of a doubt, was Tengiz's."
Insisting that Tedoradze is still the man to beat in the U.K. heavyweight division, Murphy underlined that the noted ground-and-pounder wants more than anything to set the record straight and erase the memories of being booed by the London crowd.
"We want the rematch," Murphy said. "I want it on my show, Ultimate Force, on December 16. If he's willing to take it, we're willing to do it. We'll even put the Cage Rage title on the line if Cage Rage will let us."
Murphy continued on the subject of Cage Rage, revealing deeper concerns with the London promotion. "I have a problem with Cage Rage in that they treat us incredibly bad anyway," Tedoradze's manager said. "They do everything to get Tengiz beat because obviously he lives up north -- he's not their boy.
"It's very much a southern show, without sounding bad there. The majority of their poster boys are all from down south. I guarantee the next challenge we will probably get will be from the newcomer Neil Grove (Pictures). Because he's from down south, he sells a lot of tickets. That would be their next step, I would imagine."
In response, Cage Rage co-promoter Andy Geer denied favoritism. "If we didn't want a northern champion, we wouldn't have put [Tedoradze] up for it in the first place," he said. "It's not us as an organization, but he is fighting in London, and it's essentially a London crowd out there and the London crowd gets behind the London fighter. It doesn't change the decisions on the night at all."
"All we want is the best fighter in each weight category holding the belt," Geer continued. "It doesn't matter where he comes from, but I don't think that a Cage Rage belt will be fought for anywhere outside of our arena -- that's for sure."
