February 20th.14: A neck injury has resulted in Lewis Gannon withdrawing from the scheduled defense of his Battle Arena British Featherweight Championship in Leicester on February.22nd. In doing so, Gannon has vacated the title and Rory Foster will step in on two days’ notice to fight David Gillan for the belt.
A couple of late withdrawals had resulted in a slight re-shuffle of the card, with Foster and Daniel Bloomfield having been matched to fight each other following the loss of their original opponents. However, following the late withdrawal of Gannon, Foster has stepped in to the championship bout with Bloomfield having volunteered to step away from the card.
Gannon’s camp commented on the injury withdrawal: “Lewis is too injured to fight on Saturday, he has screwed his neck up. This is a big disappointed, we have spent the last two months developing a great game plan and working new skills and tonnes of rounds, its a shame we won’t see the result of the work. However we still have Craig Rumming Jason Marshall and Jonny Robson to support and it will be a good night.”
Fighting out of Rising Crane MMA, Bedford’s Rory Foster (amateur record: 2-2-1) is ready for his return to featherweight competition following a TKO loss to Lee Rayson in the final round of their lightweight contest. Gannon vs Foster serves up an interesting rematch as Foster previously defeated Gannon via a second round Triangle Choke back in 2012, having been dropped with a strike in the first round.
Foster said: “I’m just thankful for this opportunity to fight for the title, fighting David back in 2012, both of us know each others styles, so it should be a good scrap, this is my chance for a big fight, so I’m really excited, it’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
David Gillan said: “I understand injuries happen in the fight game but if Lewis did have on ongoing injury I feel he should of let me and the promotion know a lot sooner, two days’ notice isn’t fair.
After my first fight with Lewis he said he didn’t want to fight me again, so since then I think psychologically he has always been in the losing corner! I want to thank Rory for stepping in late notice, he has shown true warrior spirit. I hope he is ready for war cause I am in the best shape of my career and ready to bring the title back to Devils pit.”
Battle Arena CEO James Price said: “Obviously we are very disappointed that Lewis has had to pull from the fight and until today we had no idea about his injury. Rory and David have met before and Rory has previously beat David via a triangle submission. The last time they fought it was a cracking fight and I know this fight will be explosive right from the start.”
With over 20-fights worth of high octane action, tickets start from just £25. Battle Arena hits Club Republic in Leicester on February 22nd, 2014. Undercard begins at 2.15pm, for tickets and more information please contact info@mmabattlearena.co.uk or on 07932 633 366. Visit mmabattlearena.co.uk for more news, follow us on Twitter @BattleArena1 and on Facebook at facebook.com/mma.battlearena
