In Cage Warriors return to the Echo Arena in Liverpool last night, Nad Narimani dethroned Paddy Pimblett in his own backyard of Liverpool to be crowned the Cage Warriors featherweight champion.
After five hard-fought rounds, Narimani was awarded the unanimous decision, and although the hostile crowd was pro-Pimblett, there could be no complaints with the result of the Cage Warriors 82 main event.
In his post-fight press conference, Narimani stayed as humble as ever and showed great respect to his opponent but admitted he was completely ready to grasp this opportunity when it came his way.
“Yeah he’s a tough kid definitely, you know, 22-years-old he’s still young in the sport and he’s done a lot. You’ve got to take your hat off to him. Not many 22-year-olds have done what he’s done already and he was tough, he took a lot of shots”, Narimani told the media.
“I knew I couldn’t rush in because he shoots in on the leg, which if you catch him, he grabs that leg and scrambles well and he’s a strong kid. I feel I work with so many good guys that I felt everything and that’s the way it panned out. Nothing really phased me, you know what I mean, I’ve seen it and had to react to it all before so that’s how it went down.”
Narimani previously had the chance to claim the featherweight title back in 2014 against Alex Elund. After another tough five rounds, he found himself on the losing end of a close decision victory. Despite being within touching distance of Cage Warriors gold, the newly crowned champion admitted that he never let his unsuccessful title challenge get him down.
“In life you keep plugging away and you get results, you can give up and you won’t get to where you want to go or you can carry on going and you can get there, and that’s what I’ve done”, said the new champion.
“I’ve carried on working, I’ve carried on winning, carried on training, improving and here we are today. Without failure there is no success.”
Fighting in front of your opponent’s home crowd is hard enough, let alone in front of thousands of Scousers inside the Echo Arena. However the 29-year-old told the media that he was mentally too strong to let this effect him.
“I knew that was never going to affect me, my mindset is too strong for a crowd to effect me. I’ve got two people in there, the referee and my opponent and that’s all that I’m thinking about. I’m not worried about these 7000 people who are on the outside cheering a name because that makes no difference to the outcome. If you let the crowd affect you then I don’t think you’re in the right game.”
The hostility for Narimani began as soon as he made his entrance to the ring however things got out of hand after the words “And New” echoed through the arena. Food and drink was thrown into the ring, actions that the Bristol man couldn’t quite comprehend.
“It is what it is, we just had a 25 minute fight, what’s throwing some beer and shit going to do? It’s just stupid. We are here to fight and we fought and that’s it, the result is the result and accept it.”
After last nights victory, Narimani plans on taking a vacation but admitted he would be ready to step back into the ring and defend his 145lb belt as soon as June for Cage Warriors 84 in London.
“I’ve got a few business things I want to sort out. I put a lot on hold when I’ve got fights coming up for the last 6 months. I’ve got a family, I’ve got two kids so I need to make sure I’m bringing in some money, but no June doesn’t seem too close. It could be a possible date.”
After what was the Brit’s sixth appearance under the Cage Warriors banner Narimani showed interest in another U.K card; this time however it was for the UFC when they travel to The Hydro in Glasgow this July. Despite being crowned Cage Warriors featherweight champion, Narimani can’t deny that he sees himself fighting for the UFC.
“Of course, you know I love Cage Warriors, they’re a great organisation but the UFC is the ultimate goal and that’s where I’m going to be going. July in Glasgow would be a good one aswell.”
For all of last night’s Cage Warriors 82 results click here.
