With Paddy Pimblett pretty much off the table, Brendan Loughnane reveals a new deal to fight on Absolute Championship Berkut (ABC) in 2017.
Loughnane and Pimblett have been the fixation of UKMMA for the past few months, with numerous promotions courting the fight.
Ultimately Pimblett got re-upped to an exclusive Cage Warriors contract and thus affirmed the fight would have to happen on the Graham Boylan run show.
However, Loughnane claimed an unwanted Cage Warriors multi-fight contract halted the negotiations and any further progress from that point has yet to be made. Pimblett will now face Julian Erosa at CW Unplugged on November 12.
Now it seems that Loughnane is over the debacle, revealing (inadvertently) to Severe MMA’s Steve Cook-Abbott, that he has signed a contract to fight on the March 2017 ACB show in his hometown of Manchester.
“We all know there’s a big show coming to Manchester in March and I’ll leave it up to them to release it but I’ve signed a good fight and a really, really, really interesting fight for everyone.
“[ACB] are an absolutely amazing promotion, working with them guys, they’re just really nice, really workable guys. We’re working together, we both put a great fight together and that’s how it should be.”
With his CWFC negotiations seeming overtly complex, Loughnane admitted his deal with ACB was much simpler and got signed ‘within 45 seconds’.
ACB made a huge effort to break into the British market with their ACB 47: Braveheart show on October 1. Names like Saul Rogers, Norman Parke and Rob Whiteford showed ACB’s intentions to attract big names, with further plans for them to run an event in Manchester early next year.
If Loughnane does indeed fight on March’s rumoured ACB show, it would more than likely rule him out of Cage Warriors’ April return to the Liverpool Echo Arena.
So although the UKMMA fans may have lost a tasty clash between Loughnane and Pimblett, there is still hope yet for a big super-fight in 2017.
The name that sticks out? Former TUF contestant Saul Rogers, who recently signed a multi-fight deal with ACB.
Since Rogers’s 54-second dismantling of Andre Winner at Tanko FC, there has been speculation over ACB possibly matching “The Hangman” with outsider Loughnane.
The SBG Manchester star easily submitted Michell Adelina at ACB 47, further establishing himself as the top Lightweight competitor in Europe.
Following his win at ACB 47, Rogers debunked the need for super-fights: “These guys who are having super-fights to see who’s better than them, I already know I’m the best so I don’t need a super-fight with someone to establish how good I am.”
Rogers may not see the necessity in super-fights but after a less than emphatic gate at ACB 47, it’s clear that the promotion need to pull out all the stops when they run the Northwest market in early 2017.
Loughnane is unbeaten at 155lbs since a December 2012 loss to Mike Wilkinson, meanwhile, Rogers continues to pull himself closer to an ACB title shot. It’s an all-Manchester affair that is more than certain to sell if ACB opt to put it on.
Comment below, would you like to see a potential Brendan Loughnane vs. Saul Rogers fight, next March on ACB?
