Over 8,000 MMA fans packed out Wembley arena to enjoy Cage Rage 25, which had one of its bests cards in years if not ever! This was also the first event since the Elite XC deal which meant the event was not only being shown in the UK but on Showtime in the US as well.

The Nuzik Team were on first hand to see everything and give their own take on the proceedings of the evening.

The curtain Jerker was Wales own Johnny Philips who squared up against the young Jake Bostwick. These fighters really came out to impress, especially Bostwick at 18, who already has some good wins from Cage Rage Contenders under his belt. A fighter to keep an eye on in future years. Unfortunately, for Bostwick, Philips was just better on the night and ended the fight with some great ground and pound action just over the 4th minute.

Highly regarded John "Hitman" Hathaway's lived up to the hype in a fight we always knew was going to be a quick one. Hathaway looked sharp and continued his undefeated streak beating "Marvellous" Marvin Arnold in just over 70 seconds by some fantastic ground and pound, clearly showing why he’s nicknamed the “Hitman”.

It was the turn of the "Worlds Most Dangerous Man" son, Ryan Shamock, next and we were very eager for this one. Having watched Ryan's last fight he showed some great intensity and composure for a 19 year old in the octagon and against Giogio Andrews we believed he had a real chance of taking this one on.

Most of the first round was dominated by Andrews with Shamrock taking some vicious knees and punches. However, Shamrock managed to take the shots well and tried his best to block them and at times managed to do so successfully. He also was able to take Andrews down a couple of times and was very unlucky not to capitalise any more than he did. When the end of the round sounded Shamrock looked in some serious pain and his corner wouldn't let him out to fight for the second round. Unfortunately he had broken a bone in his hand, from the first punch of the fight. In a post match interview Andrews came out challenging the current British Featherweight champion Robbie Oliver.

Aysen Berik  and Ailsing Daly was next and this was certainly the encounter the media were most interested in, with Aysen capitalising on it earlier in the week pushing her name as far as she could. From the get go Aysen looked out of her depth Aisling managing to out muscle her to the floor and continued to pound her out. After seeing this encounter we really felt that Aysen was not ready for this stage, especially against a fighter with the calibre of Daly and also from rumours of her only having 3 months training in total. However, under the guidance of Sami Berik, I’m sure we will see a much improved Aysen Berik in the future. Aisling won the fight by ground and pound in 1 minute 49 seconds with Berik's face a bloody mess.

The Welterweight bout between Santana and Johnson was always going to be a match going down to the wire. Johnson in our personal opinion has all the makings of a great fighter, but he did not seem to have that killer instinct and as soon as he finds that this kid will go far. Santana pretty much dominated the fight from start to finish his stand up game was impeccable, not great but he never looked like toppling. He was also able to take Johnson down with ease and Johnson will know this is another area he will have to work on before any future fights with experienced grapplers. Johnson tried to take it to him in the final round but couldn't find the gap he so needed. The match went to decision and it was an easy one for the judges scoring it as a unanimous decision in Santana's favour.

It’s always good to see two light heavy weights that want to get in the cage and just perform and that's exactly what happened with Serati and Webber. Serati wasted no time and laid straight into Webber and had him eating matt within a matter of seconds, 46 seconds to be exact. Webber stood no chance with Serati showing him who was boss from the off and dominating the stand up fight.

 Next up was the heavyweight encounter between Mustapha Al-Turk and Gary Turner. From the get go Al-Turk dominated the fan favourite Turner, which didn’t come as much of surprise to the Nuzik team having seen both fighters in the press conference the day before, with Gary Turner not looking in his best shape. After an initial exchange on the feet from both fighters, Al-Turk read the kick from Turner and was able to take him to the matt. From there Al-Turk seemed to overwhelm Turner on the floor, pressuring him with strikes which led to Turner giving up his back. With

Al-Turk continuing to pummel Turner into the matt, Tuner had no choice but to tap out.

 Having chatted Tom Watson days before the event, we knew that we were in for a treat with his entrance, especially having to compete with Pierre Guillet’s trademark U.S. serviceman entrance. “Kong” Watson did not fail, jumping out of a covered cage in his trade mark Kong suit being led to the ring by the ring master and… a banana.

We were also in for a treat with this fight and especially the outcome. Guillet seemed to control the opening of the first round pushing Watson aggressively into the cage and taking him down with a  leg trip which Watson did not see coming. However Watson seemed to frustrate the Tsunami Gym’s Guillet in his guard, which then forced Guillet’s mistake. Having eventually broken out of Watson’s guard, Guillet attempted to execute a spectacular flying punch, which was met by the foot of Watson square into his face. Watson followed up with a number of strikes to his downed opponent causing the referee to stop the bout awarding the TKO victory to Watson.

After time out through injury, Rob Broughton returned to the cage to face the devastating Neil Grove. With two heavy hitters going head to head, we at Nuzik HQ could not see this one going past round one, how wrong we were! Grove and Broughton came out cautiously to begin, with Grove gaining the upper hand in the first round.

However, in the second and especially the third it was showing that Grove had not gone past the first round before, with his ferocious work rate dropping off. Broughton managed to use his cage experience to bring himself back into the fight with a tightly contested second round and controlled the third round which led him to a close fought victory which surely puts him back into title contention.

In what was dubbed as the fight of night pre Cage Rage 25, Imanari and Silva squared off for the Cage Rage World Featherweight Title and did not fail to live up to the hype. Imanari came out with some aggressive leg kicks, which were followed up by a number of strikes from Silva. This eventually led to the match going to the ground and Silva found his way into Imanari’s guard. Imanari transitioned from standard guard to rubber guard, which led to an impressive omoplata attempt.

The fight eventually got back to the feet but headed straight back down after a devastating right leg kick from Silva dropped Imanari to his back, followed by a crazy spinning leg kick from Silva, which led to his eventual loss. As both fighters then tussled for a dominating position Imanari was able to submit Silva with a trademark reverse heel hook.

The final fight of the evening was the highly anticipated encounter between Robert Berry and MMA pioneer Ken Shamrock. Both fighters gave a large amount of respect to each other in the initial exchanges with Berry able to land a number of leg kicks, to Shamrock’s leading leg. Berry looked very fluid working his jab to keep Shamrock at bay beautifully, however Shamrock eventually closed the distance to enter the clinch and was shaken off with ease by Berry. After another exchange on the feet, Shamrock rocked Berry and maybe should have followed up with a shoot or additional strikes but sat back and waited for Berry to come to him, which we think was his downfall. Berry came firing back and with around 1.30 left of the round Berry landed a devastating right followed by a left to drop Shamrock and score the TKO victory over the “Worlds Most Dangerous Man”

Some Photos From The Event