Mason Jones made his highly anticipated Cage Warriors return this evening at Cage Warriors 161 in Dublin, Ireland, against Yann Liasse.
Cage Warriors made the RDS Arena their home for the night with a stellar fight card featuring eight Irishmen, including the highly-anticipated return of Paul Hughes. Hughes, the promotion’s featherweight champion, headlines the event against Belgian’s Jan Quaeyhaegens.
The co-main event sees former two-weight division Cage Warriors champion Mason Jones take on Yann Liasse in a lightweight battle.
Yann Liasse’s last outing saw him face off with Lightweight champion George Hardwick in Manchester, where he picked up his first career loss. Liasse hopes to bounce back with a statement and put himself back in the title picture by defeating former UFC fighter, Mason Jones.
Mason Jones makes his return to Cage Warriors, after a 2-year hiatus to the UFC. His UFC tenure saw him going 1-2 in the promotion, with a win over Alexandre Ribeiro via TKO. Mason was undefeated in his Cage Warriors, going 9-0 in the promotion and headed to the UFC with a 10-0 record.
Fight Breakdown
Before the fight even began Liasse was having trouble as his hair needed adjusting before entering the cage. Support was well behind the Welshman as he bounded out to the cage with the arena calling him on.
The first minute of the fight was rather tentative from both men eager to feel one another out. As the fight progressed it was clearly an even matchup as both men frequently traded but Jones slowly began to take over. Every punch landed became a thudding blow to Liasse and he began to crumble. In the final minute of round one every thing Jones threw landed flush, hooks and in particular some inch perfect uppercuts but Liasse made it to the stool.
The second round started as the first finished, Liasse looked laboured as the pressure from the Welshman grew immensely. Midway through the second a lazy takedown attempt leaves Liasse clutching for a single leg exposed for Jones to land violent elbow opening up his opponent and leaking blood all over the canvas. It was a matter of time for Jones to get the finish, it looked like it may have followed the trend of the evening with a submission as he searched for a rear naked choke. Instead Jones rained down vicious ground and pound before the referee stopped it with 35 seconds to go.
Mason Jones Gets the Finish
This win now takes Mason Jones to 10-0 in Cage Warriors and he is heading towards reclaiming that lightweight belt in the near future.
