Scottish mixed martial artist Reece McEwan is determined to put himself in a position to win the Cage Warriors bantamweight champion on home soil, but emphasises he’s definitely not looking past his opponent this Saturday at Cage Warriors 156.
Europe’s premier MMA organisation will make the Vale Sports Arena in Cardiff, Wales, their home for the night on Saturday, July 1st for CW 156. The event is set to be headlined by former UFC veteran Darren Stewart and former Cage Warriors middleweight champion Matthew Bonner.
McEwan will feature on the card against Leonardo de Oliveira, marking his return after having to withdrawal from his most recent fight booking due to a staph-infection. Now recovered and ready to compete, the Scott is ready to put the past behind him and continue making his climb to the Cage Warriors bantamweight championship.
Despite not physically making the walk, McEwan took a number of positives away from a bad situation:
“Due to a staph infection, I had to pull out my last fight on April 15th. That’s been touched on in quite a lot of interviews. That was the narrative of my life for four to six weeks. It’s just part of the game, part of the process you must go through, whether it’s you or your opponent that has to withdraw from the fight. It’s adversity that you need to face head-on. Ultimately for me, that was another fight camp banked. The preparation was excellent. I made a lot of improvements and have since built on that. I just rolled that momentum from my last camp into this fight preparation. I feel I’ve levelled up my game so much.
“Not fighting was a bit of a gutter, but I had to move on very fast and focus on what I could control, and what I could control was my next fight, and that’s now, July 1st.“, Reece McEwan told Combat Sports UK.
Reece McEwan Highlights Importance of Visualisation
McEwan enters the bout with a (6-1) record. Five of his six professional wins have come in the way of stoppage. The resume is a testament to the hard work he puts in on the mats. However, a massive part of McEwan’s success is having the ability to master the art of visualisation, an art that also helped him deal with recovering and overcoming the adversity in not competing last time out.
“Visualisation is always huge for me, and it is still huge for me. When I was cage side at the venue when I couldn’t fight, I just kept thinking of myself being in there. I still visualised walking out, being in the cage, thanking my cornerman and taking the crowd in.
“I kept looking around, just going, ‘I can’t wait for this to be me again’, and that hunger, that fire in my belly, just reminds me that this is a sport. This is what I thrive in. I thrive in moments like that. In my recovery process, I kept thinking about what I would work on when I got back to the gym, practising transitions, and playing everything that I could in my head, so when I do live it, and I play it out, I have already lived that moment.“
A crucial part of McEwan’s fight preparations as of late has been spending time at Shore Mixed Martial Arts in Wales, training under the watchful eye of Richard Shore. Having bodies like Brett Johns and Jack Shore at his disposal only push, motivate, and level-up the 28-year-old.
Fight Camp Preparations
Reece McEwan feel’s he’s found the perfect balance between training in Wales and training at his home gyms in the Griphouse and Inverclyde BJJ. It allows him to switch things up during camp and keep things fresh.
“I’m very excited to tick off a new fight destination in Cardiff. I’m not a stranger to being down in Wales. I have been there nine times in the last 12 months, and obviously, a massive part of my fight camp is at Shore MMA, as well as going back home at the Griphouse and Inverclyde BJJ.
“Going to Shore MMA is incredible if you think about Richard Shore and Carl Parker, the coaches. They have already trained Cage Warriors bantamweight world champions, taken them to the UFC and got them into the UFC world rankings, as they have done with Jack Shore.
“I’m looking at those guys, and they have been there, done that and have achieved exactly what I want to achieve in my weight class, and I get to learn and pick their brains and train with them. The reason why I went down as people like Jack and Brett have a style that is very similar to mine. So for me to evolve and be better at that style, get their pressure, have them ground and pounding me out in training and against the fence, and when I’m going into fights, I think these guys are not on Brett and Jack’s level.
“When I go back home, it freshens up with my training partners and coaches there because I get to go home and get excited again, as I’m not training at the same place all the time. Fight camps can get very monotonous, and going to Wales, it’s not only exceptional training partners but it freshens up my training back home.“
Now being apart of the Shore MMA family, McEwan hopes to have the Welsh support on his side on Saturday night, but he also hopes the Scottish fans travelling to support him get behind Rory Evans and Scott Pedersen, who train out of Shore MMA.
It’s no secret McEwan is hungry for Cage Warriors to put on a show in Scotland with himself being the big draw on the card. Since debuting with the promotion at the beginning of 2022, McEwan has brought an army of support to Manchester to watch him defeat Sam Spencer and Teodoro Scolieri, to London to witness him defeat Kingsley Crawford, and now to Cardiff. Perhaps it’s time to give McEwan’s loyal following the home-show they deserve.
Cage Warriors Scotland?
That said, Reece McEwan knows the promotion will make it happen if they can:
“You can never assume, obviously, but I know they’ll be a lot of people their supporting Rory Evans and Scott Pedersen, and a lot of the Shore MMA people will be there, so as much as I’m bringing a good crowd over from Scotland, you can assume the Scottish fans will be supporting from Shore MMA because they know they they’re a team for me now.
“Ultimately it is a home from home for me, and that’s what Richard Shore said; the adopted Welshman is fighting in his home town, but for me, I’d love a Cage Warriors Scotland show. I would absolutely love it. I’m holding onto a few free Saturdays in November that they’ve not announced yet, but I would love a Scottish show. I feel like we would absolutely blow the roof off.
“I could sell 150/200 tickets at a local professional show before I was in Cage Warriors. I can sell 100 tickets in a five-hour drive down to Manchester. Think about what I could do in a Cage Warriors Glasgow show. Imagine winning the belt in Cage Warriors Glasgow. That would be unbelievable. I won’t pester cage warriors, but if they can make it happen, I know they will. It’s only a logistical thing for them. I know they wouldn’t not do it out of harshness. They know my value, and they know that I would put on a show for everyone. Maybe I’ll have a wee chat with them after this win.”
BJJ black-belt Leonardo de Oliveira enters the fight with an (8-5) record with a bunch of experience competing across the globe. For the first time in the 32-year-olds career he’s coming of two back-to-back losses, so McEwan knows he’s in for a tough test.
Reece McEwan stressed that he’s never in control of who he fights, he now accepts and allows his manager and coaches to guide him moving forward after learning from the past:
Leonardo de Oliveira
“Whenever I get offered an opponent, I think that’s who I’m fighting. That’s the next guy. My manager sends me the profile, then I have to send it on to my coaches, and then I let them tell me their thoughts because, instantly, my thought process is, how can I beat this guy? My coaches gave it the all-clear and the green light.
“Just to understand the process, I am never in charge of who I’m fighting. I did it once against Kingsley Crawford, and my coaches said, don’t do that again. It paid off, obviously, but they reminded me that’s what they’re here for, to protect me and make me make the right decisions. So that was my initial thought.
“When it got accepted, I looked at his profile, seeing he’s another blackbelt in BJJ. That’s two back-to-back black belts that I’m going to finish either by submission or ground-and-pound. He’s a Brazilian. He’s had more wins than I’ve had professional fights. He’s a tough character, so as the fight goes on, I’m going to take over and look for a round two victory.“
A win at Cage Warriors 156 for McEwan puts him in a great place within the division, with four victories, allowing him the right to make his claim for the next shot at bantamweight gold.
The landscape of the division is currently up in the air with current champion Caolan Loughran’s future uncertain. The Irishman won the title in May, but has been knocking on the door of the UFC. Having the understanding of people coming and going in the division, Reece McEwan tends to not focus on who or what’s around him, his only focus remains the belt.
CW Bantamweight Gold
“I want Cage Warriors gold after this win. Before the Sam Spencer fight, I messaged my manager and told him, I’m going to finish Sam Spencer, then I want Kingsley Crawford. I told my coaches I called him out. After I I had the Crawford win, they said remember, you’re not in charge. You’ve got a manager, you’ve got coaches, so we want you to slow things down. I was calling for the belt, then. I was calling for interim belts against Nathan Fletcher if Dominque Wooding was going to go away. They told me to slow things down and get a couple more fights and build my experience in Cage Warriors. They said you’d got five fights on your deal, look to get that belt by the fifth fight, and gain experience up to that point. This is my fourth fight. My fifth fight will be for the title. That’s what I want.
“I will never allow myself to get ahead of the fight. I want to go in there and finish this man. I will not be thinking of the title when I’m walking about, walking out to fight my next opponent. I’ll be thinking about getting my next win over that fifteen minutes and putting on a show for everybody that’s there.
“The landscape of the division will always change. Opponents will come and go. Guys will get injured. They’ll go to the ufc, they’ll quit, and new prospects will come. I don’t really care. I just want to get this win and call for the title towards the end of the year. Imagine that Cage Warriors gold wrapped around my waist in Scotland. What an ending that would be to my Cage Warriors career.
“Cage Warriors are Europe’s premier MMA promotion. I am, without a doubt, at the top of the division. Nobody could argue with me. That’s a fact. I love fighting for them. I love competing for them, and all I ever asked for before Cage Warriors was to give my shot and let me do the work. I’ll make it worth you’ll while, and now all I’m asking for is after this win, give me that title shot, and I’ll take”
Reece McEwan vs. Leonardo de Oliveira will take place this Saturday in Cardiff, Wales live on UFC Fight Pass.
Featured image credits to Dolly Clew
