Rising Cage Warriors bantamweight Reece McEwan overcame early adversity in order to come out on top in his clash at Cage Warriors 146 with Teodoro Scolieri. The Scotsman endured a personal battle with himself in the first round after being on the receiving end of a guillotine choke from Scolieri.
Rewinding to the backend of 2021, McEwan faced his first defeat inside the Octagon as a professional to Luke Westwood. While squeezed by Scolieri, McEwan quickly reminisced back to the lows he encountered when dealing with that specific loss. Somebody was tapping that night, but it wasn’t McEwan. The 27-year-old remained calm and, with the help of his noisy travelling support, pulled the fight into the second round, where he secured a guillotine of his own.
Reece McEwan on Cage Warriors 146 Performance
When speaking with Chris Simpson from Combat Sports UK post-fight, McEwan was vocal in understanding the game he’s in and realizes that not every victory will come easy. The most important thing is accumulating another victory to sit in the win column.
“I knew I would face adversity because, one, it’s a fight, and two, I knew he would have a strong first round. I knew he would want to start strong. He’d have heavy hands, like I said, jiu-jitsu black belt and stuff.”
McEwan continued to explain his personal battle with himself while in Scolier’s guillotine attempt.
“At the end of the day, when I was in that guillotine, I knew he wasn’t getting it. That was a battle with myself. You’re not getting that guillotine; you’re not finishing me today. Any time you’re in a submission, there’s a potential you can tap, and like I said, defeat was not an option tonight. Win at all costs. That was the most important thing today.”
Watch McEwan’s Post-fight Interview
The Greenock native is no stranger to bouncing back from adversity and has used his past experiences to pull him through it. After tasting defeat to Westwood in 2021, McEwan has been on a tear since signing with Europe’s leading mixed martial arts organization going 3-0 with wins over Sam Spencer, Kingsley Crawford and Scolieri.
The victory over Scolieri marked McEwan’s sixth professional win and fifth by way of stoppage, which puts the Griphouse and Inverclyde BJJ representative in a comfortable position within the bantamweight division leading into 2023.
With Reece McEwan being in touching distance from Cage Warriors bantamweight gold, who would you like to see him face-off with next? Let us know!
