On a cold Saturday night the Xtreme Cage Wars Fighting Champion-ship hosted it's first ever card in Yorkton. While some fights were cancelled the event hosted five matches at the Ag Pavilion in front of a relatively packed house.
The first match on the card was the first of two grappling bouts on the night. Matthew Fiddler of Cumberland House, Saskatchewan took on Dillon Adam of La Ronge to a three round draw. Fiddler, a much younger competitor than Adam showed much better Brazilian Jiujitsu skills off of his back, but couldn't overcome Adam's brute strength. The second grappling match featured Christian Ross using speedy submission holds to beat Peter Natomagan.
In the first full MMA match of the night Steve Arens beat Kelly Redman by TKO in a heavyweight tilt. In the last fight of the undercard Mariuz Bloch scored a vicious KO by head kick to win the Welterweight title belt over Ryan Moore.
The main event saw the undefeated Dauda Keita beat Ryan Starkell and retain his Lightweight title by decision in what was the most even and entertaining fight on the card. Keita took advantage of his superior ground game and wrestling to beat Starkell on points.
Starkell credited his ground game as the reason he lost "I would like a rematch against Keita as I felt I matched up with him well, but at the end of the day maybe my ground game could have been a bit better."
Keita was happy with his victory, but knows his road to pro fights is a bit away "I want to move onto pro fighting, but I know I'm not ready yet, but for now I will fight anyone for my title."
XCW promoter Dave Lockhart was satisfied with the support they got from the community and plans on bringing a card with more fights to Yorkton in the spring.
"We had some last minute cancellations, but overall the fights were good and the crowd was solid for the smaller venue and we will be working on another event in a bigger venue."
