Blackwell-Edwards set for Cage Warriors 59's 135-pound tourney alternate bout

With Cage Warriors set for a one-night, four-man tournament next month, an alternate tourney bout has been added to the preliminary card of Cage Warriors 59.

Aaron Blackwell (11-9-1) will fight Kris Edwards (8-5), and the winner will be on hold in case one of the winners of the two bantamweight tournament bouts is injured and unable to compete in the final.

Cage Warriors 59 takes place at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales. The main card, including the tourney finale, streams on MMAjunkie.com. The prelims, including the opening-round matchups, stream on Facebook.

On the prelims, England’s James Pennington (7-1) meets Wales’ Martin McDonough (11-4) and Sweden’s David Haggstrom (7-1-1) takes on Brett Johns (7-0), also of Wales.

The winners of those two fights advance to a main-card bout that will crown Cage Warriors’ bantamweight champion unless one is injured – the purpose of the Blackwell-Edwards alternate bout.

Blackwell, 28, has won three straight, including his return to the sport after more than two years away this past May when he took a unanimous decision from Mike Cutting. Of the Brit’s 11 career wins, seven have come by stoppage.

“Kris Edwards is a ranked U.K. fighter, so this is a big opportunity for me,” Blackwell stated. “Fighting on Cage Warriors is a great chance that I welcome and I’m excited about. Kris is skilled and well-rounded, I respect his abilities and I’m looking forward to stepping in there with him.”

Edwards, a former flyweight, returns to the bantamweight division and fights for the fifth straight time under the Cage Warriors banner, where he’s 2-2. He has dropped his past two fights with a submission loss to Alan Philpott at Cage Warriors 49 this past October and a split-decision setback against Shajidul Haque at Cage Warriors 54 in May.

The latest Cage Warriors 59 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (MMAjunkie.com, 4 p.m. ET)

• Jim Alers vs. Martin Svensson – for featherweight title
• TBA vs. TBA – bantamweight-tourney final
• Che Mills vs. Valentino Petrescu
• Lewis Long vs. Tommy Maguire
• Dave Hill vs. Brian Moore

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 2 p.m. ET)

• David Haggstrom vs. Brett Johns – bantamweight-tourney opening round
• Martin McDonough vs. James Pennington – bantamweight-tourney opening round
• Aaron Blackwell vs. Kris Edwards – bantamweight tournament alternate bout
• Owain Parry vs. Jamie Rogers
• Jordan Desborough vs. Timur Mercanoglu

For more on Cage Warriors 59, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Kris Edwards)