In wake of Cage Warriors 71 move out of Sweden, SMMAF dissolves pro committee

If it’s any consolation to the Cage Warriors brass, future attempts to put on an event in Sweden might be met with considerably more success.

Cage Warriors moved a planned event in Stockholm later this month out of Sweden to Amman, Jordan, after the professional arm of the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation (SMMAF) put up some roadblocks for the England-based promotion to successfully stage a show there.

In particular, the pro committee refused to sanction for full international rules four of the five first bouts Cage Warriors brought to the table for approval, calling the bouts “unequal matching.”

In the wake of Cage Warriors moving the event out of Sweden, and the attention called to the SMMAF pro committee’s decisions for Cage Warriors 71, the SMMA on Sunday said it has dissolved that team and will rebuild with a new set of personnel with new operating guidelines.

In a statement issued at its official website, SMMAF President Johan Halldin announced the news:

“After discussing the latest decision by the Pro-Committee the SMMAF board has decided to dissolve the committee,” Halldin stated. “We feel that both their performance and their working directives have been far from satisfactory. The board has decided on producing a set of clearer and more stringent working directives for the new Pro-Committee. This work is expected to be finalized before 20th September and having a new committee in place before 1st of October.

“Personally I feel sorry that both Cage Warriors and the athletes had to face the consequences of the balance act we have to perform in order to retain the sanctioning rights we have from the Swedish government. It is obviously not easy for a committee to ascertain an athlete’s exact competence but there must be ways to write the directives so that it can be clearer who should be considered ready for a certain rule set and who is not.

“Our ambition is to quickly have a solution in place that works both for the MMA-community and the Swedish government that grants us our sanctioning rights.”

Cage Warriors 71 was planned for Aug. 23 in Stockholm. The event now will take place Aug. 22 at Amman’s King Hussein Boxing Arena, a venue the promotion has used several times in the past.

The four bouts the SMMAF would not approve to take place under the unified rules, according to Cage Warriors, included a middleweight title fight between champion Jack Hermansson (8-2) and Cheick Kone (11-3); Alexandra Buch (8-3) vs. Pannie Kianzad (5-0); Jack Mason (28-13) vs. Jonatan Westin (6-2); and Liam James (8-6) vs. Frantz Slioa (4-0). Only a fight between Dave Hill (12-3) and Martin Svensson (13-5) was approved by the federation.

“To ask our elite fighters, who are among the best in Europe and the world as a whole, to compete under a diluted set of rules to what they have been doing throughout their professional careers is an abhorrent insult to these outstanding athletes and their abilities,” Cage Warriors CEO Graham Boylan stated. “Jack Hermansson is our middleweight champion and Jack Mason is probably the most experienced fighter in the U.K., but their respective bouts were not approved. It’s absolutely absurd. Suggesting that such fighters are not capable of competing under full unified rules is ludicrous beyond belief …”

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(Pictured: Jack Hermansson)