Cage Warriors 63 results: Ivan Buchinger, Jim Alers victorious in title fights

Cage Warriors 63 was a night all about the submissions as eight of the 15 bouts on the New Year’s Eve card ended with one fighter tapping or left unconscious.

Ivan Buchinger (25-4) capped off the event, which streamed on MMAjunkie from The Helix in Dublin, in suitable fashion and captured the Cage Warriors lightweight championship from Stevie Ray (14-5) after four rounds of action.

Ray didn’t look particularly poor in losing the belt, in fact, some had him up on the scorecards leading up to the finish. It was simply a matter of Buchinger showing up and displaying superior skills. The Slovakian was especially on point in the grappling department, and during most of the scrambles on the ground, he was a step ahead of his foe. Ray was able to avoid paying for any mistakes in the first three rounds, but in the fourth, his time came to a bitter end.

Atfer one of the many exchanges on the mat, Buchinger found himself on Ray’s back, where he got his arm under the neck and caused his opponent to tap out due to a rear-naked choke.

Maguire edges Mulpeter for first post-UFC win

John Maguire (19-6) competed for the first time since his UFC release earlier this year and narrowly edged Philip Mulpeter (6-3) via decision in his Cage Warriors debut.

Maguire entered the contest on a career-worst three-fight losing streak, and up until the third round, appeared he might be headed to loss No. 4.

Like many of his showings on the tail end of his UFC stint, Maguire was extremely passive in the first two rounds. In the third, though, he came out much more aggressively and clearly took the round.

Fortunately for “The One,” the deciding second round was scored in his favor, and ultimately that’s what won him the fight (29-28 across the board).

Alers defends featherweight belt in dominant effort

Jim Alers (12-1) successfully defended his featherweight championship for the second time by taking out Graham Turner (23-8) in arguably the most impressive performance of his five-fight run in the organization.

Alers was superior in essentially every aspect, and he landed the more significant strikes on the feet and got the finish on the ground. The one time the champion appeared vulnerable was when Turner scored with a big takedown, but Alers quickly flipped the script with a flawless reversal from the bottom that eventually led to the fight-ending north-south choke early in the second round.

The victory maintained Alers’ undefeated record in the organization. Turner, meanwhile, had his five-fight winning streak snapped, dropping him to 5-1 overall under the Cage Warriors banner.

Teodorczuk puts Redmond to sleep, extends winning streak

Lightweight Mateusz Teodorczuk (11-2) and Paul Redmond (8-4) put on a grappling clinic in a frantic back-and-forth affair that saw Teodorczuk end the fight with a slick anaconda choke early in the second round.

Teodorczuk showed no nerves while making his Cage Warriors debut, and he stayed composed throughout several moments of danger and waited for his time to capitalize and choke out the hometown favorite.

Redmond was the more highly touted of the two fighters entering the event, but at the end of the night Teodorczuk appeared to be the one with the more intriguing future.

Daly snaps losing streak

Aisling Daly (14-5) earned the seventh submission victory of her career with a beautiful second-round armbar of Karla Benitez (11-6) in the opening fight of the Cage Warriors 63 main card.

It was a competitive first round until Benitez landed a grazing 12-to-6 elbow from the clinch that opened a cut around Daly’s eye. The illegal blow caused the referee to deduct a stunning two points from Benitez, which depending on how the first round was scored, put her in an insurmountable hole heading into the second frame.

Benitez came forward hard in Round 2, but Daly fought wisely and took the fight to the ground, where her opponent was weakest. After a flurry of ground-and-pound from the mount, Daly secured the arm and forced Benitez to tap out for the fourth time in her career.

Complete Cage Warriors 63 results:

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

• Ivan Buchinger def. Stevie Ray via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 4, 3:34 – to win lightweight title
• John Maguire def. Philip Mulpeter via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Jim Alers def. Graham Turner via submission (north-south choke) – Round 2, 1:22 – to retain featherweight title
• Mateusz Teodorczuk def. Paul Redmond via submission (anaconda choke) – Round 2, 0:51
• Aisling Daly def. Karla Benitez via submission (armbar) – Round 2, 4:26

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 2:30 p.m. ET)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Untelevised, 1:15 p.m. ET)

For more on Cage Warriors 63, stay tuned to the MMA Events section of the site.

(Pictured: Ivan Buchinger)