Irishman Solomon Simon will headline Cage Warriors 200 on Saturday night inside the RDS arena filled to the brim with home fans. Cage Warriors have an unbelievable record with Irish fighters and some of the greats in Irish MMA spent a tenure of their career in the yellow gloves. The likes of Ian Machado Garry, Paul Hughes and of course the notorious Conor McGregor.
Cage Warriors is back in Dublin for the first event of 2026 and it is headlined by an unbelievable fight. It is a fight of UFC calibre for the featherweight gold in the yellow gloves with two immensely talented prospects. At 7-0 Simon is hotly tipped to become the next great Irishman to be signed to the UFC following a tenure in Cage Warriors and his highlight reel reinforces that idea. A ferocious finisher with ability in all areas of MMA. Furthermore, the 145lbs champion has a 100% finish rate including 3 submissions and 4 KOs which proves his violent versatility.
Nik Bagley is hoping to spoil the party on the Emerald Isle as he will make the walk against the defending champion. The bout was originally scheduled in November last year however Bagley was forced to withdraw due to a training injury. Bagley boasts another impressive record at 7-1 with 6 of his victories coming via submission, so it is clear to see where the Englishman thrives. His sole career defeat came only in this second Cage Warriors appearance back in 2022 but since then the Ukrainian born featherweight has been on a tear towards gold.
Solomon Simon Previews Fight with Nik Bagley
Speaking on the Brandon Talks Fighting Podcast, the featherweight champion confirmed that he had been keeping an eye on Bagley for some time and feels like he is an excellent opponent.
“Like I rate him a lot… it would probably be the toughest opponent for sure like I have been eyeing him for a good while.” he followed up stating “I rate his skillset a lot more than the previous ones, like everyone else had a few things that they were very good at or whatever it is but he seems very well rounded.”
Known for his last second finishes Solomon Simon has mentioned in other interviews about wanting this fight to go deeper into championship rounds and he elaborated on those desires,
“I want to push myself to a stage where, I want to see how far I could go in my own head like mentally like because the fight game is tough like and like when you’re in challenging positions, when you’re struggling, like when you’re like trying to get out of positions, when you’re doing stuff like your mind starts to play tricks on you and stuff, like those are like I want to go in there and like I want to fight those demons and I feel like he would be someone that could push me there.”
Who do you think gets their hand raised in Dublin at Cage Warriors 200?
