Cage Warriors: The Trilogy – How did the four Scotsmen fare?

The UK’s leading MMA promotion, Cage Warriors’ fourth instalment of “The Trilogy” – which sees three back-to-back events take place over the course of three days – occurred last week. Amongst the chaos, Ireland’s Ian Garry emerged as one of the top prospects in world MMA. However, four Scots also competed across the three cards.

Keir Harvie, 23, closed the prelims on Thursday at Cage Warriors 123 with a first-round arm-triangle choke over undefeated Manny Akpan to climb to 4-1 as a pro, making his debut on the biggest stage of his career so far.

Kicking off the main card portion on Saturday’s Cage Warriors 125 card was Dundee’s Scott Malone, 33. Speaking to Malone after his win at Caged Steel 25 back in April, when asked about a potential return to Cage Warriors he said:

After a three-fight losing streak – which included losses to the UFC’s Jack Shore and current champion Jack Cartwright in the Cage Warriors bantamweight tournament – ended his last stint with the promotion, Scott Malone returned to Cage Warriors to stop Serdar Atlas with elbows in round two to move to 9-4 as a pro and collect his third win on the bounce.

Competing at a 130lb catchweight for the second fight running, Malone edges closer to the drop to flyweight. With former champion Jake Hadley vacating his title to pursue a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series later this year and Higher Level teammate Luke Shanks booking his place in the flyweight tournament final on Friday, the Cage Warriors 125lb division is wide open and Malone has catapulted his name into the conversation.

Following Malone’s emphatic victory was the heavily anticipated return of Aberdeen’s Paull McBain, 32. Once one of the UK’s biggest prospects, McBain lost his undefeated record back in 2018, losing in the Cage Warriors featherweight tournament.

After an almost three-year layoff, McBain returned to the cage to face James Hendin this weekend. After having great success on the feet and dominating large parts of the fight, McBain’s questionable decision to level-change ultimately led to Hendin catching the Scotsman with a rear-naked choke in the second round, meaning he slips to 6-2 as a professional.

With UFC-veteran and former Cage Warriors lightweight champion Stevie Ray as a close teammate, Alloa’s Stevie McIntosh will no doubt be hoping to replicate his success. Unsuccessful in his promotional debut last year, McIntosh took on Decky McAleenan on Saturday’s main card. After a tough opening round against the Northern Irishman, McIntosh secured a second-round rear-naked choke to earn his first victory under the Cage Warriors banner and moved to 7-2 as a pro, with all seven of those victories coming via stoppage.

All-in-all, three wins out of four rounds off a good week for Scottish MMA. As our athletes make the journey back north of the border, their performances will leave them in good standing for a chance to get back on a Cage Warriors show later this year and move one step closer to becoming Scotland’s next MMA star to sign with a major promotion.