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Cage Warriors 87 results: Roberto Soldic shocks Lewis Long with 40-second head-kick KO

Roberto Soldic pulled off an absolute stunner in today’s Cage Warriors 87 main event, stopping Lewis Long with a vicious head kick in the opening minute of the first round.

“Cage Warriors 87: Long vs. Soldic” took place at Newport Centre in Newport, Wales and streamed on UFC Fight Pass following prelims on Facebook.

Soldic (12-2) entered Long’s (15-5) home territory and silenced an otherwise enthusiastic Welsh crowd. The welterweight fight was short and sweet. Soldic patiently waited for Long to circle toward his left leg, and that’s when he threw a left high kick that landed directly to the chin.

The devastation of the blow was immediate; Long crashed face-first into the canvas and was out on impact. Soldic rushed in and landed one more unnecessary shot before the referee intervened, which gave Soldic an eighth victory in his past nine fights.

Soldic immediately attempted to capitalize by targeting welterweight champion Karl Amoussou (24-7-2) for a future showdown.

“I want to say to all the people: I am in another league,” Soldic said in his post-fight interview. “I come from Bosnia and Croatia, and I live in Germany three years. Every day was hard work. I have four belts, and I don’t care where I fight. I want to fight with everyone. I want the belt.”

White lights up Inman

Craig White (12-7) came at Matt Inman (20-10) with a whirlwind of strikes in the first round of their welterweight bout, and the end result was a TKO finish due to punches.

Although Inman protested the result, he was put in a badly compromising position early in the first round. White cornered him against the fence and unleashed a lengthy flurry of strikes. Inman had his hands up and didn’t take a ton of clean shots, but he did little to keep his opponent at bay.

With no head movement or an attempt to evade the position from Inman, the referee decided he’d seen enough and stepped in to call the fight off, capping off a perfect 3-0 year for White.

“I’ve got heavy strikes; I know I have,” White said in his post-fight interview. “When I fight it’s either chaos or technique, and this time it was chaos.”

Shore delivers for home crowd

Jack Shore (6-0) was forced to enter deep waters for the first time in his career, but he lived up to the challenge, beating Mattia Galbiati (3-3) to stay undefeated in his young career.

After racking up four first-round finishes in five fights to start his career, Shore was dragged into a third round for the first time. He kept his composure in new territory, working Galbiati with a mixed attack of grappling and striking.

With less than a minute remaining in the fight, Shore times a perfect knee from in close range that dropped Galbiati hard to the canvas. Shore rushed in and landed a final shot to put his opponent out, giving the featherweight prospect yet another impressive win.

MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 4 p.m. ET)

  • Roberto Soldic def. Lewis Long via knockout (head kick) – Round 1, 0:40
  • Craig White def. Matt Inman via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:40
  • Jack Shore def. Mattia Galbiati via knockout (knee) – Round 3, 4:14
  • Aiden Lee def. Ludovit Klein via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:34
  • Ross Houston def. Aaron Khalid via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

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

For more on Cage Warriors 87, check out the MMA Events section of the site.

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