No-one Benched: Graham Boylan explains the early year push at Cage Warriors

We spoke with Graham Boylan, CEO of Cage Warriors, ahead of the monumental 200th Cage Warriors event, and he explained why his team “come out of the blocks fast” in the early months of every year.

During our conversation, Boylan revealed that the roster currently includes over 200 fighters. However, he also reiterated that in December, “Everyone gets fat. Everyone is taking time to unwind with the family at Christmas.”

“The first week of January, there are 200+ guys training.”

Boylan prefers not to hold events in January, as fighters typically need six to eight weeks to get into fighting shape.

Despite this, there is usually only one show in February. This year, that event is CW 200 in Dublin, Ireland, but one show is not enough for the volume of fighters looking to compete in the first quarter of the year.

“We come out of the blocks quick in February, March and April and get as many shows on as we can, purely because I never want my guys sitting on the shelf.”

This year has already seen six shows announced in various locations: Dublin, Manchester, London, Rome and Glasgow, backing up Boylan’s claim.

“We’ve signed them. We’ve committed to them. We’ve promised them fights and activity. We put so much pressure on ourselves to make sure we get as many events done as we can at the start of the year to get all these guys out.”

CW 200 takes place on 21 February. From there, the season begins. You can expect to see an incredible number of fights between now and the end of April.