Cage Warriors 51 took place today (Dec. 31), providing fans and viewers with an interesting night Mixed Martial Arts action. The New Year’s Eve event took place at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland, and aired LIVE on Facebook and MMAJunkie.com.

In the headline bout Conor McGregor scored an impressive first round KO victory over Ivan Buchinger, becoming the new Cage Warriors lightweight champion. From the start McGregor maintained a good level of pressure by pushing forward and quickly found his range in the striking department. After tagging Ivan’s chin a few times with punches Conor ended the fight with a devastating left hook which dropped Buchinger to the canvas.

In the co-main event of the evening Jesse Taylor defeated Chris Fields via second round submission, to become the new Cage Warriors middleweight champion. Taylor’s high level wrestling proved too much for Fields in the first round and Jesse was able to maintain control, stopping Fields from mounting any real form of attack. Early in the second Taylor managed to take Fields’ back and lock in the a rear-naked choke, leaving Chris with no option but to tap.

Also on the main card, Irish native Aisling Daly dropped a unanimous decision loss to Katja Kankaanpaa. In the first two rounds Katja looked the better all-round fighter, taking control of Daly on the ground and working some nice strikes. Daly’s stand-up improved in the third round as she began landing some nice shots, but by this time Katja had already done enough to win the fight.

The results for Cage Warriors 51 are below:

Main Card

Conor McGregor def. Ivan Buchinger via KO (punch) – Round 1, 3:40
Jesse Taylor def. Chris Fields via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:09
Katja Kankaanpaa def. Aisling Daly via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Jack Mason def. Florent Betorangal via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Paul Redmond def. Ryan Roddy via submission (toehold) – Round 2, 2:14

Preliminary Card

James Brum def. Moktar Benkaci via unanimous decision (30-28, 29-28, 29-28
Tommy Quinn def. Philip Mulpeter via majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-29)
Henry Fadipe def. Charlie Watts via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:09

Stay close to The MMA Review (themmareview.co.uk) for all the latest Cage Warriors news.

Jay Cee – @JayCeeMMA

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