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Contender Profiles | Jack Cartwright
Name: Jack Cartwright
Age: 28
Weight: Bantamweight
Nationality: English
Record: 10-0-0
The Story so far
Cage Warriors is and always has been the main breeding ground for British UFC level talent, from stars like Conor McGregor and Paddy Pimblett to the likes of Dan Hardy and Michael Bisping, winning a title in Cage Warriors is a sure fire way to get on the UFC’s radar. Undefeated bantamweight Jack Cartwright did just that, earning himself a shot on the Contender Series this Tuesday.
Undefeated and as well rounded as they come, Jack has proven himself time and time again on the regional stage, harbouring strength in every aspect of MMA, proving to the masses that he truly is must see TV.
In his 10 professional MMA bouts, Jack has finished 9 of them, the most impressive of which came during his induction into the Cage Warriors Bantamweight one night tournament, a night which would change his career forever. En route to that Cage Warriors belt he was first matched up with Cage Warriors veteran Scott Malone, ending the fight in just 49 seconds with a vicious right hand. The short contest left him in peak condition for the final later that night where he would face Swiss prospect Marko Kovacevic, yet again Cartwright’s power was on full display as he dispatched of “Agent 47” within 4 minutes for another huge KO.
Following his title victory, Cartwright made the first defence of his belt in Manchester, when he defeated Manuel Bilic via a dominant unanimous decision. Following this he took out both Gerardo Fanny and Sylwester Miller to round out his Cage Warriors run.
Training at SBG Manchester, Cartwright has taken it upon himself to adopt a coaching role toward the up and coming talent in the area, Manchester being a region he’s been somewhat of a trailblazer for within MMA. Cartwright has spoken about how teaching others has improved his own game, making him more conscious of the things he may be doing wrong and making them right per his own advice to the fighters. Still at just 28 years of age, this is a man with all the qualities to make it to the top of the sport.
The Style
When it comes to how he approaches these bouts, Cartwright is very much a jack of all trades, absolutely no pun intended . Training in wrestling, kickboxing and boxing from as early as 5 years old, he’s certainly constructed a varied arsenal which is yet to have failed him.
We’ve seen it all from Jack, his hands probably being the main danger, he may be a bantamweight but we’ve seen the freakish power he possesses, described as heavyweight like by his teammates. He stalks guys down in a calculated manner and cracks them hard with a scary mix of ferocity and accuracy, his Cage Warriors tournament run being a true testament to what those hands can do. Even in his one decision against Bilic, the Croation hit the mat on more than one occasion, with Jack’s gas tank and work rate working in tandem with his power to make him dangerous all fight long.
Now you’d think, why don’t guys just try and take him down? Try is the key work here, he’s ridiculously hard to take down and has an extremely diverse submission game with a nightmarish level of activity. Even if he hits the mat, he won’t settle for bottom position and if he executes a sweep, best believe you’re eating a bunch of leather. Offensively his takedowns are excellent too, smashing guys up in the clinch with his knees and punches before often getting most of his opponents to the mat whenever he wants to. Features of notice when it comes to Jack’s defensive grappling are his scrambling ability and his world class sprawl, two things that make it extremely difficult for his opponents to get any sort of grappling offense going which works massively in his favour.
Long story short, Jack hasn’t really been rivalled anywhere, he’s blitzed guys on the feet, tied them up on the mat and smashed them up in the clinch. The only logical next step is the UFC to really see as to what level his MMA game is truly at. In a bantamweight division as stacked as that of the UFC’s, he’ll have no shortage of worthy tests.
The Matchup
Cartwright’s Contender Series opponent is seasoned North American regional standout Jose Johnson. Johnson may only be 27 years of age, but he’s amassed a huge amount of experience. In a 3 year amateur career he competed in 36 fights, winning 24 of them, while since turning pro in 2016 he has garnered a record of 14-7.
Johnson gained a good amount of publicity in the MMA world back in 2019 courtesy of his vicious elbow KO over Rafael Costa at LFA 78, one of the most vicious MMA finishes in recent memory.
Since competing as a pro, Johnson has competed against the likes of Mana Martinez and Ronnie Lawrence, both of whom made it to the UFC at an earlier stage. Although being defeated by both men, he now finds himself on a 2 fight win streak, the last of which being a 12 second KO over TUF veteran Dulani Perry.
Despite having mixed success throughout his career, Johnson is explosive, powerful and loves a knockout, with 8 of his 14 wins coming via first round KO/TKO. Its fair to say he’s definitely a fast starter and has ample capability to finish alot of guys at bantamweight as demonstrated. His striking is where he finds the most success, while not the most volumous in terms of approach, when he does throw he throws hard and he lands, often he only needs the one or two shots. Although his hands evidently have alot of power in them, he employs some heavy low kicks too, while having an impressive highlight reel made up of a number of one hitter quitters whether it be flying knees, elbows or punches.
Johnson will be moving down to bantamweight for this one as he usually competes at featherweight. Standing at 6’0 tall he will have a decent size advantage over the 5’9 Cartwright, but the question is does he have the tools to keep the Englishman off him for 3 rounds?
Throughout his MMA career grappling has always been the area Johnson has met the most resistance, with most of the instances he is bested being down to takedowns and control. He will definitely look to keep this one on the feet given his success there, but that in itself is always going to be a tough night against Cartwright. Will Jack go for a grappling approach or will he yet again back that striking ability and look for another finish on the feet?
Let us know how you think Cartwright will do and whether he secures a contract!
“The Iron Man’s” next fight in ONE Championship is confirmed, and it’ll be under kickboxing rules.
For the first time since January 2023, ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon will lace up the big gloves for a battle with Denis Puric at ONE 167: Stamp vs. Zamboanga on Saturday, 8th June, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Impact Arena.
Rodtang last competed at ONE Friday Fights 34 in September, where he suffered his first promotional loss in ONE’s striking ranks in a Muay Thai super-fight with flyweight kickboxing king Superlek Kiatmoo9.
Fortunately for the legendary Thai, his gold wasn’t up for grabs that evening as Superlek missed weight. But the pair delivered an iconic clash that rocked the combat sports world nonetheless, with Rodtang missing out by unanimous decision.
“The Iron Man” has been sidelined with a hand injury since then, and he was forced to pull out of his highly anticipated match with Takeru Segawa in his backyard in Tokyo earlier this year as a result.
However, all looks well for him to return in June, and fans are excited to see Puric get the dream fight he’s always wanted.
“The Bosnian Menace” has been amassing momentum in ONE Championship recently.
After quashing Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat’s comeback in December 2023, he scored a dynamic victory over former #2-ranked flyweight Muay Thai contender Jacob Smith at last month’s ONE Fight Night 21 to usurp the Brit’s position.
All the while, Puric has been calling out Rodtang and claiming that he would face him in any discipline.
Now, he gets his wish, and it will be fascinating to see how his never-back-down approach fares against the aggression of “The Iron Man” at ONE 167 on 8th June.
Manchester’s Brendan Loughnane is coming into the 2024 PFL regular season with a point to prove after what many would call a shock, disappointing showing last year.
The PFL thought they had struck gold when they signed Brendan Loughnane straight off the back of his infamous appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series. Coming in with proven ability and a name value in the UK which they had not had until that point, they were right. He made it to the playoffs in 2021, his debut season, narrowly falling in the semi-finals to Movlid Khaybulaev via a split decision.
The following season was where the Featherweight really showed his ability. Two unanimous decision victories took him through the regular season relatively scot-free. A heated semi-final showdown against Chris Wade at London’s Copper Box Arena was next. Wade had lost in the playoffs three seasons in a row, and 30-27 scorecards across the board made that four, and moved Loughnane through to the final for $1m.
It was to be another man competing in his second season, Bubba Jenkins, standing in the way of that cheque. The iconic Theater at Madison Square Garden was the setting for the final, which proved to be the perfect moment for Loughnane to pick up his first finish of the season. In a fight he was clearly leading, a straight right from Loughnane made Jenkins do the splits in the middle of the SmartCage. A few punches on the ground followed by a knee to the chest was enough to make the Mancunian $1m richer.
As the newly minted 2022 PFL featherweight champion, Loughnane started the 2023 season strong, with a second round-TKO of former UFC contender Marlon Moraes earning him five points. A victory that put him, at that point, in good stead to make the playoffs for a third consecutive year. Then came the sophomore fight of the season, a fight in which he closed as a -800 favourite over Jesus Pinedo. What came next was the shock of the season.
Less than ninety seconds in the fight, the Peruvian landed a flush knee off of a clinch which dropped Loughnane seemingly out of nowhere, and four punches later it was over. The face of the 2022 season was not making the playoffs. Pinedo went on to win the season, and of course the $1m.
This gave Brendan Loughnane an elongated break, and in that time came a lot of change within the PFL. The acquisition of Bellator means new competition for the Mancunian, as well as the rest of the PFL roster, and that starts on Friday as he faces former Bellator title challenger Pedro Carvalho, in what is a big fight for the UK and Ireland market.
SBG Ireland’s “The Game”, makes his PFL debut, and along with his contemporaries from Bellator, has been a part of refreshing the PFL regular season roster which was at risk of becoming stale due to the small roster size leading to repeated matchups in the playoffs. Through eleven fights in Bellator, he fought the best that the organisation had to offer including Aaron Pico, Mads Burnell, and organisational GOAT Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, becoming one of the go-to names on their regular events in Dublin, which became a staple of the company over the last few years. A win for him over Loughnane will instantly ensure he is highly thought of in his new organisation and put him in a great position to make it to the playoffs at the first time of asking. As we learned last year however, all can change as the season goes on.
Despite the loss last season, Brendan Loughnane does not feel the pressure coming into the 2024 season. Speaking at media day this week, he said:
“I feel like the pressure’s off. I’ve got the title here, I’m the 2022 champion and I’m just coming here now out of choice and to have fun and I think that makes me very dangerous”.
Loughnane was able to see the positives of his shortened season in 2023.
“I was happy for the layoff. I’m the most experienced guy in my division now and Bubba [Jenkins] so I’ve been in this thing for so long that I didn’t know life outside of this for a while so it was nice to take care of a few things and reset”.
The co-main event tonight between Loughnane and Carvalho promises to be a fight of the night contender. Both men come to throw down every single outing and to many people, especially those on this side of the pond, this is the most anticipated matchup of the first round with whoever prevails putting themselves in a great position and taking that first step towards making the playoffs.
For a fighter to become the best, it helps to remain humble and focused. And if the opportunity to train with world-class athletes arises, they should grab it with both hands. Ahead of her return to ONE Championship next month, ONE Women’s Strawweight Muay Thai World Champion Smilla Sundell has been doing all that.
The Swedish striker is set to return in the main event of ONE Fight Night 22 on Saturday, 4th May, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, where she’ll defend her crown against Russian ruiner Natalia Diachkova.
Sundell has been dominant across four promotional outings. But she knows she’ll have her hands full with Diachkova, so she recently chose to take some tips from ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Champion Tawanchai PK Saenchai.
“I did his seminar in Bangkok at PK Saenchai with my friend Matt. We went there and wanted to learn some new skills and see how he did seminars because I want to go to America after my fight to do seminars. I’ve done one now, and I like teaching, so it was fun,” Sundell said.
“There’s no competition in it. He’s like a cat playing with a rat. It’s too easy for him sometimes. He doesn’t even try.”
The strawweight Muay Thai queen sharpens her skills at the Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand, alongside other world-class striking talents, like three-sport ONE World Champion Stamp Fairtex.
Stamp’s fun-loving nature has rubbed off on Sundell, but it’s her commitment to never backing down that has truly inspired the 19-year-old sensation.
“She’s always been a happy girl and trains hard every day. She’s basically the same funny girl. Still hungry (to get wins),” Sundell explained.
“I think I learned that you can achieve whatever you like as long as you put in the work. But I learned that from my parents, too. But maybe more practical, in a sense, because Stamp did it in martial arts.”
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