Chris Fields Defends Middleweight Title vs. Jesse Taylor at Cage Warriors 51

CHRIS FIELDS DEFENDS MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE VS. JESSE TAYLOR AT CAGE WARRIORS 51
BY MATT ERICKSON ON DEC 11, 2012 AT 1:00 PM ET

Cage Warriors' New Year's Eve event has added a second title fight to the top of the bill.

Chris Fields (10-4) will put his middleweight title on the line at Cage Warriors 51 against Jesse Taylor (23-9). Cage Warriors officials recently announced the fight booking for the main card.

Cage Warriors 51 takes place Dec. 31 at The Helix in the Irish capital of Dublin. The event's main card streams live on MMAjunkie.com following Facebook prelims.

The card is headlined by a lightweight title fight between Cage Warriors featherweight champion Conor McGregor (11-2) Ivan Buchinger (21-3), with McGregor looking to become the first Cage Warriors fighter to simultaneously hold two titles.

Fields will defend his Cage Warriors middleweight title for the first time, and he gets to do it in his hometown of Dublin. Fields won the title in September with a third-round TKO of Pavel Kusch in the finals of Cage Warriors' middleweight tournament. Fields has won seven of his past eight fights and is a teammate of McGregor at SBG Ireland, giving that camp a pair of Cage Warriors champs.

Taylor, who trains at Team Quest in California, has a resume that includes fights for the UFC, Strikeforce, DREAM and MFC, and he holds notable wins over the likes of Tom Watson, Chris Camozzi and Denis Kang. Taylor currently holds a three-fight win streak, including a pair of first-round submission victories.

"Our middleweight tournament has made it a very busy year for the division and we've had to deal with a lot of injuries to our top contenders," Cage Warriors CEO Graham Boylan stated. "But Jesse Taylor has put together some very impressive wins recently and will be a worthy challenger for the belt on New Year's Eve." 


The latest card for Cage Warriors 51 now includes:

MAIN CARD (MMAjunkie.com)

Featherweight champ Conor McGregor vs. Ivan Buchinger - for lightweight title
Champ Chris Fields vs. Jesse Taylor - for middleweight title
Aisling Daly vs. Katja Kankaanpaa
Jack Mason vs. John Michael Sheil
Liam James vs. Alan Philpott

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)

Paul Redmond vs. Ryan Roddy
Philip Mulpeter vs. Tommy Quinn
Charlie Watts vs. Henry Fadipe