South Shields native Alex Enlund captured the Cagewarriors World featherweight title on Saturdaynight at Newcastle's Metro radio arena. Having travelled around the world fighting in far flung locations like Dagestan in the former USSR, Alex returned to home turf to contest the World title, almost a year after his last appearance at the Metro radio arena where he defeated Londoner Danny Lawson in the first round.
Enlund and opponent Nad Narimani slugged it out for a gruelling 25 minutes of non stop action in this 5 round world title fight (a non-championship bout in MMA lasts 3x5 minute rounds), with Narimani narrowly evading the local man's trademark chokehold finish in the second and third round after being saved by the bell.
Unbeknown to the crowd, an injury sustained some weeks prior to the bout left Alex unable to accelerate or kick during the last two rounds. The South Shields man gritted out the final periods in agony before being crowned king of the featherweight division.
The win extends Alex's professional record to 11 wins with only 2 defeats, and brings his winning streak up to 4 consecutive victories.
Speaking after the fight Alex said ''It's the biggest achievement of my career to date. It's overwhelming to fight in front of so many friends, family and all of my students. I want to inspire them, and I think that's what I did"
Cagewarriors is broadly considered to be Europe's premier Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) organisation, and it's prestigious world titles have been held by UFC favourites such as Dan Hardy and Michael Bisping. The Featherweight title that Enlund captured was recently vacated by Ireland's Conor MacGregor after moving to the UFC.
Self taught Martial artist Enlund holds a Brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which he teaches in his hometown of South Shields at his sixth sense academy of MMA and Jiu-Jitsu in Brinkburn community centre.