Corby's Vucenic to make first defence in a title rematch

Corby MMA star Jordan Vucenic will make the first defence of his Cage Warriors featherweight championship next month, against the very man he took the title off, Morgan Charrière.

Vucenic and Charrière went to war over five rounds at Cage Warriors’ last trilogy in March, with Vucenic taking the belt on a close split decision.

Talking about the rematch, which will be part of CW 124 on June 25, and addressing both the champion and challenger, Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan said: “On the first outing the scorecards could have gone either way.

“The division can not move forward with question marks.

“Let’s finish this now, put it to bed once and for all.

“Let’s get this done without the judges’ scorecards, one of you needs to finish this.”

Vucenic, whose nickname is ‘The Epidemic’ comes into his maiden title defence with an 8-1 record, and has won four straight fights in Cage Warriors, over a who’s who of talent, including Steve Aimable, Konmon Deh, Paul Hughes and Charrière.

When asked about winning the title and his first defence, “he responded: “The response to beating Charrière has been very positive in my local town and has inspired a lot of younger kids which is amazing.

“But there has been a lot of hate from the French fans which is just part and parcel of it.

“Morgan’s fans giving me stick doesn’t really bother me, none of them have put the work in I have and the majority of them haven’t even had a fight in their life, let alone one for a world title.”

“I believe this fight is going to be fought at a crazy pace, with lots of action and a shocking end before the final bell.

“I’m very excited to defend my belt and show why I’m destined for greatness in this sport.”

Charrière had been on a three-fight win streak before meeting Vucenic, knocking out his opponent in his last two wins.

When asked how it felt to lose the belt in such a close and if he felt like he won that bout, Charrière said: “It is really frustrating, it was a hard pill to swallow and hard to put this behind me.

“I think I won the first fight, I’m still the champion.

“The rematch will be a completely different fight, I will make a statement."