Cage Warriors 113 moved from London to Manchester after AEG closes venues

Add Cage Warriors 113 to the list of events forced to scramble due to the coronavirus pandemic. But according to the event’s promoter, the show will go on.

Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan announced on Monday that the event has been moved from London to Manchester after event producer AEG closed The O2 venue that was scheduled to host the event.

Graham subsequently clarified that the event will proceed as planned, moving to the BEC Arena in Manchester.

Cage Warriors is one of the few promotions moving on amid the COVID-19 outbreak, though it was forced to make severe concessions in light of government restrictions banning large gatherings of people. Boylan said Friday’s event would proceed behind closed doors with no fans in the audience, as the UFC did this past Saturday when it promoted an event in Brasilia.

Shortly after Boylan announced the move of Cage Warriors 113, news broke of the indefinite postponement of the UFC’s next three events, including a card scheduled for Saturday in London. With several fighters forced off that card due to restrictions imposed on U.K. travel, Boylan made room on Friday’s card for a quartet of fighters whose original opponents had been scratched. UFC welterweight Bartosz Fabinski agreed to move up in weight to fight Darren Stewart, and a middleweight matchup, John Phillips vs. Dusko Todorovic, was relocated.