Graham Boylan: ‘It will take tanks, trucks and lots of men with guns to stop Cage Warriors 113’

Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan had one of the most tumultuous times of his storied career as a promoter Monday as Cage Warriors 113 was suddenly moved from London to Manchester to keep the event in place in light of growing coronavirus concerns.

Since the outbreak began, Cage Warriors 113 has been hit by several withdrawals, being forced to go behind closed doors and most recently, a change of venues days out from the card.

Due to take place this Friday night in the BEC Arena, Boylan explained how difficult it has been to continue to amend the card due to travel restrictions as well as finding a venue to host the card as coronavirus continues to change the way the world goes about its business.

“This situation is changing at such pace that everything we do today is probably torn apart tomorrow,” Boylan told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast, just hours before the London event was moved to Manchester due to AEG pulling all of their venues.

“We’re going through it, UFC have been through it and we’re all just pulling together to try and make things happen and make things work for the athletes. There needs to be some normal in a time of chaos. There needs to be some calm to keep things moving forward for everybody in some way, shape or form. We’re doing our bit to keep the athletes in a situation where they get to be rewarded for the last two months that they’ve put in.”

“I know what these go through and I’m going to fight to the last minute to get this show on for them,” he added.

Boylan was assertive and confident that the event would take place in spite of the ever-intensifying government restrictions that have obscured events taking place around the world.

“It will take tanks, trucks and lots of men with guns to stop this event going on,” Boylan replied when asked if he thought the event would take place.

The Irish promoter also responded to some criticisms Cage Warriors have received for going forward with the event, which some believe it’s risking the health and safety of staff and fighters alike:

“I’m not a doctor and I’m not going to get into all of this, but you know what? There’s 10 f*cking million people on the Tube every day. The Tubes are still running, the bus is still running, everyone is still in London and everyone is still working. We’re going to make this and go along with the precautions and guidelines that we’re being advised by the government. We’re going to keep it behind closed doors, we’re going to be washing hands, keeping distancing...we’re going to do everything we can within the guidelines,” he said.

“Our medics are going to be all over it. Our medics are going to be testing our fighters for symptoms. We’re going to do what we can to move forward with this event.”

Check out Eurobash’s latest interview with Graham Boylan. It begins at 1:08:00.