It was far from a perfect night for the Hardwick family on Friday.
George Hardwick dropped his Cage Warriors Lightweight Championship in an upset outcome this weekend, losing enough momentum late against Brazilian prospect Samuel Silva to not get favored in a five-round unanimous decision result.
Hardwick’s loss rounded out the prelims for Cage Warriors 186 on Friday evening.
Many didn’t see Silva as the expected winner, including sportsbooks which listed him as an underdog. Considering many factors, it made sense that the odds weren’t in his favor: The Brazilian talent took his fight on a week’s notice and was set to face one of the longest-reigning active Cage Warriors champs, who notably had been in camp for weeks.
To his credit, Hardwick put Silva through tough rounds early and gave a strong effort that could’ve made many other prospects crumble. The first three frames of the bout saw Hardwick as a sharp striker, advancing on the Brazilian with quick combinations of shots.
While Silva lost a couple of the early rounds on scorecards, he kept the fight quite competitive. Crafty shots—like a spinning back elbow that connected, knees, and his own boxing—marked up and bloodied the face of Hardwick, and at one point caused him to drop a round early in the fight on scorecards.
Silva had put up a solid fight against Hardwick but was trailing in the fight as it crossed into the championship rounds. To win, he needed to start turning things around quickly. Luckily for him, that’s exactly what happened.
Hardwick started to struggle significantly in the fourth, beginning to fade in a stand-up exchange against Silva. The challenger started to land the cleaner shots at a higher frequency, then topped off the frame with a takedown.
Silva closed out the bout with his best round yet, dropping Hardwick early in the fifth stanza with a left hook. He followed the champ to the mat after the moment, looking to close out the fight with a submission. Silva got on the back of Hardwick and tried for a rear naked choke for nearly all of the round, although he wasn’t able to fully apply the hold before the clock expired.
It was clear after five rounds that the bout’s result would depend significantly on whether Hardwick had banked the opening trio of rounds on scorecards. However, as the scorecards read out 48-47 across the board for Silva, it became clear that Hardwick hadn’t achieved a successful enough early lead.
The upset result makes Silva the first Brazilian champ in Cage Warriors since Alexandre Izidro back in 2006. He came into this weekend following success on the Brazilian regional scene, putting together four consecutive wins since 2023, including a pair of past LFA outings.
Hardwick entered Friday with the goal of defending his title for the fourth time since becoming champ back in 2022. The “Dana White’s Contender Series” vet had previously beaten notable prospects like Chris Bungard and Yann Liasse via stoppage.
Hardwick was booked to face Silva this weekend shortly after a March 14th title bout against Lucas Clay fell through.
14 different fights went down in London yesterday. Outside of the title matchups, the most notable bout was a controversial four-second knockout win for Yannick Bahati over Charles Joyner. Bahati’s mind-games on Joyner of offering a glove touch and then using the exchange to score a knockout blow has left fans divided online.
Main Card (4:30PM EDT / 8:30PM GMT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 14: Harry Hardwick def. Javier Garcia via Technical Decision, Unanimous (Cage Warriors Featherweight Championship)
Bout 13: Nik Bagley def. Keweny Lopes via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 12: Will Currie def. Eli Aronov via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 11: Yannick Bahati def. Charles Joyner via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 0:04)
Bout 10: Tariq Pell def. Ermil Xhaferi via TKO, Doctor Stoppage (RD 1, 5:00)
Bout 9: Ollie Sarwa def. Yadwinder Singh via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 4:29)
Preliminary Card (1:30PM EDT / 5:30PM GMT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 8: Samuel Silva def. George Hardwick via Decision, Unanimous (Cage Warriors Lightweight Championship)
Bout 7: Jawany Scott def. Jonny Touma via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 1:56)
Bout 6: Daniel Crooks-May def. Cameron Stewart via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 5: Mim Grubb def. Rhi Rhi Hudson via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 4:13)
Bout 4: Rafael Aronov def. Danny Blundell via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 4:02)
Bout 3: Kadeem Perkins def. Tommy Brunning via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 2: Joe Middleton def. Craig Rawlins via Submission, Anaconda Choke (RD 3, 3:00)
Bout 1: Jan Masek def. Harry Shaw via Decision, Unanimous
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