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Luke Riley v Alexander Loof: 2023’s UK MMA Fight Of The Year

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VMTV’s fight of the year for 2023 had four candidates but only one winner in our eyes. Danny Roberts and Nathaniel Wood put on two incredible wars during the UFC’s trips to London this year but the fight of the year award belongs to Luke Riley.

Coined by our team as Cage Warriors’ own “best bout machine”, when Riley is making the walk, you drop what you’re doing. He ended 2023 with three wins and two fight of the year contenders. His clash in September with another highly touted undefeated prospect in Alexander Lööf set a bar that no one else could match, not even Riley’s other nominee. 

Riley’s war with Kallum Parker in April was an outrageous contest that showcased his incredible durability, heart and offence but then came Cage Warriors 160 to blow it out of the water. From the moment that Lööf, who has been on a lot of people’s radars for a while now, stood at the top of the ramp as the rules of fight club echoed out across the BEC Arena in Manchester, you knew you were in for something special. 

The opening round saw Lööf dictate a lot of the action with Riley working off of the back foot but a momentum change occurred in the second half. The first of many major swings. Riley closed out the first by nearly stopping his opponent in what would have easily been his most impressive display to date but this one was only getting started.

After nearly finishing the fight inside the first five minutes, Riley changed tact in the second round and came out the blocks fast with the pressure and output that we’ve come to expect from him. Everything looked to be heading in one direction until the Swede read the script and decided to add his own chapter. Completely changing the course of the fight with a pair of huge counters in some frantic exchanges had everyone wondering how Riley was still defending himself. 

He hung in there and intelligently bought some much needed recovery time and frankly, this alone could’ve sealed round of the year material. Queue the image of Riley getting back to his feet and immediately pushing the pace with a half joker-style chelsea smile of blood smeered across his face. Luke Riley closed the round out once again by nearly stopping his opponent with a barrage of strikes with very little coming back at him before the timekeeper signalled a break in the action.

From here, fight of the year was already wrapped up. All that was left to do was for Riley to bring it on home with the closing statement. He picked up right where he had left off by hunting his man down and forcing the referee to wave the fight off, sending the BEC into pandemonium and likely some very deep breaths. We could talk all day about the incredible recovery and tenacity that Luke Riley showed in this fight but we’d be doing a disservice to Alexander Lööf for not paying him the same compliments. 

You want to see top prospects in tough fights against other exciting contenders on the rise and this fight will go down as one of the best examples of that to be featured on UK shores. Even in that opening round, the battle of wills on show was captivating but nothing could have prepared us for the kill or be killed clash that it would become. We can’t wait to see what is next for both men.

If this is your first time at fight club, you have to fight. If this is your first time hearing about this fight, you have to go and watch it.