Stalwart UK promotion Cage Warriors announced two big pieces of news today as they unveiled changes to their middleweight tournament as well as concrete details of another broadcasting deal.

Middleweight Chris Fields (9-3) emphatically booked his place in the semi finals of the promotion’s middleweight grand prix with a head kick tko over Jack Mason at Cage Warriors 45 in February. Fields was set to face Welsh destroyer John Phillips (14-4-0-1) at Cage Warriors Fight Night 5 on April 12th but a back  injury has put paid to the Irishman’s chances of advancing to the tournament finals.

Stepping into his spot will be Pavel Kusch (12-2) who brings a deadly submission assault to the equation. Fans of the promotion will remember his mesmerising Omoplata finish at Cage Warriors 46, which took place in Kiev this past February.

Pavel Kusch vs. John Phillips and Victor Cheng vs. Faycal Hucin make up the semi finals of this tournament with the winners of each bracket meeting in London on July 21st.

The organisation also annoucned another broadcast deal, this time with ESPN, which will expand the availability of Cage Warriors events to over 105,000,000 homes across the world.

The sport is growing, the appetite for it is huge and we’re eager to satisfy that. Signing with ESPN International makes sense for both parties and I’m delighted that it’ll allow more people to enjoy Cage Warriors. – CW Director Graham Boylan

The distribution deal will see Cage Warriors events over the next year televised by ESPN in Latin America, the Pacific Rim, Africa and the Middle East in addition to current deals in place with FX, Sky Sports, Fight Network, Fight Now TV, MMAJunkie.com and Sportklub.