On Saturday 1st December 2018, KSW make their debut in Gliwice, Poland with another stacked show from top to bottom to bring their 2018 schedule to a close. There are high stakes all over the card as champions face off, number one contenders look to be established and familiar faces look to make comebacks. On paper this looks to be a fantastic card with lots of competitive and well matched contests.
The main event of the evening sees the highly anticipated rematch between the KSW Light Heavyweight champion Tomasz Narkun and the most recent KSW Middleweight champion and Polish MMA icon Mamed Khalidov. This is a rematch from their bout at KSW 42 that saw Narkun snap the legendary, eight-year undefeated streak of Khalidov. In their first fight, Khalidov dropped Narkun a number of times during the first two rounds but then got caught in a triangle choke during the third. This time around Khalidov will need to be extra cautious in the very dangerous guard of Narkun and look to avenge his only loss since 2010. Will the previous loss give Khalidov extra motivation and focus to overcome the bigger man and put himself right back at the top of the KSW talent pool or will Narkun defeat the legend once again to add to his own legacy?
In the co main event, a current and a former champion of two different weight classes face off for the featherweight title. Lightweight champion Mateusz Gamrot looks to drop down ten pounds and become the first ever KSW fighter to hold two different titles simultaneously while Kleber ‘Koike’ Erbst hopes to hand Gamrot his first professional loss and reclaim the title that he never lost in the cage. This is a fascinating styles match up where Gamrot will look to implement his high pressure, top heavy grappling game against the slick submission game of ‘Koike’.
It is not yet known how Gamrot will look at 145 or how taxing the weight cut will be on his body so this will be an interesting factor to monitor if the fight gets into rounds 4 and 5. In his last fight against Ziolkowski, ‘Koike’ transitioned seamlessly on the ground to secure a first round armbar so Gamrot will need to keep things tight and not allow any small openings that ‘Koike’ can capitalize on to lock up any limbs. ‘Koike’ has teased that with a victory he will look to move up to 155 to take Gamrot’s belt so this could have the potential to develop into another significant rivalry in KSW.
Another important bout on the card sees ‘The Polish Zombie’ Marcin Wrzosek take on the promising French up and comer Salahdine Parnasse in a fight that could potentially have title implications. Wrzosek has been hindered by injury over the past year so he will hope that those woes are behind him so that he can continue his march back to the top of the division. The undefeated 20-year-old Parnasse has made an impressive start to his KSW career and outclassed previous champion Artur Sowinski in his last outing with his slick movement and striking. This is a classic veteran vs prospect match up and could be a major break out moment for Parnasse who looks as though he has the potential to go all the way to the very top of the game.
A welterweight contest between Borys Mankowski and KSW newcomer Bruce Souto was scrapped two weeks out from fight night as Mankowski’s recent injury trouble came back to haunt him. Current welterweight champion, and the man who gave Mankowski a brutal beating to take his title last December, Roberto Soldic steps up in a catchweight bout to face Vinicius Bohrer to fill out the card.
KSW will be very grateful that one of their champions has agreed to step up at the last minute so that the card doesn’t decrease in name value at all. Bohrer will be fighting outside of Brazil for the first time in his career and the submission specialist has previously shared cage time with UFC veterans Francisco Trinaldo, Gilbert Burns and Luiz Dutra. The hard hitting Roberto Soldic will be heavily favoured in the contest but this is an opportunity for Bohrer to pull off a huge upset and immediately throw himself into the title picture at 170.
In other bouts, Daniel Torres returns after his fight of the night showing at KSW 44 in June to face Roman Szymanski and coming off of a title fight defeat at lightweight, Grzegorz Szulakowski looks to get back to winning ways against Marian Ziolkowski. Former featherweight champion Artur Sowinski moves up to the lightweight division to try and begin a fresh run after being unsuccessful in his last two outings and Antun Racic takes on Sebastian Przybysz in a bantamweight clash that KSW are hinting could see the winner progress to fight for the inaugural bantamweight title in 2019.
You can order KSW 46 at kswtv.com or via the Fite TV app. #WHOATV will be covering the event from Arena Gliwice in Poland so be sure to follow @laggers82 on Twitter for fight night updates.
Full Fight Card
Catchweight (203lbs) – Mamed Khalidov v Tomasz Narkun
Featherweight Title – Kleber Koike Erbst v Mateusz Gamrot
Featherweight – Marcin Wrzosek v Salahdine Parnasse
Catchweight (176lbs) – Roberto Soldic v Vinicius Bohrer
Featherweight – Daniel Torres v Roman Szymanski
Lightweight – Grzegorz Szulakowski v Marian Ziolkowski
Lightweight – Artur Sowinski v Kamil Szymuszowski
Bantamweight – Antun Racic v Sebastian Przybysz
Welterweight – Krystian Kaszubowski v Michal Michalski