KSW 47 Preview

KSW returns to the Atlas Arena in Łódź, Poland on March 23rd for KSW 47: X-Fighters. Their last event in Łódź provided one of the biggest shocks of the year with Tomasz Narkun submitting Polish MMA Legend Mamed Khalidov in the third round. The Polish promotion has already sold over 10,000 tickets for the event.

In the main event, KSW Light Heavyweight Champion Tomasz Narkun (16-2) returns to the scene of the crime to try and become KSW’s second ever two-weight champion, following in the footsteps of current Featherweight and Lightweight Champion Mateusz Gamrot. “Żyrafa” Narkun will face off against Heavyweight Champion, Phil De Fries (16-6). The Sunderland native has looked at home in the promotion, beating Michał Andryszak for the title at KSW 43 and a successful defence on home soil against former champion Karol Bedorf at KSW 45.

It will be a battle of the strong men in the co-main event with former World’s Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski (12-6) facing off against Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Szymon Kołecki (6-1). Pudzian will be looking to bounce back from a submission defeat at KSW 44 in his last outing. He will need to use his experience to avoid the heavy hitting Kołecki.

Northern Ireland’s Norman Parke (25-6-1) returns to KSW to take on Borys Mańkowski (19-7-1). There is bad blood between the pair after an altercation at KSW 40 in Dublin, following a no contest between Parke and Mańkowski’s teammate Mateusz Gamrot. Stormin’ Norman will be keen to get back in action and settle the score with the Ankos MMA Poznań team. Mańkowski will be looking to snap a 2 fight losing streak.

Recent KSW signing and MMA legend and Olympic judo gold medalist, Satoshi Ishii (19-8-1) makes his promotional debut against former title challenger “Santo Forte” Fernando Rodrigues Jr (12-4-1). Expect Japan’s Ishii to try and get the fight on the mat before Brazil’s Santo Forte can unleash his heavy hands.

Polish Olympic wrestling hero Damian Janikowski returns to the KSW cage to face Serbia’s Aleksandar Ilić. The bronze medalist came up short against veteran Michał Materla in his last outing and will be keen to show his improvements made since then.

TUF 22 Team McGregor’s Marcin Wrzosek (13-5) returns from injury to take on young Brazilian, Daniel Torres (7-4). The Polish Zombie wants to get back in the win column and begin his march back towards reclaiming the KSW Featherweight title. Torres won’t make it easy for him and this fight promises to be 15 minutes of high paced action.

Elsewhere on the card, hometown favourite Karolina Owczarz (1-0) faces fellow unbeaten prospect Aleksandra Rola (2-0), another local Bartłomiej Kopera (9-4) takes on Maciej Kazieczko (4-1) and Dublin based Paweł Polityło (3-1) is pitted against Shark Top Team Łódź’s Dawid Gralka (6-2).

KSW 47 is live from the Atlas Arena in Łódź and on PPV at KSWTV.com on March 23rd at 6pm Irish time.