In front of a fully-packed PGE Narodowy Arena in Krakow, Poland,
KSW 83
“Colosseum 2” delivered a contender for the “Card of the Year”
honors with entertaining battles, submissions, knockouts and
last-minute drama.

The stacked card was headlined by the highly-anticipated rubber
match between former two-division titleholder Mamed
Khalidov and former middleweight champion Scott
Askham. Khalidov dropped a unanimous decision in his first
clash with Askham, but he rebounded with back-to-back knockout
victories over his opponent — including on Saturday — to win the
trilogy. Khalidov (37-8-2, 21-4-2 KSW) dominated the first stanza
thanks to a well-timed takedown and ground position. Askham (19-6,
4-2 KSW) looked for scrambles but never seemed to control the
fight’s direction.

The contestants spent much of Round 2 in a 50-50 position, with
Askham attempting to lock a heel hook in and a smirking Khalidov
retaliating with sporadic hammerfists. Khalidov ended the round
with a sudden takedown. Askham landed an involuntary low blow early
in the third frame, which forced Khalidov to take a break. After
recovering from the shot, Khalidov knocked down Askham with a
sidekick. When Askham shot for a takedown after returning to his
feet, Khalidov fired a flying switch kick that flattened his
adversary. Khalidov scored with a couple more punches before
referee Tomasz Brunner mercifully stopped the contest at the 1:03
mark of Round 3.

A last-minute issue prevented the scheduled lightweight
championship unification bout between Marian
Ziolkowski and Salahdine
Parnasse from going down after Ziolkowski injured his knee
while warming up. “The Golden Boy” walked out to the cage to
relinquish his 155-pound championship, with Parnasse being promoted
from interim to undisputed lightweight champion.

In the short-notice promoted co-headliner, Artur
Szpilka wobbled Mariusz
Pudzianowski in their heavyweight affair. Initially, it seemed
fans were about to see a classic “Pudzian” performance, with
Pudzianowski (17-9, 1N C, 17-8, 1 NC KSW) landing a successful
takedown before unloading heavy shots of ground-and-pound. Szpilka
(3-0, 2-0 KSW) looked to limit the damage as much as possible, but
there were times when referee Marc Goddard
took a very close look at the former boxer’s reactions. Still,
Szpilka managed to survive the opening frame. With Pudzianowski
evidently short on the oxygen tank, Szpilka finally showcased his
boxing background and knocked Pudzianowski down with a powerful
two-piece combination. Szpilka then followed up with more punches,
forcing the referee to call the end of the fight 31 seconds into
Round 2.

Elsewhere, Pawel
Pawlak (22-4-1, 4-0 KSW) stopped Tomasz
Romanowski (18-9, 1 NC, 6-2 KSW) with elbows in the fifth round
after dominating his foe throughout their clash, capturing the
vacant KSW 185-pound title; Arkadiusz
Wrzosek (3-0, 3-0 KSW) forced Bogdan
Stoica (0-1, 0-1 KSW) to tap to a forearm choke in the opening
frame of their heavyweight tilt; and KSW veteran Michal
Materla (33-9, 22-7 KSW) scored a remarkable comeback by
knocking out Radoslaw
Paczuski (5-2, 2-2 KSW) at 1:37 of Round 1 at middleweight.

On the preliminary card, Valeriu
Mircea (29-8-1, 3-1 KSW) took home a narrow split decision
(29-28, 28-29, 29-28) over Roman
Szymanski (17-7, 9-4 KSW) in their hard-fought lightweight
rematch; Daniel
Rutkowski (16-3, 1 NC, 4-1 KSW) upended Adam
Soldaev (8-1, 3-0 KSW) on all scorecards (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
at featherweight; 145-pounder Leo Brichta
(11-3, 1 NC, 1-0 KSW) edged Maciej
Kazieczko (9-3, 8-3 KSW) thanks to a narrow split decision
(29-28, 29-28, 28-29); former WBO cruiserweight boxing titleholder
Krzysztof
Glowacki (1-0, 1-0 KSW) scored a knockout of the year contender
after finishing Patryk
Tolkaczewski (0-1, 0-1 KSW) from the bottom in the full-mount
position at 1:33 of Round 1 at heavyweight; Mariusz
Joniak (11-4, 1-0 KSW) overcame Sebastian
Romanowski (14-11-1, 0-1 KSW) thanks to a majority decision
(29-28, 29-27, 28-28) in their 163-pound catchweight bout.





Source link

Mamed Khalidov Flatlines Scott Askham, Seals Trilogy at KSW 83 ‘Colosseum 2’