KSW 43 in Wroclaw, Poland has received its main event!
Wroclaw’s Olympic hero, Damian Janikowski, will headline KSW’s fourth show in his hometown. He takes on former EFC and BAMMA champion; Yannick Bahati. Also announced was the previously reported heavyweight title fight between Michal Andryszak and Phil De Fries.
Damian Janikowski faces Yannick Bahati
Polsko-angielska wojna w walkach wieczoru #KSW43!
Poland and England go to battle in #KSW43 main event bouts!@d_janikowski 🇵🇱 vs. 🇬🇧 @yannick_bahati
🏆 Michał Andryszak 🇵🇱 vs 🇬🇧 @phildefriesmma 🏆 pic.twitter.com/n7uMM3EJee— KSW (@KSW_MMA) March 6, 2018
After winning bronze in wrestling at the London 2012 Olympics, Damian Janikowski (2-0) finally made the transition to MMA in 2017. The highly-anticipated debut took place at the monumental KSW 39 show last May, in front of 58,000 fans in Warsaw, Poland.
“It is an honor and a privilege for me to headline my first KSW and in my hometown. I can’t wait to walk out into that arena,” said Janikowski. “Yannick looks good, he is a good fighter. I’ve watched some of his fights when he won but I’ve also watched how he has lost, so I am pretty confident going into this bout on April 14.”
He needed 86-seconds to TKO 15-fight veteran Julio Gallegos. He then made a tremendous jump in competition. At KSW 41 in December, Janikowski defeated 50-fight Polish legend, Antoni Chmielewski.
England’s Bahati (8-3, 1NC) is a former middleweight champion, holding the EFC and BAMMA titles simultaneously in 2016-2017. Despite the success, however, Bahati has lost his last two outings, losing both titles.
“Damian Janikowski is just a person that I got to beat on April 14,” stated Bahati. “He’s an Olympic level wrestler but I’m a world-class fighter. Damian is not on the level that I’m at. I’ll show that by coming to his hometown, entertaining the Polish fans by finishing him early and building some momentum to put me closer to the KSW middleweight title.”
In August of last year, Bahati was submitted in 90-seconds by EFC welterweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis, losing his middleweight belt. Du Plessis became the two-division champion and, of course, will challenge for the KSW welterweight title at KSW 43. Less than one month later, Bahati returned to action and lost his BAMMA title to Mike Shipman via third-round TKO.
KSW 43 is set to go down on April 14 live from the beautiful Hala Stulecia in Wroclaw, Poland.
Along with the Janikowski/Bahati headliner, the show features the aforementioned heavyweight world title fight as well as a welterweight title fight between newly-crowned champion Roberto Soldic and two-division EFC champion Dricus Du Plessis.
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