Fight Facts: KSW 47
Let's run that back ONE MORE TIME.
What an insane headkick knockout from 'The Joker' Aleksandar Ilic (@ilke_mma) at #KSW47!
"And here we go!" pic.twitter.com/neSrhZXIc8 — KSW (@KSW_MMA) March 25, 2019Advertisement
Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.
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TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW FIGHTS: 452
TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW EVENTS: 53
The Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki promotion on Saturday returned to the Atlas Arena in Lodz, Poland, for a thrilling event that gave fans “The Strongest MMA Fight of All-Time.” KSW 47 featured an incredible comeback head kick knockout, a pair of Olympic gold medalists notching wins and only the third KSW fight to make it the full 25 minutes.
POWER OVER FINESSE: KSW 47 marked the first event in company history to feature at least three stoppages without any submissions. At KSW 34 in 2016, five fights ended before the final bell and all technically came by knockout or technical knockout, through Krzysztof Kulak tapped out to strikes against Maciej Jewtuszko.
OLYMPIC VILLAGE: Two Olympic gold medalists competed at KSW 47 -- Szymon Kolecki in weightlifting and Satoshi Ishii in judo -- and both emerged victorious. Also of note, Damian Janikowski earned a bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling but lost.
WOULD YOU LIKE DE FRIES WITH THAT?: By staving off Tomasz Narkun, heavyweight champion Philip De Fries became one of just eight fighters in KSW history to ever defend a title more than once.
A NEW BEGINNING: After prevailing over Narkun, De Fries extended his winning streak to five bouts -- the longest such streak in his 24-fight career.
AN ETERNITY AT HEAVYWEIGHT: The main event between De Fries and Narkun was the third championship bout that lasted five full rounds. Prior to 2018, all KSW title fights were billed for three rounds.
CHAMP-CHAMP FEVER BROKE: Although unsuccessful, current light heavyweight champion Narkun was attempting to become the second fighter in KSW history to hold two belts simultaneously. This first happened at KSW 46, where lightweight kingpin Mateusz Gamrot dropped down to win the featherweight belt.
PUSHED TO THE LIMIT: Mariusz Pudzianowski suffered an unfortunate leg injury in his bout with Kolecki and became the fifth fighter in company history to retire from a bout due to an injury.
ANY WAY YOU CAN TAKE IT: Although the victory over Pudzianowski came by injury, all seven of Kolecki’s wins have come by first-round technical knockout. His lone career loss came at the hands of the judges.
DANCED WITH THE DEVIL IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT: Down two rounds to Janikowski, Aleksandar Ilic leveled his opponent with a head kick in the third round. His knockout became the fourth in KSW history by head kick and the first since Karol Bedorf smashed Michal Kita with one at KSW 33 in 2015.
SPLIT THE FLY DOWN THE MIDDLE: Despite KSW promoting two women’s divisions, the last eight women’s bouts to take place in the organization dating back to 2015 have all been contested at flyweight. The split verdict for Karolina Owczarz over Marta Chojnoska was the first split decision in the division’s history.
SLOWLY BUT SURELY: Although Dawid Gralka missed weight by two pounds, his clash and eventual knockout loss to Pawel Politylo was only the fifth KSW fight scheduled at bantamweight.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into KSW 47, Ishii had never competed in Poland (29 fights), Fernando Rodrigues Jr. had never lost on the scorecards (16 fights) and Janikowski had never fought beyond the second round (four fights).
IT GETS WORSE HERE EVERY DAY: Chojnoska walked out to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses and lost a decision to Owczarz. Over in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, fighters have performed equally poorly, with a record of 1-7, when walking out to the track, and the first recorded victory came at UFC Fight Night 143 in January.
Contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.
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