Former ‘World’s Strongest Man’ Mariusz Pudzianowski fought former KSW middleweight champion and one of KSW’s greatest fighters Mamed Khalidov in a heavyweight bout for the main event of KSW 77 on Saturday in Poland.
Khalidov lost his belt to budding star Roberto Soldic in his last fight, the biggest fight in KSW history, while Pudzianowski entered this bout on a four fight winning streak, all finishes, and seemed to finally be putting his MMA game together after starting the sport late in life.
After a brief period of striking to open the KSW 77 main event it was Pudzianowski who entered the clinch where he held Khalidov for the opening minute. However the career middleweight was the one who got a takedown with an inside trip. Pudzianowski got back to his feet but not for long as Mamed once again took him down, this time into the stronger position of side control. Khalidov used knee-on-belly to open up with massive ground and pound. In response, Pudzianowski turned to his side and then turtled up, allowing his foe to keep throwing bombs. Khalidov then took the back with two hooks in and looked to keep doing damage.
It was not long before he flattened the former powerlifter out, throwing hard ground and pound all the while. The damage was so severe that Pudzianowski tapped to strikes, stopping the fight inside of two minutes and showing that, in this instance at least, technique beats size and power.
Official Result: Mamed Khalidov def. Mariusz Pudzianowski by TKO (tap to strikes) Round 1, 1:54
