Poland’s KSW has announced a rematch between The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Kendall Grove and former middleweight camp Michal Materla.
Grove (24-18, 1NC) and Materla (31-9) will face off in the main event of KSW 78 on January 21, 2023 — just under three weeks away.
Promotion officials announced the news in a press release distributed on Tuesday.
The pair first met in 2013, when Materla was the promotion’s reigning 185lb champion. The bout went the distance, with Materla successful in defending his title, winning a five-round unanimous decision.
Materla would hold the title until 2015, losing the belt to Mamed Khalidov that year. The Polish standout has remained active ever since, even moving to heavyweight earlier this year, where he was knocked out by Mariusz Pudzianowski.
Grove, who fought for the UFC from 2006 to 2011, and for Bellator from 2013 to to 2018, will be returning to KSW for the first time since his fight with Materla. “Da Spyder” last fought in MMA in 2019, submitting Anthony Ruiz under the WFC banner. Sitting out most of the coronavirus pandemic with at least one fight falling through, Grove’s most recent combat sports action came in BKFC, where he was stopped by Hector Lombard at BKFC 12 in September of 2020.
KSW 78 is set to take place at the Netto Arena in Szczecin, Poland on Jan. 21, with the following bouts announced for the card thus far:
- Michal Materla vs. Kendall Grove
- Tomasz Romanowski vs. Radosław Paczuski
- Borys Mankowski vs. Valeriu Mircea
- Roman Szymanski vs. Raul Tutarauli
- Lukasz Sudolski vs. TBA
- Rafal Kijańczuk vs. Marc Doussis
- Oskar Szczepaniak vs. Raimondas Krilavičius
