Having already lost one title fight when bantamweight Werlleson Martins was not cleared to compete during Friday’s KSW Colosseum 2 weigh-in, the massive stadium show in Warsaw, Poland lost another championship bout Saturday.
Just hours before the event, KSW’s social media channels were still promoting the lightweight title unification bout between champ Marian Ziolkowski and Salahdine Parnasse, set as the co-main event of the card at the National Stadium, with 50,000 in attendance.
However, with the event underway, Ziolkowski was forced to withdraw. Following Artur Szpilka’s come-from-behind TKO of Mariusz Pudzianowski, Ziolkowski stepped into the cage, laying down his title and announcing that he was relinquishing the belt, with Parnasse on hand with his interim title.
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) June 3, 2023
News of the cancellation broke about an hour before the fight was expected to go down, care of RMC Sport Combat, and included a clip of a clearly disappointed Parnasse. In the cage, Ziolkowski’s knee was bandaged, perhaps an indication of just what had gone wrong. The Polish lightweight reportedly injured himself warming up.
The pair were previously scheduled to compete in November, with Ziolkowski pulling out of that date as well.
Parnasse now takes on the moniker of undisputed champion, and proper double champ, as the French standout already holds featherweight gold. No doubt not the way he wanted to establish his reign as a double-champ.
KSW Colosseum 2 is headlined by a non-title trilogy fight between rivals Scott Askham and Mamed Khalidov.
