2023 PFL light heavyweight champ Impa Kasanganay was back in the gym and “continuing to do what I love” after winning the title and million dollar purse at last year’s PFL Championship.
“I’m in a blessed place, I am. I’m in a blessed place, and life is always going to be life, but I’m grateful too,” Kasanganay told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview.
Kasanganay (15-3) has had one of the better comeback stories in recent MMA history. The former UFC fighter was on the wrong end of Joaquin Buckley’s 2020 Knockout of the Year, a two-touch spin kick that will be a highlight reel feature for years to come.
That setback and a 2021 loss to Carlston Harris saw Kasanganay exit the UFC with a 2-2 record, then lose a fight under the Eagle FC banner. “Tshilobo” then joined the PFL Challenger Series at the start of 2023 and never looked back, winning five fights and finishing ex-LFA double champ Josh Silveira in the light heavyweight finale.
Now, Kasanganay is king of the jungle in the PFL’s 205lb division, and with Bellator lacking a current light heavyweight champ, quite possibly there as well. The 30-year old has always looked at himself as the top guy, however.
“I’ve always seen myself as the champion, as the one who is the targeted one. It’s like they say, the hunter not the hunted. If you’re in the forest, a great big domain like a safari— it’s always been my land, they just didn’t know it,” stated Kasanganay. “That’s how I believe it.”
“They’re hunting all the different people. Think about Rob Wilkinson last year, what he did, guys like Shoeface [Antonio Carlos Junior] or whoever won the title before. I’ve always seen myself there already. It’s just like, sometimes you’re in the shadows, sometimes you’re hiding. Think of it how you want. But I’ve always seen that and I was very at peace. I prepared myself to be here, for months, and years and years ago. The only reason I got into MMA as a fighter was to be a champion in fighting. So everything I’ve done, the way I think, the way I go about things is because of that.”
And so now that Impa Kasanganay has the title, with “whatever value that brings,” nothing much has changed in terms of him being the hunter.
“If I’m the one who has the target on my back, people are going to have a target on theirs too, because I’m still hunting. I’m still here to be the one who takes them all out. I still love it, I’m still driven by it.”
Next up, Kasanganay will hunt Johnny Eblen, dropping back to middleweight to face the Bellator champ as part of the PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions card in Saudi Arabia on February 24, 2024.
