Defending PFL light heavyweight champion Impa Kasanganay is back in the league’s finals this year, giving him the chance to officially defend his title.
It’s been a wild run for Kasanganay, who was knocked out in highlight reel fashion by Joaquin Buckley in 2020, was later cut by the UFC, then made his way into the PFL via the PFL Challengers Series. The Cinderella story saw him claim the title in his first campaign in 2023, and win all three of his PFL season/post-season fights this year to arrive in the finals against Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov.
The finale arrives on Friday, in Saudi Arabia.
Kasangany (18-4) is a fighter who likes to stay active, and would fight eight, ten, or even twelve times a year if he could, he told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview.
“I’d fight literally every weekend if I could. I love it,” he exclaimed. “It’s the being patient and preparing and doing everything in between that makes the victories that much better, the challenges that much better.”
Kasanganay at the same time questions those who claim you can’t improve if you’re in camp and not fighting.
“As I fight continuously and consistently, I stay locked in. With discipline. I don’t stay locked in with motivation because I feel it or whatever. This is the path I’m called to be on. So when I do it, I watch my phone, I eat, I train, I poop, I do what I need to do, and I enjoy my life. I still live my life. This is part of what I do. I think ring rust could be a thing for some people, to a degree, but I also think it’s how you set up your training and how you communicate with your trainers.”
For Kasanganay, his championship mindset isn’t about trying to recreate past wins. That’s something he deems a mistake.
“I think that’s where people mess up. Trying to get back to where they were mentally. That served me then,” he noted. “Ever since then, even from the time before I even stepped in the cage last year for the title fight, before walking out of the cage when they put the belt around my waist, it’s always like ‘how do I improve and be better than I was before.’ If you want to be back to who you once were, you’ll never get to where you want to go. It’s like an old relationship, you always go back to it, you keep running into the same thing. My focus is to continuously refine, my focus is to continuously, and to dominate.”
Good enough, in that sense, doesn’t cut it. Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov, noted Kasanganay, “is a much better opponent, but anybody, even if it was Josh [Silveira] again, or whatever, you always have to continuously raise the standard.”
Kasanganay will get his chance this Friday, November 29, 2024 when he faces Yagshimuradov in the 2024 PFL light heavyweight final.
