MMA Junkie had previously reported that Ishii would take part in the event. EMC 5 will take place in Dusseldorf, Germany. The promotion is led by brothers Ivan & Tomi Dijakovic, who own the UFD Gym and work with fighters like Roberto Soldic, Antun Racic, Thiago Silva, and others.

Bellator MMA, the PFL, and RIZIN are just some of the stops Satoshi Ishii has made along the way in a career that began back in 2009. Ishii has fought the likes of Cro-Cop (who he now trains with), Fedor Emelianenko, and Rampage Jackson, and has wins against Tim Sylvia, Phil De Fries, and Jeff Monson.

Ishii isn’t the only notable name to adorn the EMC 5 card. Erko Jun (3-1), a KSW star with over a million followers on social media, will also compete. Jun last fought in November, suffering his first loss against strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski.

At EMC 5, Jun will take on Damian Olszewski (2-3).

Also appearing at EMC 5, Germany’s Konrad Dyrschka (10-1) will take on Italy’s Walter Pugliesi (7-2), who previously competed in Bellator.

The promotion has teased that more UFC, Bellator, and PFL veterans will be added to the card shortly.

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KSW made its debut in Croatia Saturday night, with KSW 51 unfolding roughly the same time UFC Moscow was going down approximately 2300km away. And while the American promotion had planned to put heavyweights in the main event only to see a Junior Dos Santos health scare result in Alexander Volkov vs. Greg Hardy — a modern day freakshow fight — their polish counterpart went full-on spectacle with strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski taking on bodybuilding and social media star Erko Jun.

Jun had told Cageside Press heading into the fight that he hoped to be the first to stop ‘Pudzian.’ It didn’t work out as planned.

After a long stretch clinching along the fence early in the opening round, the pair moved to center, trading heavy bombs. Slinging leather came naturally enough to both men, and Jun managed to pull off a jumping knee, but Pudzianowski looked like a giant in comparison to his opponent. When the takedown presented itself, Pudzianowski landed it, immediately moving to mount and looking to make space for ground n’ pound.

The 42-year old was able to tie up Jun’s legs while controlling from top position, but Jun would at least survive the round. He wouldn’t survive the second. Jun would find early success in round two, getting the larger man to his back and getting to mount. But the ref stood them up after Jun held the fence. Back underway, a slugfest erupted, before Pudzian took the fight down. This time, the hulking heavyweight moved to mount and dropped hammer fist after hammer fist as Jun covered up. Before long, the ref had seen enough.

https://twitter.com/KSW_MMA/status/1193302784323526659

Pudzianowski improved to 13-7 (1NC) with the win, while Jun dropped to 3-1 as a pro. Though neither man is likely to become a world-beater, the fight was certainly more entertaining than Volkov vs. Hardy, which went down barely over an hour earlier. Which should give MMA fans reason to reconsider Hardy’s place in the heavyweight division. Not to mention whether barely passable sport is worth their time when put up against entertaining spectacle.

Official Result: Mariusz Pudzianowski def. Erko Jun by TKO, Round 2, 1:43

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KSW’s biggest star has long been five-time World’s Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski, and on Saturday, the hulking Polish heavyweight took on bodybuilder and social media star Erko Jun in the KSW 51 main event. The card went much deeper than that, however. Former welterweight champion Borys Mańkowski was in action, taking on Vaso Bakočević in a catchweight co-main event. A new title was on the line as well, as Antun Račić faced Damian Stasiak for the inaugural KSW bantamweight title.

Elsewhere on the card, UFC and Bellator veteran Oli Thompson stepped up on 48-hours notice to take on Ante Delija.

The card streamed live on DAZN and KSWTV, with the fights kicking off at 1PM ET. Check below for full results.

KSW 51 Weigh-In Results

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KSW is in Croatia for the first time this weekend, with KSW 51 going down Saturday night at the Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia. The main event sees five-time Worlds Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski take on bodybuilder and social media star Erko Jun, while Borys Mankowski returns in the co-main event catchweight affair opposite Vaso Bakočević.

The Polish MMA promotion, which has risen to become one of the biggest players in Europe, will also crown its inaugural bantamweight champion when Antun Racic takes on Damian Stasiak.

All but one fighter made weight when they hit the scales ahead of the event Friday — results are below!

KSW 51 Weigh-In Results

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Erko Jun is an unbeaten MMA fighter who has been readying himself for the former World’s Strongest Man, Mariusz Pudzianowski at KSW 51. The event goes down at Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia on Saturday, November 9. Jun has a well-documented bodybuilding background before crossing over into mixed martial arts. So this fight very much elicits awe when you put their imposing physical frames on a poster. It’s one of multiple intriguing heavyweight fights on what is a stacked event all around.

Erko Jun

Jun saw a live KSW fight in person, and it inspired him to begin an MMA run. He has a lengthy history in martial arts prior to that though. “I’ve been doing martial arts before my bodybuilding career. I was doing kickboxing and taekwondo for a while,” Jun told Cageside Press recently.

In Erko Jun’s debut fight, he got rocked, but rallied back to win in emphatic fashion. Jun said, “I think that fight should have happened like that. I’m glad it happened like that and that I felt how it feels when you go down. I was really blank for like one second I think. I felt like ‘are you here to give up or are you here to fight back?’ I just stood up, took some distance, recovered a little bit, and fought back. Not everyone is capable of doing that.”

Jun has reflected on his journey as a martial artist so far but is also quite rooted in the present. “My debut was a lot of pressure,” he stated. “So much pressure on your shoulders. People expecting you to get beaten up in the cage. Fighting in front of such an audience, also a lot of pressure. It’s not only to be just a fighter. Now I’m fighting the main event against the king of Poland. He’s really the biggest legend. You just don’t get that fight that easily.”

KSW 51

This is not the first high profile bout for Jun by any means. He has a noticeable level of celebrity from his bodybuilding and modeling background. Erko Jun has over a million instagram followers and has been under the microscope for years. His fight with Popek Monster, a hugely successful rapper in Poland, was another bout that drew a lot of attention.

“When I was fighting Popek, I was also like ‘wow this is a huge name,’ recalled Jun. He took the fight “when they told me. I had a small injury on my knee but I just wanted to fight him because he’s a big name.”

Erko’s daughter

His daughter gives him a tremendous amount of strength and perspective when he goes through the ups and downs of MMA life. “She’s an inspiration for sure and a motivation for life in general,” he said. “Of course, it’s a little bit difficult in training camp when I’m really focused. I’m not home during the week…. but I still come back to see her. There’s just some things in life you need to sacrifice if you want to accomplish some big goals in your life.”

Sladjo

Erko Jun also draws inspiration from those in his fan base. He has had great interactions with a fan turned friend named Sladjo. A fiercely loyal supporter who is always physically there for Jun despite having a rare medical condition. Jun stated, “I was working in Switzerland before. I was doing club hosting. Working at meet and greets. I met him there. I actually visited his home. People were talking about how he was a big fan of me. I was like ‘yeah let’s meet him.’ The poor kid has a medical condition. He cannot really walk and stuff.”

Jun continued, “So I went to his home. We talked about everything. We talked about training. I told him I will hook you up with a good training plan. I brought him some supplements and we stayed in contact since then. Every time I came back to Switzerland, I just called him and said ‘come with me’. He went to clubs partying. Things he never did in his life. I just took him with me and shared everything with him.”

He concluded, “If you can help someone, just do it. If you can make someone happy with such small things, just do it. The strange part is when I switched to MMA professionally, he was the first guy that came to watch my fight. He surprised me. All my three fights, he was there. Such a loyal person. It’s unbelievable. I have people I’ve known my whole life, they can’t even pay a pay per view to watch a fight. You need to be good to everyone. You never know what you’ll get back from that.” Sladjo will be there for the Pudz fight too.

Pudzianowski fight

This has been a fight that Jun has wanted for years. He seems to feel confident and excited ahead of his tilt. “The fight was confirmed like two months ago. I feel great, man. Preparation is going really well,” said Jun. Erko Jun respects Pudz a lot, but is also confident in what he brings to the cage.

On his opponent, Jun stated, “He’s just a beast. Really strong. He has some heavy punches you have to watch out for. Some kicks; he knows how to get people on the ground. To be honest, I think I’m more of a technical fighter. I’m just going to be more explosive. I don’t underestimate him for sure. He’s a legend for sure. He has a lot of experience. He never got knocked out that’s the most interesting part. I would like to be the first guy that knocks him out.”

Erko Jun is just trying to enjoy the present, embrace the moment ahead of him, and reflect on his intriguing life path so far. Jun added “Eventually in life, you never know what your destiny is. I’ve been doing bodybuilding like eight years in my life professionally. Then in one switch I go to MMA and start a professional career. You never know what’s going on. When sometimes it’s going bad in your life, just know there’s going to come good times as well. The most important is to keep moving forward and to keep fighting in life.”

KSW 51 takes place at the Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia this Saturday, November 9. The event card be ordered live via KSWTV.

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A couple of big fights were announced by Poland’s KSW during their historic 50th show in London on Saturday. The first will see heavyweight and former strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski face Erko Jun at KSW 51, which will mark the promotion’s debut in Zagreb, Croatia. The second will see former middleweight champ Mamed Khalidov come out of retirement to face off with middleweight champion Scott Askham, in a catchweight fight at KSW 52.

The Khalidov fight is one Askham has been seeking for a while. In fact, he told Cageside Press prior to his title fight win at KSW 49 that he was hoping to lure Khalidov out of retirement. Well, mission accomplished.

Askham (18-4), a UFC vet, has found new life in KSW. He’s won four straight fights, three with the Polish promotion. A TKO of Michal Materla won his the vacant KSW middleweight title.

Khalidov (34-6-2), meanwhile, was the inaugural KSW light heavyweight champion, and later reigned as the middleweight champ. However, after a pair of losses to current light heavyweight champ Tomasz Narkun, Khalidov called it a career.

Back in June, he was arrested in Poland and linked to stolen vehicles, but it appears he’s free to compete. KSW 52 takes place December 7 in Gwlice, Poland.

KSW 51, meanwhile, gets a potential slugfest when heavyweights Mariusz Pudzianowski and Erko Jun collide. ‘Pudzian’ will be looking to bounce back after losing two straight. Overall, the strongman is 12-7, 1NC as a pro. Prior to this skid, he had won three straight. The hulking Polish Fighter previously won five World’s Strongest Man titles.

Erko Jun (3-0) has made the most of his MMA crossover, coming from the world of fitness modelling and bodybuilding. He’s finished all three of his fights, all of which have come under the KSW banner.

KSW 52 takes place November 9 at the Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia.

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Poland’s KSW was back in action over the weekend with KSW 45: Return to Wembly. There, England’s own Phil De Fries defended his heavyweight title against former champ Karol Bedorf. For De Fries, it was an opportunity to cement himself as a KSW mainstay after capturing the title earlier this year.

Bedorf, meanwhile, was hoping to reclaim the title he’d lost just a couple of years ago. Yet in the end, De Fries was too much for him to overcome. The champ controlled him once he had the fight to the ground, eventually securing an Americana for the win.

In the highly anticipated rematch between Roberto Soldic and Dricus Du Plessis, meanwhile, it was Soldic getting his revenge. Du Plessis had defeated Soldic to claim the belt earlier this year. In their second meeting, Soldic made no mistake, knocking out the man who took his title in the third round.

Damian Janikowski, the highly touted Olympic bronze medalist, meanwhile, dropped to 3-1 at KSW 45, suffering the first loss of his career opposite Michal Materla.

Check out highlights from KSW 45 in the gallery below, courtesy of KSW!

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