MMA talk - PFL, Bellator, KSW, ONE...

[pawel7777]

Salahdine Parnasse, a former KSW lightweight champion, is having his UFC debut tomorrow.
He will face Dan Hooker, a pretty good opponent for him to showcase his skills. Parnasse is a huge favourite. Odds for him are x1.15, while for Hooker: x5.07. I think Hooker might be a bit underrated, but I guess the fact that the fight is taking place in Parnasse's home country, France, is a big factor in predicting the outcome.

Betting on Hooker is tempting because of the attractive odds, but I can't imagine he will surprise Parnasse with anything. His only hope is probably to look for luck in wild striking exchanges.

[pawel7777]

Parnasse was a huge favourite but he did even better than expected. He demolished Dan Hooker within the first round and he made it look easy.
Highlights for those who missed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiUim6M46O4

That's a dream start of his UFC career, and now Parnasse is in a good position to ask for bigger names. But this also shows that the level of fighters outside of the UFC is not to be underestimated. KSW has quite a few talented fighters, but they do struggle to keep them in and to grow the prestige of the organisation.

[TopTort777]

It is actually very unusual to see someone from not so cool promotion compared to giants like One, PFL, Bellator to get so high in UFC from the start. And it is common for guys from other promotion to have a test fights, but after a debut Parnasse is #8 already. Am I underestimating KSW ? (It has been for ages, but I know only Blachowicz and Gamrot)  I have never paid much attention to fights, and mostly watched freak fights only. Such as Pudzianowski vs any other huge dude

[pawel7777]

It is actually very unusual to see someone from not so cool promotion compared to giants like One, PFL, Bellator to get so high in UFC from the start. And it is common for guys from other promotion to have a test fights, but after a debut Parnasse is #8 already. Am I underestimating KSW ? (It has been for ages, but I know only Blachowicz and Gamrot)  I have never paid much attention to fights, and mostly watched freak fights only. Such as Pudzianowski vs any other huge dude

KSW is, or at least was, the biggest mma organisation in Europe. For some reason, they are not as widely recognised as the organisations you mentioned. They have been criticised for not investing in proper marketing, and maybe that's the primary reason they never expanded outside of Poland/Europe.
But KSW was an incubator for quite a lot of fighters who made it to the UFC, with more or less success. Those who made it big are Blachowicz, Gamrot, Dricus du Plessis, and probably Parnasse.
There are more new ex-KSW sign-ups to make their debut soon. One of them is Roberto Soldic, who was the only man to ever KO Du Plessis. Soldic's debut is scheduled for UFC 332 on 4th October.

[TopTort777]

What? DPD was in KSW ? Poland is not the closest place to fight if you are from South Africa You are right by saying that KSW dont expand outside Poland/Europe. I dont recall them having a tournament somewhere outside Poland. That is most likely reason why I paid so little attention to KSW. Because they focus only on Poland and their card is full of polish fighters. As if they had local promotion only for locals.

[eaLiTy]

What? DPD was in KSW ? Poland is not the closest place to fight if you are from South Africa You are right by saying that KSW dont expand outside Poland/Europe. I dont recall them having a tournament somewhere outside Poland. That is most likely reason why I paid so little attention to KSW. Because they focus only on Poland and their card is full of polish fighters. As if they had local promotion only for locals.

KSW invites up-and-coming talent to their promotion from all over the world, not just from Europe. They have also sold out big arenas outside of Poland. Their business model is different from the UFC's; their main selling point is a 'Polish fighters against the rest of the world' scenario, similar to how Pride FC operated, and successful fighters eventually migrate to the UFC

Countries like Poland and Holland already had a heavy kickboxing tournament culture for decades, and with interest peaking in MMA, it is natural that we are seeing major MMA promotions emerge from these nations.

[pawel7777]

What? DPD was in KSW ? Poland is not the closest place to fight if you are from South Africa You are right by saying that KSW dont expand outside Poland/Europe. I dont recall them having a tournament somewhere outside Poland. That is most likely reason why I paid so little attention to KSW. Because they focus only on Poland and their card is full of polish fighters. As if they had local promotion only for locals.

I think the best days of KSW are now gone. They struggle to keep their best fighters for too long and they just use KSW as a launching pad to get some recognition and move to the UFC. It is rumoured that another of their current champions, Adrian Bartosiński is also set to move to another organisation, likely the UFC. He's the guy who served Parnasse his latest loss. That was 3 years ago.

As for DDp in the KSW, I recommend watching his 2 fights against Roberto Soldic. He won the first one, which was a big surprise as Soldic was unstoppable back then, but DDP got KO'd in the rematch. Soldic is making his UFC debut soon, so who knows, maybe they will run it again under the UFC banner, similar to what we've seen with Adesanya and Pereira.

[TopTort777]

I dont think that many use KSW a place to stay for long. At least those who are young. All of them dream to get into UFC one day, however they dont understand I think how much they are going to be paid/earn and how huge competition is. Once left to UFC, I dont think former promotions await their return or want them back. I guess KSW will be always for locals or former boxer to retire and earn.

[pawel7777]

We had the ADCC 2026 finals this weekend. The event was hosted in Krakow, Poland.

The list of new champions is as follows:

66KG: Kennedy Maciel (BRA / Alliance)
77KG: Magomed Dzharbaev (RUS / Agate Team)
88KG: Pawel Jaworski (POL / A. Gorila)
99KG: Luke Griffith (ZAF / KIngsway)
+99KG: Victor Hugo (BRA / 6 Blades)
ABS: Felipe Pena (BRA / FP Team)
60KG: Jasmine Rocha (USA / VRMA)
65KG: Ana Carolina Vieira (BRA / Aviv BJJ)
+65KG: Helena Crevar (USA / Kingsway)

It was a huge success for Pawel Jaworski. I'm not 100% sure if that's true, but I heard that the last time anyone from Europe managed to win the 1st place was before he was born, and he's like 22.

There was a little brawl between some Kazakhs and Gordon Ryan, the biggest jiu-jitsu star, who appeared only as a coach in this year's event.

[TopTort777]

Anyone follow RAF tournaments ? I have tried posting some news in UFC topic, but did not find much reply there. Maybe there are RAF fans here?

Anyway, this weekend RAF 13 offer some great wrestling match-ups.

Colby Covington vs Belal Muhammad
Khamzat Chimaev vs Gilbert Burns
Luke Rockhold vs Joe Pyfer

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_13

For a person who see this card might think this is UFC event Btw, Arman Tsarukyan is fighting this weekend in UFC, but one month after that will be having a wrestling match against Dillon Danis. Also MVP who was released from UFC is fighting same date, October 23 Looks like RAF is picking all the former and current UFC fighters who have free time.

[notblox1]

Anyone follow RAF tournaments ? I have tried posting some news in UFC topic, but did not find much reply there. Maybe there are RAF fans here?

I honestly never heard about it and I am not a big fan of watching only wrestling like this weekend Belal Muhammad vs Colby Covington.
There is also Khamzat Chimaev on the same card and I am wondering how UFC and Dana White allowed them to participate in different fighting competition.
Maybe RAF and UFC have some deal signed to allow this.

[cygan]

today, liberec will host the ksw 121 gala. the main event will feature a top-of-the-heavyweight-division clash for the interim title in this premier weight class, in which Štefan Vojčák, the number one-ranked fighter, will face Marcin Wójcik, the number three-ranked fighter.
the second bout of the evening will see a clash between former contenders for the interim middleweight title. Michał Michalski, ranked number two in this weight class, will face Radosław Paczusk, ranked number six.
you can see all the other cage fights in the following graphic:

[TopTort777]

Anyone follow RAF tournaments ? I have tried posting some news in UFC topic, but did not find much reply there. Maybe there are RAF fans here?

I honestly never heard about it and I am not a big fan of watching only wrestling like this weekend Belal Muhammad vs Colby Covington.
There is also Khamzat Chimaev on the same card and I am wondering how UFC and Dana White allowed them to participate in different fighting competition.
Maybe RAF and UFC have some deal signed to allow this.

That is a big question for me as well, how the hell and why UFC has allowed their big names to participate somewhere besides UFC. Some fighters have said, that if they dont have upcoming fight in UFC, UFC allow them to fight outside UFC. That does not look like truth, because then everyone who has no booked fight would run into boxing. But that does not happen. There was more or less popular UFC fighter who was kicked from UFC because he had a boxing fight in other promotion. I dont know why UFC allow their fighters to participate in RAF. Wrestling is traumatic sport also. I guess indeed there is deal signed between UFC and RAF.

[pawel7777]

(...)
That is a big question for me as well, how the hell and why UFC has allowed their big names to participate somewhere besides UFC. Some fighters have said, that if they dont have upcoming fight in UFC, UFC allow them to fight outside UFC. That does not look like truth, because then everyone who has no booked fight would run into boxing. But that does not happen. There was more or less popular UFC fighter who was kicked from UFC because he had a boxing fight in other promotion. I dont know why UFC allow their fighters to participate in RAF. Wrestling is traumatic sport also. I guess indeed there is deal signed between UFC and RAF.

Yeah, I never understood that either, but I'm guessing it could be that contracts disallow them from participating in full-contact striking sports and maybe participation in wrestling and bjj tournaments is not restricted.
Recently we had at least two of other UFC fighters (Gamrot and Wiklacz) participating in the ADCC jiu-jitsu tournament.
Other option is that UFC would just allow fighters to do that. They don't lose much by that and it could help promote fighters, get them more recognition, which then could translate into their UFC fights being more profitable. A win-win scenario. Even if they happen to lose, there's not much shame in that. It's not their discipline after all.
The only real risk is the risk of injury, but we're talking about guys who would spar almost every day anyway, so going into wrestling/bjj could be actually safer than their normal everyday routine.

[eaLiTy]

(...)
That is a big question for me as well, how the hell and why UFC has allowed their big names to participate somewhere besides UFC. Some fighters have said, that if they dont have upcoming fight in UFC, UFC allow them to fight outside UFC. That does not look like truth, because then everyone who has no booked fight would run into boxing. But that does not happen. There was more or less popular UFC fighter who was kicked from UFC because he had a boxing fight in other promotion. I dont know why UFC allow their fighters to participate in RAF. Wrestling is traumatic sport also. I guess indeed there is deal signed between UFC and RAF.

Yeah, I never understood that either, but I'm guessing it could be that contracts disallow them from participating in full-contact striking sports and maybe participation in wrestling and bjj tournaments is not restricted.
Recently we had at least two of other UFC fighters (Gamrot and Wiklacz) participating in the ADCC jiu-jitsu tournament.

There is an exclusivity contract with every fighter. As you mentioned, they cannot participate in any other combat sporting events, including other MMA promotions, boxing, kickboxing, or bare-knuckle bouts. Only in rare situations will contracted fighters cross over. However, with Dana White starting his own boxing promotion, we might see more crossover events from select fighters in the future.

Regarding RAF, Eric Bischoff—one of the co-owners who famously managed WCW to compete with WWE—mentioned in an interview that UFC fighters must take special permission from the UFC to participate, even though it is not a contact sport.

[notblox1]

That is a big question for me as well, how the hell and why UFC has allowed their big names to participate somewhere besides UFC. Some fighters have said, that if they dont have upcoming fight in UFC, UFC allow them to fight outside UFC. That does not look like truth, because then everyone who has no booked fight would run into boxing. But that does not happen. There was more or less popular UFC fighter who was kicked from UFC because he had a boxing fight in other promotion. I dont know why UFC allow their fighters to participate in RAF. Wrestling is traumatic sport also. I guess indeed there is deal signed between UFC and RAF.

Because they want to get all the money for themselves and not to share them with other organizations.
I remember watching some video few years ago when some fighters said they all have to sign special agreement not to fight for any event unless it isapproved by UFC.
Theit reason is that they dont want fighters to get injured, but I dont think this is good justification.

[pawel7777]

(...)
Regarding RAF, Eric Bischoff—one of the co-owners who famously managed WCW to compete with WWE—mentioned in an interview that UFC fighters must take special permission from the UFC to participate, even though it is not a contact sport.

This makes sense and explains why some fighters rejected offers from the UFC and went with organisations like One or PFL instead, which did not have exclusivity clauses and did not prevent fighters from participating in other combat sports like boxing etc.

Oktagon celebrated their 10th anniversary
https://oktagonmma.com/en/blog/oktagon-94-results-tenth-anniversary-packed-with-finishes-kozma-stuns-germany/

Oktagon 94 event full results:
David Kozma def. Christian Eckerlin by submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 4:58
Max Coga def. Christian Jungwirth by unanimous decision
Karlos Vémola def. Frederic Vosgröne by TKO (ground-and-pound) — Round 2, 4:50
Fedor Duric def. Marc Diakiese by unanimous decision
Edmon Avagyan def. Dominic Schober by TKO (punches) — Round 1, 2:53
Deniz Ilbay def. Hugo Vach by KO (overhand right) — Round 1, 2:23
Jaime Cordero def. Robert Pukač by TKO (kick and punches) — Round 1, 3:55
Tamerlan Dulatov def. Nikola Janković by submission (triangle choke) — Round 1, 1:24
Raul Lemberanskij def. Roman Paulus by unanimous decision
Michael Obodozie def. Oskar Stasszczak by TKO (punches) — Round 1, 1:04

Out of 10 fights, 7 ended with finishes, 6 of them within the 1st round.
The famous "Neanderthal", Frederic Vosgröne, suffered his 1st loss after 5 wins streak. He got TKO'ed by 41 year old Karlos Vémola in round 2.

[pawel7777]

Posting results from the BKFC 94 (bare-knuckle fighting)


In the main event, we had two former UFC stars going against each other. Darren Till defeated Yoel Romero by unanimous decision. I've only seen the highlights, in which Yoel looked better than Darren, so I'm not sure was the decision was deemed controversial in any way, or whether it was just that the highlights I've seen did not give the whole truth about the fight.

It's good to see Till got into an alternative career in boxing/bare-knuckle. His last UFC/mma fight was back in 2022. Romero still looks like a monster at the age of 49 and was really quick and agile on his feet.

[TopTort777]

By looking on bare knuckle fights I dont know what is less harmful, to be KO/TKOed or to have a full fight.

Surprisingly, Romero did not participate in RAF, when he should be there like fish in water with his numerous medals in wrestling and silver on Olympic Games. Instead he prefer to risk health and go full distance in dirty boxing and bare knuckle. It might be that they pay him a lot, but if RAF allows to pay Tsarukyan, Chimaev, Sadulaev and other highly paid combat sport stars, then I find it weird if RAF would offer Romero less than he get in bare knuckle and boxing.

[notblox1]

Posting results from the BKFC 94 (bare-knuckle fighting)

That card looks much more interesting than upcoming UFC event, so I might give it a look.
I am not so much interested in watching bare-knuckle fighting, but I would watch it with some famous fighter.
It is much easier for fighters to lose their health compared to fighting with gloves.