Fight Facts: KSW 56

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW FIGHTS: 528
TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW EVENTS: 62

KSW carried on in November with a de facto superfight pitting a current champ up a weight class against a company legend. The result was stunning, even for those that expected the result, but the event largely delivered action and mayhem from start to finish. KSW 56 featured the most active fighter in KSW history stepping up again, a few milestones for a top champ and one of the fastest knockouts ever seen in the KSW cage.

Many Men Met Materla: Appearing for the 25th time under the KSW banner, Michal Materla has competed more times than any other KSW fighter ever. Former opponent Mamed Khalidov has 24 outings with the promotion, and no other fighter has more than 21.

Your Move, Creep: Roberto Soldic destroyed Materla in the first round after recording multiple knockdowns. The current KSW welterweight king stepped up to middleweight to record his 15th career knockout, and “Robocop” now sports a knockout rate of 83 percent and a finish rate of 89 percent.

The Predominant Light Heavyweight King: Tapping out Ivan Erslan in the second round, Tomasz Narkun successfully defended his light heavyweight belt for the fifth time. He now holds more consecutive title defenses than any champion in KSW history.

Titletown Terror: In each of his six victorious title fights throughout his KSW career, Narkun has finished his opponent within two rounds. This was Narkun’s first to go beyond the first round, and he posts more championship stoppage wins than any other KSW fighter.

Nasty Narkun: Narkun has recorded nine finishes on the KSW roster, putting him in the top five for the most in company history. Only Lukasz Jurkowski and Jan Blachowicz (10 each), Materla (14) and Khalidov (16) have scored more.

What Exactly Is an Evil Giraffe? With his tapout of Erslan, “Giraffe” lifted his sky-high finish rate to 94 percent. His lone decision win came over Khalidov in a champ vs. champ catchweight contest in 2018.

Whitemare’s Revenge: Marius Zaromskis made his KSW debut by beating Andrzej Grzebyk thanks to a leg injury – later shown to be a broken leg – when “The Whitemare” checked a kick. Throughout the Lithuanian’s lengthy career, seven bouts have ended due to doctor intervention or injury.

Lots of Scar Tissue: Zaromskis made his professional MMA debut in February 2000 when he defeated Viktoras Kontrimas in the first round of a Knight of the Ring tournament. At that time, main card opener Robert Ruchala was two years old.

A Legierski Up on the Competition: A perfect 7-0 after edging Francisco Albano Barrio by majority decision, Mateusz Legierski started his career with five consecutive finishes. Since then, he has gone the distance twice, including a five-round title fight at a February 2020 Oktagon MMA event.

Nitro Speed: Filip Pejic starched Sebastian Rajewski with one punch in just 11 seconds to record the second-fastest finish in KSW history. The quickest came at KSW 2 in 2004, when Jurkowski demolished Pawel Zalewski with a nine-second head kick.

Small Guy, Big Pop: Pejic’s knockout is the quickest of any KSW fighter lighter than middleweight by a wide margin. The next fastest is from Maciej Kazieczko over Michael Dubois at KSW 52 in 2019, when Kazieczko flattened Dubois in 24 seconds.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into KSW 56, Erslan (10 fights) and Karolina Owczarz (three fights) had never been defeated, Justyna Haba had never won by decision (three fights) and Barrio had never lost on the scorecards (eight fights).

You Know the Song: Narkun made his walk to the KSW cage accompanied by “Enae Volare Mezzo” by ERA, which is famously known as the walkout track of Fedor Emelianenko. The Polish champ channeled his inner Fedor by dominating the fight until earning a submission.

Ne Eminem Prakeikimas: Zaromskis tempted fate by walking out to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, but ended up winning by stoppage. Historically as a UFC walkout song, UFC fighters post a paltry recorded winning percentage of .300 when using the track.