Olympic medalists collide in KSW 52 co-headliner

Janikowski v Kolecki | KSW

Damian Janikowski and Szymon Kolecki will meet at a catchweight of 202lbs in December. This year will be a milestone for KSW as the leading European promotion will put on six events during one calendar year for …

Janikowski v Kolecki | KSW

Damian Janikowski and Szymon Kolecki will meet at a catchweight of 202lbs in December.

This year will be a milestone for KSW as the leading European promotion will put on six events during one calendar year for the first time in their history. The final of those shows takes place on Saturday 7th December from Gliwice Arena in Gliwice, Poland and is arguably the company’s biggest of 2019. In the evening’s co-headliner at KSW 52, two Olympic medal winners meet as greco-roman wrestling bronze medalist Damian Janikowski, takes on weightlifting gold medalist Szymon Kolecki in a special catchweight (202lbs) bout.

Janikowski (4-2) is a career-long middleweight whose whole MMA career has taken place in KSW. He went 3-0 within a year of making his debut with all wins coming by TKO before losing for the first time in the opening round of the KSW middleweight tournament when he faced Polish MMA legend, Michal Materla. The 30-year-old was then on the receiving end of a viral knockout to middleweight contender, Aleksandar Ilic, in March but he bounced back with a dominant performance against Tony Giles at KSW 50 in London. Janikowski remains one of the most popular fighters on the KSW roster and will be looking to overcome a significant size disadvantage in his climb back towards the top of his division.

Kolecki (7-1) had a successful KSW debut back in March when he defeated Mariusz Pudzianowski as a result of Pudzian suffering a leg injury. The weightlifting champion has finished all of his victories by TKO in the first round which demonstrates how much striking power he possesses. Janikowski has only really looked threatened so far in his career by competitors who are accurate and aggressive on the feet so this makes for a great stylistic match-up.

KSW 52 is expected to be headlined by Mamed Khalidov, who is coming back from a near year-long retirement, challenging current middleweight champion, Scott Askham, at a catchweight of 187lbs. More bouts are expected to be announced over the coming weeks.