Mamed Khalidov Wipes Out Scott Askham to Regain Middleweight Title at KSW 55

By Martial Arts Videos October 11, 2020
Kung Fu 56 total views, 1 today

The greatest fighter in KSW history turned back the clock—and won back
the belt that had once been his.

In the main event of KSW 55 on Saturday, 40-year-old
Mamed
Khalidov returned to the cage in the wake of three straight
losses and two announced retirements to face middleweight champion
Scott
Askham, who had thoroughly dominated him in their previous
meeting at KSW 52 last December. Askham, holding the KSW
middleweight title that Khalidov had vacated in 2018 to pursue a
pair of champ-vs.-champ bouts with light heavyweight champion
Tomasz
Narkun, was the substantial favorite, but once the action
began, Khalidov was the aggressor. After a couple of tentative
early exchanges, Khalidov leapt forward and threw a jumping switch
kick, his right foot landing perfectly on the champ’s jaw. Askham
went down in a heap at the base of the fence, Khalidov pounced and
landed a pair of hammerfists before the referee could dive in for
the stoppage at just 32 seconds of Round 1.

With the highlight-reel finish, Khalidov (35-7-2) picks up his
first win since he defended the middleweight belt against Borys
Mankowski at KSW 39 in May 2017. Now a two-time middleweight
champ as well as a former light heavyweight champ, with a 19-3-2
record in the KSW cage, the Chechen-born Pole is inarguably the
most accomplished fighter in the promotion’s history as well as one
of its biggest stars. Askham (19-5), who had never been finished
before Saturday, snapped a five-fight winning streak dating back to
his release from the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2017.

Materla Pounds out Ilic

Another of KSW’s most decorated veterans, former middleweight
champion Michal
Materla, waded through some early fire from Aleksandar
Ilic to score a dominant second-round finish. For much of the
first round, Materla found himself unable to navigate the reach of
the taller, longer Serbian, who knocked him down with a
lightning-fast straight left and landed several powerful body
kicks. The second round was a different story, as Materla ran Ilic
to the ground off of a lazy kick within 30 seconds, then went to
work. Landing in side control, “Magic” isolated Ilic’s far arm,
trapped the near arm moments later and then dropped elbows from the
crucifix position until the referee pulled him off at 1:33 of Round
2.

The 36-year-old Materla moves to 29-7 and remains a central figure
in the KSW middleweight title picture; in the last five years, his
only losses have been to Khalidov and Askham. Ilic (12-4), after a
fantastic head kick knockout of Damian
Janikowski in his KSW debut last March, has now lost
back-to-back fights for the first time in his career.

Janikowski Edges Out Gustafsson

In the first of three middleweight bouts to cap off the evening in
Lodz, Damian
Janikowski (5-3) ground out a tough split decision over
promotional newcomer Andreas
Gustafsson (6-1). The first round was all Janikowski, as the
2012 Olympic bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling struck for an
effortless takedown within seconds, passed to side control, and
then spent most of the round in dominant positions, if not
inflicting too much damage. The second round was a mirror image of
the first: Gustafsson denied Janikowski’s takedown attempts,
bouncing right back up when they did hit the canvas, and was
clearly the winner of the kickboxing match that remained. The
back-and-forth final round was the source of dissension for the
judges, who awarded the fight to Janikowski by 29-28, 29-28 and
28-29 scorecards.

With the win over the previously undefeated Swede, Janikowski
remains a person of interest in the middleweight division, though
decisive losses to Materla and Ilic within the last two years leave
him an uphill climb towards title contention.

Other Results: Stasiak Puts Surdyn to Sleep

In other action, Tomasz
Romanowski (13-7) overpowered fellow KSW newcomer Ion Surdu
(10-3) via unanimous decision in a welterweight battle; former UFC
bantamweight Damian
Stasiak (12-7) choked Patryk
Surdyn (5-1) unconscious with an arm-triangle choke at 4:17 of
Round 2; Przemyslaw
Mysiala ground-and-pounded Stjepan
Bekavac of Croatia for a second-round TKO; former welterweight
title challenger Krystian
Kaszubowski took a unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 30-24) in a
one-sided drubbing of the debuting Jakub
Kamieniarz; and in the lone women’s fight of the evening,
strawweight Karolina
Wojcik outpaced a tiring Sylwia
Juskiewicz by unanimous decision (29-28 x3).

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