🚨 Breaking! Per source, The Ultimate Fighter
3 winner Kendall Grove is making his cage return to take on Michal
Materla at
#KSW78 on Jan. 21. The pair first collided in June 2013 in a
hard-fought contest won by Materla via decision. Story coming to
@sherdogdotcom.
pic.twitter.com/tdwwLYWeRL— Tudor Leonte (@MrTudorLeonte)
December 17, 2022
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 winner Kendall
Grove will get a chance to avenge a defeat at the hands of
former
Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki titleholder Michal
Materla on Jan. 21 in a rematch nearly-10-years-in-the-making
at
KSW 78. A source close to the situation informed Sherdog about
the matchup.
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In their first clash, Materla (31-9, 20-7 KSW) upended Grove on all
scorecards at KSW 23 on June 8, 2013, notching the second defense
of his 185-pound championship. “Cipao” is coming off a nasty
first-round knockout loss to Mariusz
Pudzianowski at KSW 70 in May. Before that, he stopped Jason
Radcliffe with punches at KSW 66.
The 40-year-old Grove will make his cage return after a three-year
hiatus. The former
Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator
MMA fighter scored a first-round submission victory via
triangle choke in his latest cage appearance. Prior, he went on a
three-bout skid that ended his Bellator run after consecutive
losses to Alexander
Shlemenko, John Salter
and A.J.
Matthews.
“I’m super excited to go back to KSW and to face Materla again,”
Grove stated when contacted by Sherdog. “Our first fight was a
bloody battle and one of the craziest of my career. I feel like we
have unfinished business and I can’t wait to step foot in front of
Materla again.”
KSW 78 is headlined by the middleweight clash between Tomasz
Romanowski and Radoslaw
Paczuski. The card will also feature the return of Arkadiusz
Wrzosek .