I’m not going to lie to you, I really like watching KSW. The Maciej Kawulski and Martin Lewandowski lead promotion has given us plenty of great memories over the years and KSWs content has become something of a staple in the European MMA diet. But that does not mean that we should just passively accept every single dish served up by the promotion. Especially when it’s one that is long expired, out of place and completely irrelevant. And well, this is how Roberto Soldic vs Marius Zaromskis comes across on paper. Here’s the top three reasons why I think this fight should have never been booked. Let me break it all down!

#3 It’s basically a retired fighter taking on a young wolf

Roberto Soldic (17-3) at 25 years old, is really just at the beginning of his so far impressive career. He has beaten the likes of Dricus Du Plessis, Lewis Long, Krystian Kaszubowski and Borys Mańkowski – all by stoppages. This is a pretty great resume. And there’s a discussion going down in the Polish MMA community about whether the young Croatian is about to enter the mainstream MMA limelight. Sure he’s a KSW champion, but outside of the hardcore Polish MMA fanbase, he’s relatively unknown on the worldwide MMA stage. Zaromskis on the other hand, is about to enter his 40s. He was a tremendous fighter back in his day. He gave us, just bleed-esque wars and his career is packed full of entertaining highlights. But there is a reason this is written in a past tense. The Lithuanian competitor just recently returned to competition last year, when he defeated a guy who was making his pro debut. And now, after his only sole victory in the past five years, “The Whitemare” is getting a title-shot in Europe’s premier MMA Promotion. It just makes no sense that he can earn a title shot based on one pointless victory.

#2 It’ll not move tickets or sell PPVs

Maciej Kawulski once said “I always say to the fighters that we’re the ones who sell the tickets, it’s really got nothing to do with the fighters skills”. The context to this kinda hilarious response is simple – between 2016 and 2017 KSW contracted a lot of celebrity fighters such as Popek Monster, Robert Burneika and Tomasz Oswiecimski, the sole signing purpose was just to make a few money fights. Many professional fighters, that took tons of damage in the MMA business over the years were disgusted by KSWs decision to sign these celebrities. Fans also shared their outrage over the signing, but it amounted to nothing more than a few measly likes and retweets here and there. At the end of the day, Kawulski is operating a business worth an insane amount of dollars, and so long as KSW have the desire to make more Benjamin Franklin’s, they’ll keep producing freak fights. 

However, KSWs desire to make comical and weird match-ups does not explain the booking of Soldic-Zaromskis at all. MMA in Poland is all about two men; Mamed Khalidov and Mariusz Pudzianowski. Most casual fans don’t know much about Soldic right now. His Lithuanian rival is completely anonymous for most of the KSW fan base. Will people go out of their way to now buy tickets or PPV just because of this fight? No. The international fans will just go on twitter, repost the gif they saw from Soldic finishing Zaromskis with the comment “We knew it”.

#1  What about the Michał Pietrzak rematch?

Back at KSW 50, Roberto Soldic was about to face well known Czech MMA veteran, Patrik Kincl. Sadly, four days before the event was about to happen, he withdrew from the event due to a very untimely arm injury. With just four days notice, almost nobody would step in to face a very dangerous and game Soldic. To everybody’s surprise, KSW found a pretty amazing replacement in Michał Pietrzak. Michal is a middleweight wrestler from Poznan, who decided to sign a contract with the biggest Polish promotion and save the day. It was a match-up where literally nobody was betting on it going to a decision.

To everyone’s surprise, Michał Pietrzak gave the champ the toughest night of his reign. He lost by a fair unanimous decision. During the fight, Michals  wrestling was very problematic for the Croatian champ. With full time for a proper camp, Pietrzak can be a real threat for Roberto. Sadly KSW believes that the title-shot should be given to the almost retied Zaromskis.