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Beyond the Octagon: Pudzianowski loses second straight, former Bellator champ M’Pumbu stumbles
- Updated: June 4, 2016
Tonight, Luke Rockhold will look to cement himself as the world’s top middleweight, but in Poland last weekend another 185er continued to entrench himself as one of the best fighters to remain outside the UFC.
The big news this past weekend came out of Poland’s KSW 35, where Mamed Khalidov (32-4-2, 1-1 Sengoku, 1-0 EliteXC) staged the inaugural defense of his middleweight title against challenger Aziz Karaoglu (9-7-0). A glance at the numbers belies how worthy of a challenger Karaoglu was, as he headed into the fight on the strength of a three-fight win streak, all of which came by first-round (T)KO, and which included victories over UFC veterans Jay Silva and Maiquel Falcao. Nevertheless, Khalidov would prevail by majority decision. Khalidov is on a twelve-fight winning streak, which includes victories over Melvin Manhoef, Brett Cooper, Maiquel Falcao, Jesse Taylor, Matt Lindland, and James Irvin. Karaoglu is only the second person among them to go the distance with Khalidov.
In the night’s co-main event, KSW fixture Marcin Rozalski (6-4-0) scored an ostensible upset, and certainly the most significant victory of his career, with his win over five-time World’s Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski (9-5-0). The end came in the second round, via guillotine choke. Following his TKO loss to Bellator vet Peter Graham last October, Pudzianowski has now lost twice in a row; it’s the first losing streak of his career.
Earlier, KSW’s former long-reigning middleweight champion Michal Materla (23-5-0) put away Antoni Chmielewski (32-15-0) with strikes in Round 1. The TKO marks a return to the win column for Materla, who lost his title to Khalidov earlier …
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