Piotr Kuberski retains interim 185-pound title at KSW 118

Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki fans have a compelling 185-pound title
fight to look forward to, as reigning champion Pawel
Pawlak is expected to meet Piotr
Kuberski in a middleweight title unification bout.

In the
KSW 118 main event, Kuberski (18-1, 6-0 KSW) retained the
interim middleweight title in emphatic fashion, stopping Michal
Michalski (14-6, 8-4 KSW) in Round 1. The fighters spent a few
seconds studying each other before both men shifted gears and went
to work. Michalski came forward aggressively, but Kuberski timed
him perfectly, countering with a straight left that sent “Cukier”
to the canvas. “Qbear” applied further pressure and was clinical
with ground-and-pound action once Michalski turtled up. Referee
Lukasz Bosacki had no choice but to step in and halt the contest at
the 2:09 mark of the opening frame. In victory, Kuberski earned his
15th consecutive win and recorded the 16th knockout of his
career.

In the co-feature, Sara
Luzar-Smajic (7-3, 3-1 KSW) etched her name in the history
books by becoming the first-ever KSW women’s 135-pound champion,
defeating Wiktoria
Czyzewska (7-2, 6-2 KSW) via unanimous decision in a five-round
war. UFD Gym-representative Luzar-Smajic controlled the early
rounds with sharper striking, clipping “Chicatoro” on multiple
occasions and building a lead on the scorecards. Czyzewska
threatened in the fourth frame, coming close to locking up a
rear-naked choke, but couldn’t finalize the submission as the
Croatian-Bosnian “Guerreira” weathered the storm. Czyzewska leaned
on her wrestling and dirty boxing work down the stretch to make it
competitive. In the end, the judges’ scorecards read 49-46, 49-46,
and 48-47 in favor of Luzar-Smajic, who claimed the inaugural belt
and extended her winning streak to three in a row.

Earlier, former interim lightweight titleholder Valeriu
Mircea (32-9-1, 6-2 KSW) smashed erstwhile Fight Exclusive
Night champion Roman
Szymanski (18-10, 10-7 KSW) with a big elbow followed by a
flurry of punches 52 seconds out of the gate in Round 2; former
155-pound kingpin “Golden Boy” Marian
Ziolkowski (26-11-1, 1NC; 7-5 KSW) snapped a three-bout skid
and picked up his first victory in four years after stopping
Aymard
Guih (19-15-1, 2-2 KSW) with punches from the back mount at
4:36 in the second frame; Aleksander
Winiarski (4-1, 1-0 KSW) outstruck Dawid
Kasperski (2-2, 2-2 KSW) at light heavyweight; in a
welterweight clash, Konrad
Rusinski (8-3, 3-2 KSW) crushed promotional newcomer Tagir
Machmudov (3-1, 0-1 KSW) with punches and forced the stoppage
at 2:45 in Round 1; and Michal
Dreczkowski (7-1, 4-1 KSW) upended Cedric
Lushima (7-2, 1-2 KSW) on all scorecards in their 205-pound
feature.

On the preliminary card, Steven Krt
(7-4, 2-2 KSW) stopped Cage Warriors vet Daniel
Kolasinski (6-4, 0-1 KSW) with punches and elbows at the 2:46
mark of the second stanza of their welterweight clash; and Mateusz
Wieczorek (4-0, 1-0 KSW) cruised to a unanimous decision over
Michal
Hir (5-1, 0-1 KSW) in a 179-pound catchweight duel.