June - 2015
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
32
KSW 31 aired live on Fight Net-
work this past Saturday, May 23
and it brought the international
expansion of the sport to the
forefront of the MMA commu-
nity once again. Former World’s
Strongest Man Mariusz Pud-
zianowski absolutely wrecked
Rolles Gracie Jr. with a 27 second
TKO initiated by a huge right
hand, while KSW heavyweight
champion Karol Bedorf won a
dominant unanimous decision
over former Bellator fighter and
K-1 standout Peter “The Chief”
Graham in a non-title affair. In
the main event, Michał Materla
finished Tomasz Drwal late in
the third to capture the middle-
weight title.
If you didn’t catch it, you missed
a solid night of action from
Gdansk, Poland — but don’t
worry, there are plenty of inter-
national shows to come.
While the UFC has long been
wise to the necessity for inter-
national expansion, regional and
national promotions like KSW
(Poland), ONE FC (Southeast
Asia), SFL (India), IGF (Japan),
EFC (South Africa), and others
have popped up, in many cases
paying out serious cash to top
fighters, especially the top lo-
cal fighters. And that’s not even
including the likes of DEEP, VTJ,
and M-1, who have been in the
game for some time.
KSW, however, serves as an excel-
lent case study. And shows the
difficulty international expansion
brings to the rankings game.
By virtue of market dominance,
the UFC has been the premiere
MMA organization since the de-
mise/purchase by Zuffa of Pride
(and to a lesser extent, Strike-
force). Yet in areas with little
to no UFC penetration (read,
MMA’s Global Expansion
Going Strong, Questions Arise
Article By: Jay Anderson
Esther Lin/MMAFighting
