3F: Extreme Fight Cage Ełk

The weigh-ins for this are done and everything is set. There's only two fights announced (after the third one was cancelled due to an injury), but aside from that there's going to be an 8 man elimination tournament at Featherweight for the Mayor's Cup for which all 8 participants plus the alternate made weight too. Unfortunately I can't post the brackets, since the pairings will be drawn at random just before the event. Gotta love the randomness.

Aside from the federation's FW belt, the winner of the main event between Zawadzki and Shamaev (pictured) will be getting a KSW contract too.

The tournament came and went as smoothly as possible. Well, maybe not for the city Mayor, who beforehand expressed his hope for the thread of only hometown fighters winning which unfortunately for him, did not come true. Paweł Głebocki was the only one of 4 local fighters to achieve a single W in the tournament's opening round, but still lost in the very next round ending up the Ełk vs. Visitors rivalry as 1-4.

The fighting was fast and furious and the submissions were bountiful. Out of 9 total fights, 7 ended in submissions and 4 already in the first round. As noted, everybody including the alternate for the tournament made weight with no problems. The tournament fights were contracted as 2x5 minutes, but that still meant that the winner could end up potentially fighting 30 minutes total in one night with little time in between the last two fights.

The ultimate winner, Damian Stasiak from Łódź, tore through the competition first quickly submitting Tomasz Boduszek in 1:32 with an RNC and then the tournament alternate Konrad Sokulski (after the originally scheduled winner from the previous round, Mariusz Domin, was unable to fight because of his injured ribs) also with an RNC halfway through the second round of their fight, before finally defeating the other finalist, Łukasz Grochowski with a hard fought, but a clear cut Unanimous Decision in the finals. And all it took him was a total of 18 minutes and 3 seconds. As a result he was awarded a nice trophy cup and managed to improve his record from not an awe-insipiring 3-2 to a rather impressive 6-2 (3 subs, 1 TKO). All in a night's job.


In the first announced fight Krzysztof Adaszak (2-3), the dark horse from the fast rising Arrachion Olsztyn team made good on his promise of "aces in his sleeves" by submitting the previously undefeated Piotr Mróz (6-0) in the 2nd round.


In the main event the quiet Arbi Shamaev triangle-choked Tomasz Zawadzki to take home both the 3F FW Title belt and the KSW contract. You will see him next on KSW 26 in an undercard fight against an as of yet undetermined opponent.


The biggest "loser" of the tournament, Łukasz Ziółkowski, who was the first person eliminated in a little over a minute with a guillotine choke, can also speak of some luck. Due to his now open schedule and no injuries stemming from the fight, he was able to quickly step in as the last week opponent for Maciej Linke at SOUL Fighting Championships 2 this weekend. After De Zoo's original opponent withdrew, the second was brought in, but then to everybody's surprise, Linke's master, Jorge Patino, arrived to Poland to specifically order him to drop from 77 kg (WW, his regular weight division) to 70 kg (LW, where he never fought before) and fight only at that weight from now on. The search for new opponents for both main-eventers was on, thankfully both were found on time. On Saturday you will see Ziółkowski put on some more weight to go up a weight class and try his skills against one of the first BJJ black belts in Poland, Maciej "De Zoo" Linke.


The Linke brothers with their master and mentor, Jorge "Macaco" Patino:


In short, this one's about to go final soon. I'll also later add the fights to the event page as usual. Enjoy.