Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki

Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki (English: Martial Arts Confrontation) better known by its initials KSW, is widely considered to be the premiere mixed martial arts organization in Poland and one of the leading in Europe.
History
Martin Lewandowski had been the manager of the Hotel Marriott in Warsaw when he met Maciej Kawulski in 2002. Kawulski was organizing one of the biggest sports expos in Poland at that time, and as both businessmen come from martial arts backgrounds, they quickly found a common subject. Eighteen months later the first KSW show was born.
The promotion is famed for its four and eight-man tournaments, which until KSW X - Dekalog took place over the period of one night, but since KSW XI they are split, with the tournament final taking place on the next event. KSW XV is the first event without a new tournament, only with extra fights and finals from previous tournaments.
Different from other bigger promotions such as the UFC, KSW adopted the strategy of having events that are less frequent but bigger, focusing on creating big shows with stacked cards and with great spectacle. In 2017, KSW 39: Colosseum beat the record for the largest live attendance to a MMA event in Europe, and second-largest in history with 57,776 fans, only after the Pride Shockwave in 2002 and ahead of UFC 193.
Several fighters who have been successful in KSW have signed on to more well known promotions such as the UFC. KSW has its own fight team, the KSW Team, which consists of some of the promotion's elite fighters, such as Mamed Khalidov, Jan Błachowicz, Krzysztof Kulak, Łukasz Jurkowski or Antoni Chmielewski. KSW co-operates with many other promotions in Europe by exchanging fighters, for example WFC and The Cage. KSW runs the majority of its shows live on a variety of TV networks (Polsat Sport, Polsat Sport Extra) throughout Europe. Since KSW XI, the promotion runs its shows live on nationally available at private free-to-air television network Polsat.
The KSW ring announcer is Waldemar Kasta, a former rapper born in Wrocław.
Roster
Rankings
The rankings for the KSW's fighters are both recorded and updated when information has been obtained from the KSW's website.
Updated as of October 17, 2023.
List of KSW events
List of KSW events:
2004 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2005 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2006 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2007 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2008 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2009 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2010 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2011 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2012 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2013 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2014 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2015 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2016 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2017 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2018 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki - 2019 in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki
Current champions
Men's divisions
Women's divisions
Championship history
Heavyweight championship
Light heavyweight championship
Middleweight championship
Welterweight championship
Lightweight championship
Featherweight championship
Bantamweight championship
Women's flyweight championship
Women's strawweight championship
KSW fighters
List of current KSW fighters
Notable fighters
Daniel Acácio
Houston Alexander
Scott Askham
Roberto Soldić
Jan Błachowicz
Mateusz Gamrot
Francis Carmont
Jasminka Cive
Brett Cooper
Phil De Fries
Tomasz Drwal
Damian Stasiak
Yasubey Enomoto
Eric Esch
Maiquel Falcao
Kalindra Faria
Sheila Gaff
Andrey Gerasimchuk
Konstantin Gluhov
Rodney Glunder
Rolles Gracie Jr.
Peter Graham
Sergej Grecicho
Kendall Grove
Jason Guida
Alexander Gustafsson
Mike Hayes
Matt Horwich
James Irvin
Satoshi Ishii
Rafal Jackiewicz
Damian Janikowski
Maciej Jewtuszko
Yusuke Kawaguchi
Mamed Khalidov
Szymon Kołecki
Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Matt Lindland
Melvin Manhoef
John Maguire
Sean McCorkle
James McSweeney
Mario Miranda
Christian M'Pumbu
Tomasz Narkun
Pawel Nastula
Oleksiy Oliynyk
Daniel Omielańczuk
Wojciech Orłowski
Valentijn Overeem
Rousimar Palhares
Norman Parke
Łukasz Parobiec
Igor Pokrajac
Wagner Prado
Mariusz Pudzianowski
Paweł "Popek" Rak
Goran Reljic
Ryuta Sakurai
Bob Sapp
Przemysław Saleta
Jay Silva
Thiago Silva
Paul Slowinski
Peter Sobotta
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
Simona Soukupova
Artur Szpilka
Jesse Taylor
Paulo Thiago
James Thompson
Oli Thompson
Kazuki Tokudome
Attila Végh
Rodney Wallace
Jim Wallhead
Curt Warburton
Andre Winner
Arkadiusz Wrzosek
Virgil Zwicker
References
External links
Konfrontacja at Sherdog
KSW Official Site
European MMA Rankings
Organizations established in 2004
Mixed martial arts organizations
Sports organisations of Poland
Mixed martial arts events lists
2004 establishments in Poland