Another fight weekend is here, baby, and we love to see it. This week doesn’t feature a UFC card, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t fights: we have a ONE card on Friday and a good KSW show on Saturday that should provide some really cool action. Those two promotions usually do.
So, as usual, here’s a look at the three fights I’ll be watching closest over the next couple days:
Salahdine Parnasse vs. Daniel Torres, KSW 58
The UFC went on a little kick of signing KSW champions in 2020. Welterweight champion Dricus du Plessis debuted with the organization in October, looking shaky early but settling in and knocking out Markus Perez in the first round. Just a week later, lightweight champion Mateusz Gamrot, an undefeated stud considered one of the best young 155-pounders in the world, arrived in the UFC and dropped a tight split decision to the similarly highly regarded Guram Kutateladze.
It’s evident that the UFC has taken an interest in the higher levels of talent in KSW. That means Salahdine Parnasse could be next. Just 23 years old, the undefeated French featherweight is one of the most promising young prospects in Europe, running out a record of 14-0-1 and capturing KSW’s 145-pound title in 2019.
KSW is literally calling Parnasse things like “MMA’s Kylian Mbappe.” He’s been billed as a can’t-miss talent, and so far, he hasn’t. Parnasse is an extremely promising southpaw kickboxer who thrives off the counter, using his fast and accurate hands and threatening off the front foot with thumping kicks. He’s flashed very good takedown defense, and most impressively, he’s shown that he has the kind of cardio to keep himself going over five rounds.
Parnasse’s level of all-around development for his age is astounding, and he’s bound to only get better. And if all goes well on Saturday, it might be one of the last times you can catch Parnasse before he heads to the UFC. We know for a fact that the Frenchman has been on the UFC radar in the recent past: Parnasse reportedly turned down a UFC offer last year, and if he keeps winning, you have to imagine the UFC will likely come back to the table with a better deal.
That’s all on Parnasse, though. Having been elevated to undisputed champion in 2019 – he was previously interim champion while the main titleholder, Gamrot, pursued fights at lightweight – he defends the belt on Saturday against 26-year-old Daniel Torres, a Brazilian whose career has taken off since he moved to Austria full-time in 2017.
Torres has won three in a row and seven of his last eight, and he’s shown a penchant for being in entertaining scraps. Whereas Parnasse is patient and willing to fight off the counter, what I’ve seen of Torres suggests he’s most comfortable moving right at his opponent and letting his hands go, making him a perfect dance partner for the champion.
KSW tends to give you fun main events, and hopefully this will be no exception.
Shamil Musaev vs. Uros Jurisic, KSW 58
Hey look everyone SPINNING BACKFIST:
That’s Russia’s Shamil Musaev busting out one of the coolest and rarest moves in mixed martial arts to knock out Grzegorz Szulakowski in his last KSW appearance in Dec. 2019. Musaev features in one of the most interesting bouts on a good KSW card, taking on a fellow undefeated prospect in Slovenia’s Uros Jurisic.
Musaev, who just turned 27 three weeks ago, has big power in both his hands and his feet, and has run out a record of 14-0 since starting his pro career in 2013. Musaev was actually scheduled for a title bout with Gamrot back in August, but had to pull out of the bout due to injury – now that he’s back, he’s trying his hand at welterweight. After a long layoff and at a new weight class, I’m looking forward to see what Musaev looks like.
Musaev is considered one of the more promising prospects on KSW’s roster, and he’s due for a really good test. He should get one in Jurisic, an American Top Team product who lost in the first round of the Ultimate Fighter 21 in 2015 but has an 11-0 record in official fights.
I got the chance to get a look at Jurisic in October, when he submitted Walter Gahadza on the undercard of a Bellator show in Milan. Jurisic has skills everywhere, but everything stems from a strong wrestling base – in the Gahadza fight, he hoisted his opponent up on his shoulder, carried him to his corner, dropped him on his ass and quickly turned things into a rear naked choke for the victory.
KSW is trying to sort things out in its welterweight division after the defection of its champion, du Plessis, to the UFC. This fight between two undefeated fighters could turn out to be a big factor down the road.
Reug Reug vs. Alain Ngalani, ONE: Unbreakable 2
ONE’s show on Friday is pretty light on good names. But as I was perusing the card, trying to find something to really care about, I came across a man by the name of REUG REUG. I instantly had to learn literally everything I possibly could about Reug Reug.
Here’s what I found. “Reug Reug” is actually Oumar Kane, a 28-year-old wrestling champion from a small Senegalese fishing village making his ONE debut in his second pro MMA fight. He’s a hulking, powerful physical specimen – 6-foot-4, 265 pounds of pure beef – and in Dec. 2019, he slammed the much more experienced Sofiane Boukichou around like a helpless child before knocking him out early in the second round.
Senegal has its own unique and storied wrestling tradition. Wrestling is Senegal’s national sport, but it’s not the kind of wrestling you see in NCAA gyms: the Senegalese wrestling discipline descends from tribal war exercises, and generally allows you to hit opponents in the head. Senegalese wrestlers train insanely hard and are complete badasses. And Reug Reug was one of the baddest. Supposedly undefeated in “lutte avec frappe” – wrestling with blows – he became a sensation in his home country before switching to MMA. He’s wild and amazingly raw, but goddamn, is he something.
Just take a look at this friggin’ guy!
You have been aware of Reug Reug for about three paragraphs and an Instagram video and he is already your favorite fighter. Now ONE has their hands on him, and they’re about to put this big bastard in some science experiments. Reug Reug was originally scheduled to fight the debuting Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors in the world, before that fight fell through. Instead, he’s facing 45-year-old Alain Ngalani, a Muay Thai world champion from Cameroon who’s become a fixture in the ONE circle over the past few years.
Ngalani has a very well-established weakness against good grapplers, but at least he might punch this dude in the face before Reug Reug can get his hands on him. I have no idea! But if Reug Reug can smash this guy into the dirt like he did Boukichou, I’ll be the first person driving his hype train.
The Big Fight 