Luck was on the side of a few KSW fighters on Friday.
The KSW 75 main event saw Ultimate Fighting Championship alum Damian Stasiak taking on Robert Ruchala in a featherweight clash. The initial headliner was supposed to come as a 205-pound championship collision, but Stasiak-Ruchala was elevated following its cancelation. In their three-round encounter, Stasiak (13-9, 2-3 KSW) kept his opponent guessing early with punches and takedown attempts. Ruchala did not allow himself to be grounded so easily, sweeping “Webster” on a pair of occasions, but he conceded his back to his foe before the end of the frame. Ruchala (8-0, 5-0 KSW) implemented a more successful strategy in Round 2, winning all the wrestling exchanges and landing the most impactful shots. Both contestants had to dig deep to find the energy for a hard-fought third period, but none found the key to a finish. In front of a partisan crowd, the judges rewarded Ruchala with a razor-thin split-decision victory. Satisfied with the result, the still-undefeated Ruchala asked for a title shot in his post-fight interview.
In the heavyweight co-main attraction, UFC vet Daniel Omielanczuk (26-13-1, 1 NC; 1-3 KSW) eked out a controversial split-decision victory over Michal Martinek (10-4, 1-1 KSW). The Dana White's Contender Series alum Martinek stung his opponent with jabs and body kicks from afar, all while making Omielanczuk miss most of the time. The striking of “Blackbeard” left some marks on his foe’s face, and conditioning showed to be on his side for their three-round affair while Omielanczuk waned. While the Polish fighter landed a few hard shots throughout the clash, his Czech adversary connected more cleanly on the feet and appeared sharper with his offense. When the contest went the distance and the judges’ scorecards were read, one of the officials scored it 30-27 for Martinek, while the remaining two offered 29-28 tallies for Omielanczuk.
Elsewhere, UFC alum Henrique da Silva (19-8, 1-0 KSW) scored a “Knockout of the Year” contender after putting former KSW 205-pound kingpin Tomasz Narkun (18-6, 10-5 KSW) away with a front kick 28 seconds into the second frame; Adam Soldaev (7-1, 2-0 KSW) outclassed Oleksii Polishchuk (10-4, 0-1 KSW) en route to a unanimous decision victory (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) in their 148-pound catchweight meeting; Madalin Pirvulescu (5-0, 1-0 KSW) scored his fifth first-round stoppage by smashing Adam Tomasik (6-2, 1-2 KSW) in about 83 seconds at light heavyweight; the 161-pound catchweight pairing between Yann Liasse (8-1, 1 NC; 2-0, 1 NC KSW) and Adrian Gralak (5-0, 1 NC; 0-0, 1 NC KSW) ended in no-contest following an accidental eye poke from Liasse; 135-pounder Kamil Szkaradek (3-0, 1-0 KSW) defeated David Martinik (5-5, 1-3 KSW) via unanimous decision; the night began as Adrianna Kreft (4-0, 1-0 KSW) outpointed 40-year-old Petra Castkova (6-5, 0-1 KSW) with three matching 29-28 scores in their flyweight affair.
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