Written by Eddie Hall and Mariusz Pudzianowski are set to battle it out in one of the most anticipated fights thus far in 2025, and if it’s up to KSW’s CEO, the stakes could be even bigger than we think.
The two former World Strongest Man champions co-headline KSW 105 this Saturday in Gliwice, Poland, which streams live on KSWTV.com on pay-per-view. KSW CEO Martin Lewandowski was asked about a possible co-promotional matchup between the winner of Hall vs. Pudzianowski and PFL heavyweight — and former UFC champion — Francis Ngannou.
“I’m in touch with the guys from PFL,” Lewandowski told MMA Fighting. “So definitely we can talk about this kind of match if they would be willing to share the fighter, no problem.
“I can say from now that I’m interested to do that, definitely.”
With it being Hall’s pro MMA debut, the ruleset has been altered for the bout.
The fight takes place under traditional MMA combat rules, but only a two-round bout with four minute rounds. Additionally, instead of the standard one-minute break between rounds, the fighters get 90 seconds in the corner with their teams.
The ruleset was one of the biggest talking points in putting the fight together — which Lewandowski says took a bit longer than most would believe.
“It’s been, I think nearly a year I’ve been trying to match up this fight,” Lewandowski said. “Actually, I asked Mariusz to contact me with Eddie Hall because Mariusz used to be the strongest man — five-time world champion — and Eddie was in 2017. So I asked him, ‘Do you know Eddie?’ ‘Of course, of course.’ … So he put me in touch with Eddie and I start trying to convince him to make his debut in KSW. And so it’s been nearly a year we’ve been in touch.
“I tried to convince him to fight earlier, but Eddie couldn’t because of his newborn child, etc., some [other] external circumstances. Yeah, he was supposed to actually fight with Mariusz on KSW 100, but I couldn’t make it happen. So finally, 26th of April, this Saturday, this fight will happen. But yes, it’s been a quite a long, bumpy road to negotiate to put those two big guys, in one time, in one round cage in KSW. So that was fun to negotiate with Eddie, really.”
Pudzianowski is set to compete for the 27th time in pro MMA as he looks to snap a two-fight skid. For Hall, his lone MMA bout was a viral 2 vs. 1 fight that took place last year.
According to Lewandowski, Hall’s contract is for more than one bout for KSW.
“Two fights [on his deal],” Lewandowski revealed. “Well, for now, and then, of course, we are talking about longer future, but he has a busy schedule for this year, so I don’t want to plan [for] what happens in 2028.
“So we’ll see how the first fight goes because it depends on a lot of things, depends on this fight on Saturday, and then we will see. But as far as I [see from] him, and he was also training with Tom Aspinall, he’s been treating this fight very seriously.”