Mariusz Pudzianowksi vs. Bob Sapp may have headlined KSW 19, held this past weekend in Poland, but Mamed “Cannibal” Khalidov vs. Rodney “Sho Nuff The Master” Wallace undoubtedly brought the crowd to their feet. Khalidov — a Chechen-Polish middleweight — clearly has a background in either karate or TKD, by the looks of his kicks. But with this fight, only one spinning kick connected cleanly; it was a punch that ended the fight. One punch. I’ll be honest, Khalidov was kind of under my radar, but one look at his record say he’s no joke, with wins over UFC fighters Matt Lindland, James Irvin and Jesse Taylor. Granted, those guys aren’t top-shelf competition, and I think it’s clear the only way he’s going to get it is to get signed by the UFC. It would be interesting to see how he’d stack up, and it would flesh out a division that many have said it very thin.
