Who is Eddie Hall opponent Mariusz Pudzianowski, and what is his MMA record?
FORMER strongmen Eddie Hall and Mariusz Pudzianowski will face off in a super-heavyweight MMA clash on Saturday.
The fight between Hall, 37, and Pudzianowski, 48, will be the co-main event of KSW 105 in Poland.
Hall is coming into the bout as an underdog — his opponent has won four more World’s Strongest Man titles and started his MMA career in 2009 — but he has youth on his side.
The Englishman has been training with UFC champion Tom Aspinall and revealed to talkSPORT that he intends to fight at 350-355 lbs.
This was encouraging to Pudzianowski who told Polish outlet myMMA that “it won’t be easy to oxygenate that.”
The athletes will undergo four-minute rounds with 90 second breaks.
Who is Mariusz Pudzianowski?
Mariusz Pudzianowski is one of the greatest strength athletes of all time with five World’s Strongest Man titles to his name (2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008).
He is 6ft 1in and has a reach of 77inches, one inch shorter than Hall with a three inch shorter reach.
His early career was briefly interrupted by a 19 month stint in prison after an incident with a local mafia boss.
Pudzianowski grew up training karate and boxing, after the last of his strongman titles he turned his hand to MMA in 2009.
The Dominator – as he was dubbed in his strongman days – is famous in his home country Poland as alongside his decorated athletic career he tried his hand at dancing and singing.
Pudzianowski appeared on the Polish version of Dancing with the Stars (2008) where he took overall second place and the short-lived Polish version of singing show Just the Two of Us (2010).
What is Mariusz Pudzianowski’s MMA record?
Pudzianowski will face Eddie Hall having won 17 fights, lost nine and had one no contest ruling.
His last win was in 2022 against Michal Materla and has lost twice since.
He hasn’t fought since a second round loss to Artur Szpilka in June 2023 and if he loses to Hall it would be the longest consecutive loss streak of his career (3).
The last two losses for the Polish fighter came after a five-fight win streak over nearly three years.
Pudzianowski’s major wins include a 76 second destruction of Butterbean (Eric Esch) and victory over K1 legend Bob Sapp.
When is Eddie Hall vs Mariusz Pudzianowski and how can I watch it?
- The fight will take place this Saturday, April 26 in Poland.
- Hall and Pudzianowski are expected to make their ring walks at approximately 9.30pm BST and face off at 9.45pm BST.
- Those times are subject to change.
- Prelims will begin at 5pm BST.
- KSW 105 will not be aired on UK TV.
- The prelims are FREE on YouTube but the main event is pay-per-view.
- It can be purchased for £10 on the KSW website.
- Viewers can then stream the fight via any device, including a smart TV.
- Alternatively, SunSport will live blog all the action as it happens.