Phil De Fries is focused on Saturday’s KSW 74 main event title fight with Ricardo Prasel, but he’d be lying if he said there wasn’t another matchup on his mind for after.
De Fries (21-6), the reigning KSW heavyweight champion, is set to make his seventh title defense against Prasel (13-3) at Arena Ostrow in Poland. The event streams via online pay-per-view on the KSW website.
With challenges running thin, De Fries is looking for something unique going forward. There are few people more unique in MMA than former multi-time World’s Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski (17-7), who has become an icon under the KSW banner.
“I wanted Pudzian,” De Fries told MMA Junkie. “I think ‘Pudzian’ is the No. 1 contender. He’s on a five-fight winning streak. Also, he’s the money fight and the big eyes fight. Maybe I’m just saying that to get the fight.
“They want the ‘Pudzian’ fight, but I think ‘Pudzian’ wants loads of money to do it. I don’t blame him. Like, why? He can get paid a fortune to fight non-ranked guys or wrestlers. So why fight a guy who is dangerous when you can get the same money elsewhere? So he wants them to pay him, and I want a little bit extra. I have nothing but respect for ‘Pudzian.’ I would love to fight him.”
Whether De Fries’ desired matchup comes to fruition or not remains to be seen. First he has to get through Prasel, who brings a dangerous ground game to the table. Fortunately, De Fries said there’s nothing his opponent offers that he doesn’t see training on a daily basis.
“You get these specialists like Ricardo and a better version of him, Paul Craig,” De Fries said. “To my advantage, I get to train with Paul Craig all the time – the best guy in the world doing this sh*t. So these aren’t tricks to me. This is real life.”
