KSW Cancels Upcoming Event Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, various sports entities have been forced to change the way events will be produced. Some have held events without an audience, while others cancel them altogether. Polish-based promotion KSW has decided to do the latter.

In a release, KSW (Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki) announced that KSW 53, set for March 21 (next week) will no longer be taking place. The event was scheduled to emanate from Lodz, Poland.

“Despite our best efforts to organize the event, we had to make this difficult decision,” KSW brass stated on social media. “Due to the restrictions introduced throughout the country, aimed at minimizing the extent of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, KWSW 53 will not take place either in the previously indicated location or in the television studio.”

Despite our best efforts, #KSW53 has been cancelled.

We do apologise for the inconvenience caused by this and we are thankful to the fans and to our athletes for your understanding of the situation.

– KSW Federation.

More information: pic.twitter.com/IK9Av9kMxl

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) March 11, 2020

The scheduled main event for KSW 53 was supposed to be Roberto Soldic defending his Welterweight Championship against Marius Zaromskis. Other bouts that were meant to take place include Michal Materla v. Patrik Kincl and Mateusz Gamrot v. Edimilson Souza.

KSW joins several MMA organizations that have had to alter events due to the virus. Just recently, Combate Americas had to reschedule several events within North America, while ONE Championship had to postpone ONE: Heart of Heroes. Ares Fighting Championship also moved its ARES 2 event in Belgium from April to October. As of now, Bellator and the UFC have not cancelled or moved any events.

According to the latest from CNN, starting in late 2019 the coronavirus has infected about 115,800 people, with over 4,200 deaths tallied.