This Day in MMA History: May 9

KSW 9 took place on May 9, 2008 in Warsaw, Poland. Only 11 shows into its existence—there had been two unnumbered events—KSW was already Poland’s premier mixed martial arts organization, and 25-year-old Jan Blachowicz was already one of its most promising homegrown talents.

On that night, Blachowicz defeated Martin Zawada, Antoni Chmielewski and Aziz Karaoglu to win the KSW 9 light heavyweight tournament, repeating a similar feat at KSW “Elimination” the previous fall. KSW would discontinue the one-night format in 2010, but Blachowicz would go on to win the tournament that year, as well, and when the promotion abandoned the tournament structure entirely, he fought for the vacant light heavyweight belt, losing to Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou before capturing the belt from him in the rematch.

Blachowicz defended the KSW belt twice, running his professional record to 17-3, before vacating it to sign with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2014. While he had a rough initial run, starting out 2-4, he has been on a tear ever since. In his last eight fights with the promotion, he is 7-1 with four “Performance of the Night” bonuses and one “Fight of the Night” and stands as a likely next challenger for the UFC light heavyweight belt currently held by Jon Jones.