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Intro: Polish heavyweight division, with two big names in the business Michał Kita (10-4) and Damian Grabowski (12-0), has never looked so good. Lately however, it is Grabowski who seems to be standing out a bit more. By defeating Michał Kita at Beast of The East 2 he is now ranked as #1 heavyweight in Poland and #6 in Europe.
Facts: Name: Damian Grabowski |
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Career:
Damian started martial arts at the age of 8. Firstly he trained wrestling, then Kyokushin Karate and Taekwon-do ITF. With choosing brazilian jiu jitsu and submission wrestling in 2002 he started a new stage in his sport’s life. Later on, in 2007 he started his professional MMA career with a first round victory over Paweł Kubiak. Only after a month he also stopped his opponent in the first round with a flurry of punches. He faced some tough competition in his third fight when he fought Dutch veteran Dion “Soldier” Starring (22-7). He submitted Starring with an armbar in the first round. After two more wins over Deividas Banaitis (arm-triangle choke) and Martin Cermak (submission-punches), he stood to fight in a sixteen men tournament in Vienna, Austria. By winning first 3 fights in the first round with only 4.07 minutes spent in the cage Damian was fresh to go into the finale which took place at the same night. He squared off with a much more experienced Miodrag Petkovic (30-12-1), a Serbian veteran who had wins over Travis Fulton and Tim Hague. Damian took his opponent down early in the round and stayed on top for most of it, utilizing punches and knees to the body, taking Petkovic’s back and threatening with submissions. In the second round Petkovic caught Damian with a standing guillotine while the latter tried to take him down. Grabowski however, was able get out and eventually took his opponent down, where the scenario was similar to the first round. At 3.48 of the second round Damian once again took Petkovic’s back and executed a tight rear-naked choke. He won the whole tournament and received the price of $20.000. After another rear-naked choke victory over Kiril Handzhiyski, Grabowski was then scheduled to fight Valentijn Overeem (28-25) but had to pull out of the fight due to shoulder injury. At Beast of the East Chahbari vs. Souwer in January 2010 Grabowski once again fought Dion Starring, once again winning via armbar this time in the second round. In June 2010 at Beast of the East 2 – Grabowski vs Kita Damian faced #1 heavyweight in Poland at that time, Michał Kita (10-4). Fight was hyped as a clash of #1 and #2 in Poland to determine who is the best Polish heavyweight fighter. Before the fight both of the fighters were rumored to compete in the future in Bellator heavyweight tournament. There were however doubts that he who loses this fight will not be signed by Bellator. So both of them highly motivated and concentrated entered the ring. Kita was supposed to have an advantage standing and Grabowski on the ground. Grabowski after trading blows for nearly 2 minutes eventually unable to take Kita down, pulled guard. Kita stood up and at that moment Grabowski landed a crushing up-kick straight to Kita’s right eye. He then, immediately stood up and shoot for another takedown. Kita sprawled and when he was trying to hit Grabowski with a few swinging shots he slipped and fell off the ring. After that a big cut could be seen over his right eye. The ring doctor decided to end the fight after examining the cut. It was later on determined that the cut was caused by the up-kick Grabowski landed and not any other object outside the ring.
After winning his 12 fight in a row Damian is now signed by Bellator and certainly will be a legitimate threat to anybody. He is a complete fighter with good standup and even better ground game. He wins either by submission (7 wins) or by T/KO (5 wins). None of his twelve fights has gone into the judging scorecards.
Interesting facts:
- He was a Polish junior champion in Taekwon-do ITF
- He is a competitor and a coach at the same time at Lutadores Opole
- He holds a purple belt at brazilian jiu jitsu
- He won several brazilian jiu jitsu tournaments, including Polish BJJ Championship, European BJJ Championship
Fights:
Damian Grabowski vs Michał Kita
Damian Grabowski vs Dion Staring
