Kisielewski on the pitfalls of putting on a spectacular fight: I want to pull off something [VIDEO]

Mateusz Kisielewski has a way of making life difficult for himself in the cage—and he’s well aware of it. Ahead of his next fight, the Łódź native revisited his earlier comments about how, during a fight, he sometimes… gets bored, which leads him to take greater risks than the situation calls for.

A fan of Łódź-based ŁKS will be competing this Saturday at the King’s Arena 4 event. In the main event, Mateusz Kisielewski will face Wawrzyniec Bartnik. Importantly for fans, the event will be broadcast for free on TVN Turbo.

Kisielewski revealed where his risk-taking in the cage comes from

Ahead of Saturday’s gala, the WCA Fight Team fighter visited Fansportu TV, where he spoke with Michał Tuszyński. The interview covered a wide range of topics—from the reality of being a fan in Łódź to Kisielewski’s family, whose artistic and operatic roots stand in stark contrast to his path in sports.

At one point, however, Tuszyński quoted one of his interlocutor’s most unusual earlier statements. Kisielewski admitted that he can get bored with a fight even before the final buzzer. The Łódź native explained that this is precisely when there’s a risk of deviating from the original plan.

– Listen, that’s a problem, too. I have to say that it’s also a personal problem for me, because in a fight, if you try to show… you’ll get distracted by the fact that you’re not doing enough, and you might end up doing too much. And if you do too much, you might lose the fight,” said the fighter.

According to Kisielewski, the opponent’s style is of paramount importance. With some opponents, you have to put pressure on them from the start and dictate the pace, but in other cases, patience is the key. The problem begins when the thought creeps into a fighter’s mind that the audience expects more action.

– Let me tell you something: there are different types of fighters—there are those you have to wait out, and there are those you have to overwhelm. If you come up against a fighter you have to wait out, and you’re just going through the motions the whole time, it’ll seem like: the refs are watching, the crowd’s there, your mom’s watching, right? You have to show that you can fight. You trained for this! You spent 6–7 weeks preparing—just to run around…? And that’s exactly what’s misleading.

Kisielewski admitted that he sometimes falls into this trap himself. The desire to do something spectacular can cause him to create more problems for himself instead of calmly controlling the match.

– That’s a trait of young fighters—including me—that I just get bored. I get bored in the cage and want to do something crazy. I say, “Fine: I’ll pay the price for it.” Like with “Skiba,” I’ll pay by getting up off the mat, breaking free, but in return—I don’t know—I’ll pull off something cool, like a spin move. And I landed some kind of backfist. There was this one situation where he grabbed my back, and again, I had to break free from that hold… And do, as my mom says, “a lot of good, but completely unnecessary work.” Because I’m the one who gets myself into this.

So, ahead of his bout with Bartnik, Kisielewski knows exactly what he needs to control. Spectacular moves may thrill the crowd, but sometimes the best decision in the cage is simply not to do more than the fight requires.