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Injury rules Dricus out of KSW 47 fight

Cape Town - An injury has forced South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis out of his scheduled fight with Borys Mankowski at KSW 47 on March 23, with Norman Parke stepping in as his replacement.

Du Plessis, who holds the EFC middleweight and welterweight titles, must now wait a while longer before getting the chance to rebound from relinquishing the KSW 77kg strap to Roberto Soldic in a rematch in London in October 2018.

It’s been a challenging time for the Du Plessis family, as ‘Stillknocks”s older brother Neil also recently withdrew from his bout with Gordon Roodman at EFC 77 in Pretoria on March 16 with a staph infection.

Young prospect Justin ‘The Power’ Smith has since taken Neil’s spot to face Roodman in the EFC’s first event of the year next month at Time Square.

Parke and Mankowski have some rocky history in Polish-based promotion KSW. There was controversy after Parke’s fight with lightweight champ Mateusz Gamrot at KSW 40 in Dublin. The Northern Irishman seemingly shoved Mankowski, who is one of Gamrot’s main cornermen, following a hot-tempered fight and a scuffle ensued between Parke’s and Gamrot’s corners before it was contained.

Thirty-two-year-old Parke came into KSW in 2017 following a successful stint in the UFC and off the back of two straight wins on the European scene. He immediately challenged Gamrot for the lightweight title at KSW 39 in front of 57,766 people but lost a very close fight via decision. He then received an immediate rematch against Gamrot which led to the above incident with Mankowski. This fight ended in a no contest after Parke suffered an eye-poke in the second round. Since then The Ultimate Fighter winner secured victories at KSW 43 over Polish veteran Lukasz Chlewicki and Irish rival Myles Price in Belfast outside the promotion. Now he returns to KSW and steps up to welterweight, and gets the fight he has been calling for since KSW 40.

This fight marks the long-anticipated return of Mankowski from injury. The former welterweight champ hasn’t been in action since he dropped the title to Soldic in late 2017. Prior to this Mankowski rose to become one of the best welterweights in Europe. He captured the title at KSW 27 and subsequently defended it against UFC veterans John Maguire, Jesse Taylor and David Zawada, dispatching each of them in dominant fashion.

Now the 29-year-old is aiming to come back and work his way towards the title he held for over three-and-a-half years.

KSW 47 features a champ vs champ headliner between heavyweight champ Phil De Fries (16-6) and light heavyweight champ Tomasz Narkun (16-2); a co-main event contest between five-time 'World’s Strongest Man' Mariusz Pudzianowski (12-6) and Olympic gold medallist weightlifter Szymon Kolecki (6-1), and a clash between Mankowski (19-7-1) and Parke (25-6-1).

KSW 47 will be available to watch live around the world via online PPV at www.KSWTV.com on March 23.

KSW 47 fight card:

Main Event - Champ v Champ

Heavyweight Title Fight

Champion Phil De Fries (16-6) v Tomasz Narkun (16-2)

Co-Main Event - Heavyweight

Mariusz Pudzianowski (12-6) v Szymon Kolecki (6-1)

Welterweight

Borys Mankowski (19-7-1) v Norman Parke (25-6-1)

Middleweight

Damian Janikowski (3-1) v TBA

Featherweight

Marcin Wrzosek (13-5) v Daniel Torres (8-4)

Flyweight

Karolina Owczarz (1-0) v Aleksadre Rola (2-0)

Lightweight

Bartlomiej Kopera (9-4) v Maciej Kazieczko (4-1)

Bantamweight

Dawid Gralka (6-2) v Pawel Politylo (3-1)

More fights TBA

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