Martin Lewandowski on how coronavirus pandemic will affect KSW, rest of MMA

KSW president and co-founder Martin Lewandowski discusses how his promotion is dealing with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and what he expects the situation’s effects on MMA will be like.

Whether it’s Dana White and the UFC, Scott Coker and Bellator or Martin Lewandowski and the KSW, most of MMA, just like the rest of the sports world, seems to have been placed on pause while the globe deals with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The situation has forced cancelations of cards like Bellator 241, UFC London and UFC Columbus; others such as UFC Brasilia and a few ONE Championship cards have occurred with no one in attendance. KSW was set to branch out into new markets in 2020, and its next event, KSW 53 was scheduled to take place on March 21 in Poland before the pandemic forced its postponement.

FanSided MMA got the chance to conduct an exclusive Q&A with Lewandowski about how his promotion is dealing with the coronavirus, what he expects its long-lasting effects will be on the sport and any plans once things are back up and running.

How are you? How are you and all your loved ones? Staying safe over there?

Yeah, so far, no one is infected. Everyone is symptom-less, but it’s actually in Poland, within those two or three weeks, there will be the highest wave [the peak] and the numbers will rise drastically. So that’s [probably] what they assume, but to be honest, I don’t believe in all the statistics because they know so little about the virus. So, we can guess and it’s just guessing. According to what they know and what they predict so we are just in front of the biggest peak, and by Easter, we’ll finish. So, that’s where you’re supposed to be slowing down, but it depends on the people and if they are going to be restricted. You know, in rules. So, it might be the same case like in Italy. In France, I believe it won’t be, but still, it’s too new.

How has the coronavirus impacted KSW already? I know you guys were scheduled to have KSW 53 last month, and it got postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yeah, we had to cancel actually next two shows. So, [KSW] 53 and 54 are postponed. It depends how we see from which perspective. But the one which was announced [53], we had to cancel, and for sure we are going to be back with the new chapter. So we need to redefine and reschedule all of the fighters — not only about the venue and about the date, but also about the fighters. So there will be a lot of changes.

Because, you know, there are so many restrictions right now, including all the clubs are closed. Fighters cannot fight, cannot train, cannot prepare in [the] proper way. So, we also need to find out who is going to be able to train — at least like with a limited number of people who have the access to these training facilities. So, this is in front of us, just to find out what would be the outcome and how the fighters are feeling. Also something we need to take under consideration [is] that some of the fighters might be infected and might even if they say okay within two or three weeks — I don’t know a month — they might be infected and they will be just replaced.

So, there are a lot of changes, but starting from the beginning, it just happened. Like, [it was] a week and a half or before KSW 53, so it was really close. Everybody was ready and everything was just at the end, and we had to cancel the event. We had to give back the all the money from the ticket sales because of the government restrictions and all massive events were forbidden. So, then, we thought about doing the show with no public — so just only the fighters the most essential crew — but then the restrictions [on movement] came about. So even mixing the fighters or bringing over fighters from different countries [becomes] very tricky, and very dangerous, and not safe. 

So it’s all complicated the whole fight card. So there was no point in doing the show and to take all that risk and risk the fighters’ health — and also the whole crew because this is not only about the fighters, but this is also about the whole team, which everybody who’s going to be involved in that.

Now, you mentioned the fighters and their health — obviously, you don’t have to say who, but have you heard of any of your athletes infected anyone their family, anybody in the case w family that’s not a fighter.

No, no. Fortunately, no one. So that’s good news. I didn’t hear any news that [any] of the KSW fighters or their teams [were infected]. Even my closest associates have stayed symptomless.

So, going back to what the game plan is moving forward so the cat. The old KSW 53 card, for example, is it going to be the entire card who gets moved? Is it going to be certain fights getting moved to [certain] future events?

It’s hard to say, that’s what I say. It depends which fighters are going to be ready, and they are able to be prepared for the time which I can’t tell — we are planning. Our next show, according to our schedule, is supposed to happen at the end of May, and this is, I’m counting, that we might still be able to do it. But probably, this information or this decision I could make nearly like [the] end of April. So, by that time, I need to have all the information from the fighters who — first of all, are healthy, they are ready to fight, they are able to prepare themselves. And, according to the information, I would receive, I could make fight cards.

Also another restriction [to worry] about, you know, moving from country to country, and about taking an airplane, which also might be a bit complicated. So, even though I’m thinking about putting [it] on the paper that I can base only on the Polish fighters and then, for example, think about some international show based on only the, for example, Croatian or English fighters. So you limit the amount or the number of travel, you could do. Even before KSW 53, before, I mean, in March, some of those fighters were also kind of frightened, and then kind of started to question if, you know, it’s okay they will take that risk going to Poland because they need to fly, stay in a plane many hours, they might be even stopped by patrols who let you in, or let you out. So it might also happen to, for example, like in Czech, they also have a serious problem right now and, just by example I’m giving, there is a Czech fighter who might fly to Warsaw and be stopped by the border patrols, and they will be sent for two weeks on quarantine or something.

So, we need to monitor each country, and how the situation is happening in that country where we have the fighters from — like from England, U.S., the U.S. is very serious right now. Or even in Europe, which countries will be open enough to send the fighters, send the people, so they can start normal traffic. And [on] the other hand, we need to monitor if Polish government Polish unions are going to let people in. For example, when you come from China, I guarantee that you are going to be [in] two weeks [of] quarantine. There is no question about it and nobody is going to listen [to] your request that the fighter is coming for only for two-three days, it’s only for the fight, nobody gives a s***. [They] put [the fighter] on quarantine and the whole team [in quarantine].

So this is a tricky card to plan right now, but we have to do it, and this is what we actually are able to do — just to plan to do the show in different versions. So one version is just, of course if we can still do the massive event [if things are] about to get normal. So, one of the versions is just you do the show without the public. Then, within that version if you think [about] which fighters you can [use to] build your fight card. If it’s going to be only nation by nation.

So, yeah, it’s hard and, to be honest, this is one of the most annoying parts in that and it’s not only affecting me but every business person. But…we usually got some obstacles, some barriers. So, among the normal world, how you can avoid it, what you can do, [how you] can change it. And here, you are locked down really seriously, [with] your loved ones. So they are a very limited number of options you can do. In most of them, you are forced to follow the rules.

A bit of a silly question but whenever KSW comes back, is that first event going to still be 53 or are 53 and 54 are going to be considered like lost shows?

Oh no, we’re going to continue with the numbers. So, for sure, there will be 53. About the fighters, I cannot tell because, you know, we don’t know if it’s going to happen in Poland or somewhere else and which fighters the card will be built on.

There are other plans you guys had this year you had expansion plans. I believe you still have the only one TV show (Only One [KSW’s version of The Ultimate Fighter]) that’s airing over there. What’s going on with those two things?

Most of the episodes were recorded before. So, we have one missing, which is the final. In good case is that all these guys were really locked down in the Big Brother house so they have very limited options to move around so they were kind of really staying on lockdown before even the pandemic started. And so, that’s why we could manage to run the Only One. But right now, we had to give them the time to recover. And there’s one Only One episode [left] to be recorded, which is the final — and the final was supposed to happen at KSW 54, which is already canceled, also [was for] April. So, we are planning, we are thinking, or just observing closely, what we can do. So, I cannot give you the answer what happens if we are waiting till May, or if we are going to do just really very small tiny project production just only with those two guys who are in the final.

How about expansion plans though?

Yeah, the expansion this year, we have scheduled a show in England. We want to be back in London. Also, a show in Zagreb, Croatia, is also scheduled for the second half of the year. And I was intending to go into a new market and it will be either Germany or Czech [Republic]. But right now, all the processes stopped because of this one happening globally. So, yeah, three international shows supposed to happen this year.

Now, do you worry that the virus could potentially ruin some of the smaller promotions in this industry?

Of course, I think that the whole world will restart and change. So, from one end, those smaller promotions, they have smaller costs, like, you know, the basic and stable, normal costs they need to pay every month because they don’t hire so many people, they don’t have big offices and they don’t have those, you know, cost monthly on the higher levels. But in some cases, there might be that those fighters also won’t be able to fight for them because they had to do some other jobs. And some of them, the smaller [promotions] which don’t have enough money saved for the worst times, yeah, they might collapse. But it also might happen to the bigger organizations if the epidemic will continue for months. It might be [this] in some cases, but I can’t tell because it depends also on the country where you live and how people will get poorer, how people will react on the MMA shows because they might watch different kinds of entertainment — not only the MMA — or they will not have the money to spend for the tickets. But, even from the other side, even for the big companies, it might be a problem to be reborn again because the market was stable. And now each market, each industry is just having the problem or will face the problem. So [it] will affect everyone.

Speaking of the bigger promotions, what are your thoughts on Dana White holding Brasilia, in an empty arena, and him desperately trying to still hold UFC 249?

I don’t understand because this is what everybody, every promoter is doing. But, that’s what I said in the beginning, it’s hard to plan and to do something if you can’t because it’s just the government, it’s just the law. It’s something like [a] major force, you just can’t avoid it, you can’t skip it, you can’t change the direction, you just have to follow otherwise. In other case, you are just doing something illegally. So, to be honest, I don’t think that there will be option for doing the show in April. Even, for the small arena without the public, because still to produce the show, you need to have, I don’t know, 100 people. It depends [on] what quality and what you want to do. You might have only, I don’t know, a cage and the two guys in the middle, and referees and cutmans. So you might limit it to, I don’t know, 20 people, but it still might be risky with the teams.

That’s what I said also, you know, this is the pain in the a** for all promoters, for all the businessmen usually because that’s normal life; you are facing different problems. I’ve been doing MMA for 16 years and every show I’m facing different problems, I’m avoiding different obstacles, but this is something you just can’t — you just can’t do [anything]. And that’s what pisses me off the most. There is no option, it’s just what the government, the law, the virus, allows you to do. Everybody’s going to run and use that path.

So, I think Dana and UFC are going to do something illegal. So, if there will be a window, an open window for any kind of activities, they will use it and I will use it, too. But, there won’t be any option, so you can’t tell that you are going to do it because it will be forbidden. Unless you want to go, you know, into the court and try to prove that you are doing everything according to the rules in front of the court.

Now, what sort of monetary hit do you expect KSW, let alone all the rest of the MMA world, to take in this time?

I won’t tell the numbers, but it’s a huge loss because I know that for at least six months, I’m not going to get income at all. Zero income. Because there is no paper do there is no ticket sales, there is no sponsorship money. So, it’s just zero for half a year. We need to survive with that, and probably [the] next half of the year, we are able to survive. But if it’s going to last for more than a year, it will be a problem for everyone. So I think there’s some limit. It’s a perspective. I can say, we can stay at home, but then it will be a huge problem. So the numbers already are big. So this is what I’m trying, we as a team, trying to do reduce the costs for sure. And we freeze all activities and we just wait and see how the situation goes.

After this is all over, do you see any positives that can come? For example, do you think fans are going to take this sport not as for granted and appreciate the sport more?

I would love to. That’s what I want to believe: that we are going to reborn again and restart our minds. I think this time, which we are giving globally, we should use in a very positive way. I’m training more, I’m reading more, I’m spending more time with my family, thinking about life in general. Reading [about] things I never had the time to; do some stuff I never had the time [for]. So, I think we should appreciate having, for once, this time [that] was given. Because even if you are going for the holiday, but the world normally is running, turning the same round, you’re still missing. And also, when you come back after the holiday, two or three weeks, there are a lot of things you need to catch up [on]. You need to find time just to update yourself. And here, the whole world stops, so this is time [to focus on] yourself. Of course, that’s the private part, because the business side, this is what worries me. But from the private, I am so far enjoying my time at home, you know. I’m just enjoying, you know. But, of course, today was kind of [a] crazy day for me because a lot of restriction and a lot of new information came from our government. So, you need to work accordingly. Even with the employees, you know, it’s just something you need to find the solution.

Last question what words would you want to tell the KSW fans, or even just MMA fans, to them they in general during this time?

Enjoy your private time because when the world will restart, I want you to enjoy all MMA shows and spend as much time as you know as you can watching MMA. Now it’s time for the movies and, I don’t know, theaters, or press and books, but then it will be for live sports, so stay tuned.

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