Sunderland MMA world heavyweight champion Phil De Fries gets set to defend his title

Phil De Fries, from Thornhill, is one of the city’s most successful fighters ever, winning the KSW World Heavyweight belt seven times – and he’s very much planning on making it eight wins in a row.

The MMA star, 36, will be returning to Poland to defend his title in the KSW 74 fight card when he takes on Ricardo Prasel in the cage on September 10, 2022.

Phil, who fights out of TFT in Seaham, is undefeated since he signed to KSW, one of the world’s biggest fight promoters.

Speaking about his opponent, he said: “I’m feeling great about the fight. He’s an awkward fighter as he does Jiu-jitsu, which is all about submissions, so it’s a different style, but I’ll be looking out for his little tricks.

"I’m used to winning. It’s years since I’ve lost and i’m not planning on changing that.”

Phil says it’s great to fight in front of the Polish crowd, but he’d love to take to the cage in England, too.

"Over there it’s the third most-popular national sport, after football and tennis,” said the dad-of-two. “It sells out stadiums and it gets loads of support. It would be great to fight in front of a home crowd though.”

Phil first got into martial arts when he was 14 and began doing BJJ before moving on to MMA when he was 20. He fought for the biggest fight promoter in the world, UFC, in his 20s.

But it was joining TFT gym and signing to KSW when he was 30 that’s led to his greatest success in the sport.

Fight fans around the globe can watch live KSW fights on www.KSWTV.com on laptop and desktop and on the KSW App on their mobile device.