Yakymenko Keeps KSW Bantamweight Belt With Fifth-Round Kneebar

Vitalii Yakymenko is still the KSW bantamweight champion. The Ukrainian made the first defense of his title in the main event of KSW 122 at Hala Podpromie in Rzeszow, Poland, submitting Venezuela's Marcello Morelli with a kneebar at 1:09 of the fifth round.

Morelli, who trains in Warsaw, had already come up short in a title fight against Sebastian Przybysz the year before. After Yakymenko took the belt from Przybysz, Morelli returned to a title fight after two straight wins. The bout went into the fifth round before Yakymenko secured the kneebar.

Weight misses

Both main event fighters made weight, but three other fighters on the card missed weight on Friday, and each was fined a share of his purse and started his fight with a one-point deduction. Laid Zerhouni lost 40 percent of his purse ahead of a middleweight bout with Andrzej Grzebyk that went to a majority decision. Adam Soldaev forfeited 30 percent and then knocked out Mateusz Makarowski in the first round of their lightweight fight.

The largest fine went to Sergiusz Zajac, who was fined half his purse and saw his light heavyweight bout moved up in weight. He knocked out Salim El Ouassaidi in 69 seconds.

The rest of the card

Wilson Varela tapped Marian Ziolkowski with an armbar in the first round, and Igor Wlodarczyk beat Welisson Paiva by unanimous decision with scores of 30-25, 30-27 and 30-26. Heavyweight Szymon Bajor beat Kacper Paczoski on the cards, Andrzej Karkula outpointed Kamil Korzeniowski at bantamweight, and Kristians Boguzs stopped Kacper Cholewa by TKO in the third round. The main card streamed live on KSWtv.com after online prelims.