UFC Vet Kendall Grove Returns, Meets Michal Materla in Rematch at KSW 78

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor Kendall Grove will return to action after more than three years away when he faces Michal Materla in the KSW 78 main event.

The Polish promotion recently announced the booking. Materla defeated Grove via unanimous decision in their first fight at KSW 23 on June 8, 2013. KSW 78 takes place on Jan. 21 in Szczecin, Poland and will also see Tomasz Romanowski square off against Radoslaw Paczuski in the evening’s welterweight co-headliner.

Grove, who won Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” hasn’t competed since submitting Anthony Ruiz in the first round of their bout at World Fighting Championships 110 on Aug. 10, 2019. The 40-year-old Hawaiian is best known for a 7-6 stint in the UFC from 2006 to 2011, but he also had a nine-bout tenure in Bellator MMA and faced Materla and Mamed Khalidov under the KSW banner. “Da Spyder” owns a 24-18 career mark, with notable wins over the likes of Joey Beltan, Derek Brunson, Ikuhisa Minowa, Joe Riggs, Evan Tanner, Alan Belcher and Ed Herman.

Materla has been more active than his opponent in recent years. He fought twice in 2022, earning a first-round TKO win over Jason Radcliffe at KSW 66 before suffering a first-round KO defeat to Mariusz Pudzianowski at KSW 70. Materla holds the record for longest middleweight championship reign in KSW history and is 31-9 over the course of a professional career that began in 2003.