Wojciech Mrozowski from mmanews.pl announced that he was banned from KSW events. Mmanewspl is, with 50 million views, the most popular MMA related Youtube channel in Poland. It's the second biggest MMA news site (after MMArocks) in Poland.
It's not the first time KSW banned somebody: they previously banned trainer Miroslaw Okniński (criticized KSW) for cornering his fighters and manager Paweł Kowalik from MMACartel.
But this time polish MMA fans let KSW know, how they feel about the ban. Check out KSW facebook page or YT channel comment section. Their latest post are fool of #freeWojtek or #stopcenzurze hashtags. This time fans reacted to a KSW ban probably, because banning journalist isn’t well received and Wojtek Mrozowski described the ban and it’s reasons during his MMAnews live #44 episode quite well. He gave the following picture:
- He was an official KSW media partner since 2012.
- In recent years KSW tried to control his content more and more.
- They asked him to deleted harsh reader comments on his site, which he did.
- They asked him to change his backround twitter picture, because it was a UFC cage. He explained, that he just wanted to have a MMA cage as a background and he had a good one from UFC Berlin and back than KSW didn’t used a cage.
- The main reason for the ban was him braking news 2 week before KSW40 in Dublin that McSweeney due to health issues won’t be fighting against Pudzianowski. KSW owners stuck to the story till the last day, even had besides Jay Silva, McSweeney weight in the day before the fight.
- Mrozowski was informed by KSW, that he has now to inform them about everything he knows and ask permission to post anything about their org.
- A few days ago at KSW41 Mrozowski didn’t receive his media accreditation. While he interviewed both KSW owners during fight week, without them informing him about the ban, he received info about the ban during fight day. They told him, that he was damaging KSW and writing untrue stories about them.
- Mrozowski also told, that he lost his cage-side seat, which he was allowed to use for many years. He was informed, that cage-side seat will be given to news sites that write the best about KSW.
Mrozowski isn’t loved by everybody in the polish MMA community, he definitely wasn’t always a moral standard and he shouldn't be treated like the only polish MMA journalist that tries to keep a moral compass. But I think overall he is a good human being and that he mostly promoted KSW and wrote positive about them. IMO banning journalist for braking bad news or being critical from time to time is very wrong. KSW like any private company should welcome criticism and improve their product and not try to silent anybody, who tells inconvenient news.
While polish MMA fans were quite vocal about this ban, unfortunately polish MMA journalist are silent about it. It’s easy to blame them, but remember that KSW events are probably responsible for 80-90% of their sites and channel’s income. That like being banned from UFC events for a US MMA journalists – hard to make a living without having UFC media credentials.
Just to make it clear I am a big fan of KSW. They worked hard and smart and created a great MMA org that makes money. But that doen't mean they don't make mistakes and banning MMA journalist is IMO the wrong way to go and I hope they change their policy and stop trying to control news about them.
It's not the first time KSW banned somebody: they previously banned trainer Miroslaw Okniński (criticized KSW) for cornering his fighters and manager Paweł Kowalik from MMACartel.
But this time polish MMA fans let KSW know, how they feel about the ban. Check out KSW facebook page or YT channel comment section. Their latest post are fool of #freeWojtek or #stopcenzurze hashtags. This time fans reacted to a KSW ban probably, because banning journalist isn’t well received and Wojtek Mrozowski described the ban and it’s reasons during his MMAnews live #44 episode quite well. He gave the following picture:
- He was an official KSW media partner since 2012.
- In recent years KSW tried to control his content more and more.
- They asked him to deleted harsh reader comments on his site, which he did.
- They asked him to change his backround twitter picture, because it was a UFC cage. He explained, that he just wanted to have a MMA cage as a background and he had a good one from UFC Berlin and back than KSW didn’t used a cage.
- The main reason for the ban was him braking news 2 week before KSW40 in Dublin that McSweeney due to health issues won’t be fighting against Pudzianowski. KSW owners stuck to the story till the last day, even had besides Jay Silva, McSweeney weight in the day before the fight.
- Mrozowski was informed by KSW, that he has now to inform them about everything he knows and ask permission to post anything about their org.
- A few days ago at KSW41 Mrozowski didn’t receive his media accreditation. While he interviewed both KSW owners during fight week, without them informing him about the ban, he received info about the ban during fight day. They told him, that he was damaging KSW and writing untrue stories about them.
- Mrozowski also told, that he lost his cage-side seat, which he was allowed to use for many years. He was informed, that cage-side seat will be given to news sites that write the best about KSW.
Mrozowski isn’t loved by everybody in the polish MMA community, he definitely wasn’t always a moral standard and he shouldn't be treated like the only polish MMA journalist that tries to keep a moral compass. But I think overall he is a good human being and that he mostly promoted KSW and wrote positive about them. IMO banning journalist for braking bad news or being critical from time to time is very wrong. KSW like any private company should welcome criticism and improve their product and not try to silent anybody, who tells inconvenient news.
While polish MMA fans were quite vocal about this ban, unfortunately polish MMA journalist are silent about it. It’s easy to blame them, but remember that KSW events are probably responsible for 80-90% of their sites and channel’s income. That like being banned from UFC events for a US MMA journalists – hard to make a living without having UFC media credentials.
Just to make it clear I am a big fan of KSW. They worked hard and smart and created a great MMA org that makes money. But that doen't mean they don't make mistakes and banning MMA journalist is IMO the wrong way to go and I hope they change their policy and stop trying to control news about them.
Last edited:
