Dawid Blaszke (Naas Kickboxing) is regarded as one of the best K-1 fighters in Ireland. Currently holding the Irish ISKA Pro Title at 77kg, Dawid has quickly risen to become one of the most dangerous opponents on the Irish scene, holding an impressive semi-pro and pro record of 11-3. On February 6th he will face Damian Kusz (Muay Thai Macroom) at Warrior FC V. Damian (10-0-1) will be one of Dawid’s biggest challenges so far but he seemed very relaxed when he sat down with Fightstore Media.

With two months to go until he steps into the ring Dawid has not had much time to look at his opponent. He has a different approach to fighting and seemed very confident in his own ability rather than his opponents. “I don’t know nothing to be honest. I just know that he’s Polish and that his name is Damian. I don’t know how long he’s trained in Ireland and I didn’t even have time to look. I will probably look and see some of his previous fights. I don’t like to know much about my opponents so I can go there and perform. That’s what I like to do. If I know about my opponents it is not fun for me. I like to go there, say ‘Hello, my name is Dawid’ and then fight,” he said.

He admitted that he, ‘just came back from holiday two days ago’ and that he’d been eating ‘five desserts everyday!’ But now the serious work starts and he’s focused on the fight. “I’m going to make it. Now it’s time to focus on training as much as I can. We have just less than two months so it is enough to get ready.”

Previously he has fought some big names in Ireland including John Michael Shields where he put in a great performance to win by stoppage. Talking about the fight he said, “I never watched his fights before it, I knew his name and that he had fought some good fights. Someone told me that he was an Irish Champion but I didn’t know much about him. I just wanted to go and fight. It was a good fight and he was a lovely guy. He had a great personality.”

During that fight he utilised leg kicks as his weapon of choice but that is not how he had planned to fight. “It’s funny because I said to Paddy Clint in my corner that I wasn’t going to kick because I had a big lump on my shin. So I told him not to scream at me to kick. But when I cut him the first time I said ‘ok, let’s try again’ and he didn’t block it. He blocked only 3 leg kicks out of 12 so when I you feel you can go for something you do it. The plan was to punch and kick but I didn’t want to use my right leg. When I felt I could go for it I just did it.”

Dawid has also fought Eamon Deans during his career. He has mixed it with some of the best fighters in the country but it is hard to plan ahead due to his commitments as Head Coach of Naas Kickboxing. “I don’t like to complain but I’m running my own place with twenty classes and its super hard to be a coach and a fighter at the same time. I saw your interview with Paul Norton and like those guys it’s hard to run classes and train for yourself at the same time especially when you have a job to do outside the gym.”

“I train before classes, after classes and I also train with some of my amateur fighters when it’s closer to the fight. I’m trying to do my best. I still do all the classes coming up to a fight. The problem is that I’m using lads to train myself rather than helping them. You need to focus on yourself to improve your own mistakes. In a sparring session it’s hard to work on their mistakes and my mistakes at the same time. That’s why it’s hard to be a coach as well. I plan on fighting another 2 or 3 years and then just be a good coach,” he said.

In the future he has a desire to travel abroad and fight but first he wants to challenge for an Irish title. “I would like to fight in Ireland for a title maybe 2,3 or even 10 times. Then I want to go abroad. After Eamon Deans I got an offer to fight in the UK so I went and fought a pretty good guy. I just got offered to fight in the UK the week after Warrior FC V again but obviously I can’t because of the short period between fights. I could be fresh; I felt great after the fight with John Michael Shields so I could have taken another fight but other fights you need to rest for 2-3 weeks afterwards. I would like to fight abroad, I got some offers from Poland also so it would be great to go home, spend some time with the family and do some fighting. But it’s all about time and I can’t leave the gym for too long because I don’t have many guys to replace me as a coach. I need to build a team.”

Ahead of his fight on Warrior FC V, Dawid said that he was feeling excited. “I’ve two months to train and I’m going to be ready. Hopefully I have no injuries in the meantime. I had to pull out of my last fight a couple of weeks ago because I got sick and I was very upset about it. I sold 150 tickets and I didn’t want to perform badly in front of all my people. This time I have a diet and a proper plan so there will be no mistakes,” he said.

You can watch Dawid Blaszke’s fight at Warrior FC 5 on the 6th February 2016 which is being held at Good Cousel GAA club, Davitt Road, Dublin 12.

Doors open 5:30pm with first fight scheduled for 6:00pm.

Tickets from €25 available from fighters, FightstorePROi and tickets.ie

You can click here to find Dawid Blaszke on https://www.facebook.com/dawid.blaszke

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