Kane ‘The Danger’ Mousah believes he can deliver a show stopping performance in his PFL Paris bout against the 2023 PFL European Lightweight Champion Jakub Kaszuba.
Having fought for many a global promotion, Mousah will pull on the PFL gloves for the first time tonight in the opening round of the PFL Europe Lightweight tournament, as he looks to be crowned the 2024 champion.
The PFL tournament format is like no other promotion. On the European side of things, 8 athletes will enter the knock out style tournament, with the Champion ultimately competing three times in the space of a year!
‘The Danger’ has a close friendship with former PFL Champion, and veteran of the PFL tournament format, Brendan Loughnane.
Mousah discussed just how valuable it has been having Loughnane around to help game plan and strategise how to conduct himself in the fights, to ensure Mousah will still be in peak condition if he gets to the final.
“You’re talking to a man whose best friend is the world champion. We've been speaking with Brendan, and we understand the strategy to navigate through these competitions correctly.
"It's not always necessarily about going in there and risking all straight away. You go in and risk all and you could end up coming out there unstuck or putting yourself into in a specific type of fight that could end up damaging you for the future fights that you've got - because it is a quick turnaround on these fights.”
To qualify for the semi-final stage, the PFL points system is in play in the opening round; with athletes securing 6 points for a first round finish, down to three points for a decision and the four athletes with the highest points will then proceed to the semi-final. As Mousah alluded too, as much as it would ideal to get a big score, you need to be clever in the way in which you go about things.
“So yeah, it's interesting. The scoring system is obviously get in there, knock him out and then you get more points. But we already know the fight game, this MMA sport is still so young as a sport. Everybody understands that nothing is guaranteed in here, right? Let's all get that right. That's why everybody loves the sport so much.
“We all know that. But at the end of the day, the focus is to go in there and put this man away. That's the game, and God willing, we get our job done in the right way. And we get it done quick if we can. It would be nice to get in there and knock him out in 10 seconds!”
Mousah enters the tournament as one of the most experienced athletes to compete, with his PFL Paris bout marking the 20th of his professional career. Kaszuba is back and looking to make history as the first ever two time PFL Europe Champion. Assessing his opponent the 37-year-old knows the size of the task ahead but believes he will have a weapon or two in his arsenal that could cause Kaszuba problems.
“He’s an amazing athlete, I can see obviously he is a dedicated fighter, he is a specimen of a of a fighter and he's on a roll as well. He is on a three-fight win streak, so he's got the momentum behind him. It's my job to stop him in his tracks & we really focused and confident that we're going to get our job done.
“You know, a win is a win, a knockout would be amazing. I definitely do possess the most power of any of the competition he has faced so far. He has fought decent calibre fighters you know and I feel like his last fight he got lucky against John Mitchell. A fight is a fight and hats off to him, he won.
“But I feel like John, he's experience showed a little bit and he didn't navigate correctly around it. And I feel Jakub was able to capitalize on that. But with myself, it's a totally different, different ballgame. You know, he's fighting a experienced fighter and I bring different elements to the game. So it's going to be interesting to see how this one pans out, but I'm very confident that I will get the job done.”
‘The Danger’ always has fans on the edge of their seat every time they fight and the Mancunian is once again looking to deliver an eye catching performance tonight – but is more than equipped in all areas. He said:
“Explosive energy. Killer mentality, kill or be killed mentally. I always go in there to take my opponent out. I work hard and I go in there to have an exciting fight for the fans. I don't want a boring fight. I'm not trying to be in a boring, huggy, wrestling competition.
“I'll strike all day. You know me. Do you want to wrestle? We can wrestle. I've made sure that I was in there with Dagestani national wrestling champions, so I can do whatever they want to do. But if I could have it my way would be on the feet, going toe to toe for the whole fight.”
