OpinionSweden’s Zebaztian “The Bandit” Kadestam out to snatch Ben Askren’s welterweight title at One Championship
The 26-year-old was a complete unknown until he knocked out Brazilian title contender Luis Santos and now sets his sights on upsetting the best welterweight around in Shanghai next month
No tale has been left untold in the lead-up to Sunday’s fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Be they real or imagined.
Such has been the hunger from all involved to drain every last cent from this particular circus that a few wags in Dublin even managed to help the promotional cause – stateside at least – by casting the Irish capital to US media as more like a troubled early New York, circa mid-19th century as portrayed in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated Gangs of New York, with McGregor as the plucky pugilist who fought his way up off the streets to fame and fortune against all the odds, and all comers.
Whether it all helps PPV and ticket sales will be only revealed when the lights come on Sunday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas – what happens in the actually bout remains anyone’s guess – but history has shown us through the ages that the best sporting tales are actually those that need no embellishing, even if the fight game has priors for stretching truth to its outer most limits.
So while Mayweather and McGregor ponder whether to take a bath in gold or splurge on another polar bear fur coat with their hundreds of millions earned, turn your attention instead to a certain Swede named Zebaztian “The Bandit” Kadestam who is trying to add another chapter to one of more incredible stories to emerge from the fight world this year.
And we’re not making any of this up.
Watch: Zebaztian Kadestam knocks out Luis Santos with brutal knees on the ground
On Saturday, September 2, the 26-year-old Kadestam will step into the cage at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre and try to wrest a world title from the grasp of One Championship’s welterweight champion Ben Askren, the American who is arguably one of the best going around in mixed martial arts circles.