LAS VEGAS -- In the last 21/2 years, Impa Kasanganay has gotten cut, jumped around weight classes, competed in four different promotions and, oh yeah, won a world title and made a million bucks.
He's traversed the ups and downs of life as well as anyone could expect, and managed to turn nearly every bad situation he's faced into a positive.
On Friday, the Professional Fighters League will hold Week 2 of its 2024 season at The Virgin Resort just off The Strip, and Kasanganay, the 2023 PFL light heavyweight champion will meet Alex Polizzi in his season debut. Typically, while it will be Kasanganay's debut in the season, it won't be his first fight of the year.
He took part in the PFL versus Bellator champions card on Feb. 24 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He lost a decision to Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen. Less than two months later, he's back, about to embark on a journey to win a back-to-back title and the $1 million prize that comes with capturing a season-ending PFL title.
It's an extraordinary workload -- if he makes it to the finals, he'll wind up with five fights for the second calendar year in a row -- but it doesn't faze him. His father instilled the value of hard work in him at an early age.
"My Dad would always tell me, 'No matter where they drop you off in the world, make sure you're successful,' " he said.
He talked about dreaming of having his own ranch, but his Dad preached resiliency. In any aspect of life, things will occasionally go wrong, but the key is not to quit. If you fall down, get up, dust off and resume the journey.
"When you fall down, it's like, put your hat back on and keep riding," he said.
And that's why he would spar with his cowboy hat on in the early days after getting cut by the UFC late in 2021 after a 2-2 run in the Octagon.
"What they represented to me was that I'm going to make it to the next day, and the next step and make the next day," he said. "I put the hat back on and I kept pushing."
He already owns degrees in accounting and finance, and he'll start the journey toward an advanced degree. He'll begin work in a certificate program to try to earn a Masters from Harvard Business School.
He's setting himself up for his future success, just like he did in MMA. He earned his UFC contract by winning twice on the Dana White Contender Series. He didn't get a contract in 2019 despite a win, so came back a year later, won again and earned the contract.
His UFC tenure was mixed. He was on the losing end of one of the great KOs of recent vintage in his second UFC bout, when Joaquin Buckley finished him with a spinning back kick. After dropping to welterweight, he went 1-1 and got cut. But he never was deterred. He lost a bout at Khabib Nurmagomedov's Eagle FC on March 11, 2022, then stopped Jared Gooden in his return to middleweight in XMMA on July 23, 2022. He landed in the PFL Challengers Series where he stopped light heavyweight Osama Elseady on March 10, 2023,
He earned a spot on the card of PFL 1 in 2023 and won his fight over Cory Hendricks on April 1. When another fighter was suspended, he joined the season on June 8 when he met Tim Caron and submitted him with an arm triangle. He went on to win the PFL light heavyweight title.
He'll begin his quest for back-to-back titles on Friday against Polizzi, where he's a -305 favorite.
No matter how it goes, you can be certain of one thing: No one is going to outwork Impa Kasanganay. Whether it's in the classroom or the ranch, in the gym or in the PFL smart cage, that's just how he rolls.